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The Khufu Statuette or the Ivory figurine of Khufu is an statue. Historically and archaeologically significant, it was found in 1903 by Sir Flinders Petrie during excavation of Kom el-Sultan in Abydos, Egypt. It depicts Khufu, a Pharaoh of the Fourth dynasty (Old Kingdom, c. 2613 to 2494 BC), and the builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza, though it may have been carved much later, in the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty, 664 BC–525 BC.
This small seated figure is the only known depiction of Khufu which survives largely intact, though there are also several statue fragments. Most Egyptologists consider the statue contemporary with Khufu very likely from his reign. However, because of the unusual provenance, its dating has been repeatedly questioned. The Egyptologist Zahi Hawass doubts that the statuette dates to the Old Kingdom at all. His argument that the statuette belongs to the 26th Dynasty has not received much credence, but has not yet been refuted. The ritual purpose of the statuette is also unclear. If it was contemporary with Khufu, it was either part of the traditional statue cult or mortuary cult. If the figurine is from a later period, it probably served (as claimed by Hawass) as a votive offering. The statuette's artist is unknown.
The circumstances of the Khufu statuette's discovery have been called "unusual" and "contradicting". Zahi Hawass in particular sees the find situation as a strong argument for his doubts about the dating of the figure. He argues that no buildings which certainly date from the fourth dynasty have ever been excavated at Abydos or Kom el-Sultan and that Petrie was strictly speaking only convinced that Room C must have been a Fourth Dynasty temple or shrine because of the discovery of the Khufu statuette. But building K (next to the magazines) has since turned out to be part of a 6th Dynasty building complex. A number of objects from the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 30th Dynasties have been found in the Temple of Khenti-Amentiu, but nothing that can be surely dated to the 4th Dynasty. Furthermore, the temple does not seem to have been in use during this period. Petrie could not find any evidence of buildings from Khufu's time in his excavations, but he explained this with a reference to the Greek historians Herodotus and Diodorus, who report that Khufu forbade the erection of temples and shrines to the gods during his reign. However, recently Richard Bussmann pointed to an unpublished limestone fragment at Abydos with Khufu's name, which shows at least some of the building activity at Abydos belongs to Khufu. Bussmann asks, therefore, whether Building K could have been a temple for the cult of Khufu.Richard Bussmann, Die Provinztempel Ägyptens von der 0. bis zur 11. Dynastie (= Probleme der Ägyptologie, Vol. 30). Brill, Leiden 2007, , pp. 90, 147, 467.
The Palermo stone fragment C2 reports the creation of two colossal standing statues of the king - one of copper and the other of pure gold.Thomas Schneider: Lexikon der Pharaonen. Albatros, Düsseldorf 2002, , S. 100–102.
Several statue heads also survive, which are sometimes attributed to Khufu on account of their stylistic features. The best known of these are the rose granite "Brooklyn Museum Royal Head"Richard A. Fazzini, Robert S. Bianchi, James F. Romano, Donald B. Spanel, Ancient Egyptian Art in the Brooklyn Museum. Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn (NY) 1989, , p. 31. (though it's also thought to depict Huni) and the limestone "Munich Royal Head".Sylvia Schoske, Dietrich Wildung (edd.), Staatliche Sammlung Ägyptischer Kunst München (= Zaberns Bildbände zur Archäologie. Vol. 31). von Zabern, Mainz 1995, , p. 43. Both heads show the king in the Hedjet of Upper Egypt.
An unusual example is the front part of a polished basalt ram statue, with the Horus and Cartouche names of Khufu on it.
Zahi Hawass on the other hand doubts the statuette is contemporary with Khufu. He considers Petrie's dating suspect on account of the find circumstances and points out that Khufu's face is unusually round and chubby and shows no emotion whatsoever. In contrast to Petrie and Margaret Alice Murray, who described the figurine's face as "powerful" and "intimidating" (in accordance with Greek traditions about Khufu), Hawass saw the face of a very young, possibly underage man. Hawass compares the facial appearance of the statuette with the statues of other contemporary kings (such as Snefru, Khafre, and Menkaure). These three kings' faces are of more normal proportions, thin and friendly - they conform to the ideal form which consciously diverges from reality. In particular, an ivory statuette of King Menkaure, now on display in the Boston Museum under the number Boston 11.280a-b, excites Hawass' interest. Although now headless, this figure displays a similar schema to the Khufu statuette, but its body is very slim and athletic and its execution is significantly more careful. The appearance of Khufu in the ivory statuette, however, is claimed not to be particularly well-worked. Khufu himself, in Hawass' view, would never have allowed such a comparatively crude item to be displayed in his palace or elsewhere. Further, Hawass alleges that the shape of the throne has no counterpart in Old Kingdom art: In the Old Kingdom, the back of the royal throne rose to the neck of the ruler. For Hawass, a conclusive proof that the statue must be a reproduction from a later time is the so-called Nehenekh flail in Khufu's left hand. Sculptural depictions of a king with such a flail as a ceremonial insignia do not appear chronologically before the Middle Kingdom. Zahi Hawass, therefore, comes to the conclusion that the figure was probably sold to a pious citizen or pilgrim as an amulet or talisman in the 26th dynasty (or later). The figurine's presence in its find location would then be a result of use as a votive offering.Zahi Hawass, The Khufu Statuette. pp. 379–394.Abeer El-Shahawy, Farid S. Atiya, The Egyptian Museum in Cairo. p. 49ff.
Zahi Hawass is, finally, convinced that the Khufu statuette is most likely a replica of a life-size or over life-size statue. In his view the original was probably located in Memphis in Lower Egypt, which would explain why Khufu wears the red crown. This assumption also underpinned his dating to the 26th dynasty: at that time, homages to the Old Kingdom were very popular; old, long-forgotten deities were portrayed in reliefs and statues and miniatures of royal statues made and sold as talismans or votive offerings and old, long-forgotten titles of the Old Kingdom were reprised and awarded to officials. For example, the temple of King Taharqa contains reliefs which are modelled after Old Kingdom murals from entirely different contexts. Finally, Hawass maintains that the face of the Khufu statuette most closely resembles the black granite heads of King Taharqa. Citing the work of William S. Smith, Hawass claims that statues of the Old Kingdom Kings were mass-produced in later time, that this probably also applies to the Khufu statuette and that the rather sloppy form of the statuette corroborates this.William S. Smith, A History of Egyptian Sculpture and Painting in the Old Kingdom. Geoffrey Cumberledge, London 1949, pp. 398–405.
Art historical significance
The statuette is the only complete three dimensional object which depicts Khufu. It is often claimed that the little ivory figurine is the only surviving statue of Khufu. However, there are also several alabaster fragments of seated statues, which were found by George Reisner during his excavations at Giza. Altogether, Rainer Stadelmann estimates that around fifty statues of Khufu must have stood in the king's mortuary temple originally. He estimated that twenty-one to twenty-five statues were taken over by Khufu's successor Djedefre for reuse at Abu Rawash. On the bases of the statues of Khufu, however, the complete royal titulary of the king was inscribed; today the names only survive in fragments, but they are enough to enable a certain identification. These used the full name ( Khnum-Khufu) as often as the shortened form ( Khufu). On one of the fragments from a small seated statue the king's feet survive up to the ankles. To the right of his feet is the syllable "fu" in a cartouche, which can easily be reconstructed as the name of king "Khufu".Dagmar Stockfisch, Untersuchungen zum Totenkult des ägyptischen Königs im Alten Reich. Die Dekoration der königlichen Totenkultanlagen (= Antiquitates, Band 25.). Kovač, Hamburg 1994, , pp. 19 & 93.
Dating
The majority of Egyptologists put the statuette in the Old Kingdom at the time of Khufu.Margaret Alice Murray, Egyptian sculpture. New Edition. Greenwood Press, London 1970, pp. 50–52. Petrie was especially sure that the figure had to derive from the 4th dynasty. The main argument for dating it to the 4th dynasty is the name of Khufu on the statuette. The style of the statuette in comparison with the artworks of the same period and earlier dynasties was cited as further evidence. Rainer Stadelmann pointed out that the figurine's throne is modelled on the short-backed, cubic throne of the Predynastic period.Rainer Stadelmann, Formale Kriterien zur Datierung der königlichen Plastik der 4. Dynastie in Nicolas Grimal, Les critères de datation stylistiques à l´Ancien Empire. Institut français d´archéologie orientale, Le Caire 1998, , p. 353. Barry Kemp and William Smith further pointed out that the Khufu statuette's face most closely resembles those of statues from the time of Khasekhemwy, Djoser, and Sneferu in execution. The faces of Khasekhemwy and Snefru are also beardless and Khufu's facial expression seems to be modelled on that of Djoser's limestone statues. In particular, the broad nose, rounded face and the rather schematic eyebrows are clearly inspired by the artistic style of the 3rd dynasty. The slightly protruding ears recall those on the statues of Khasekhemwy. With this facial composition, the portrait of Khufu is stylistically in transition from the archaic form to the classical Old Kingdom style.Krzysztof Grymski, Royal Statuary in John P. O´Neill (ed), Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1999, , p. 54. This artistic style can no longer be perceived in the artworks of any king after Djedefre; from King Khafre, depictions of the kings include the ceremonial beard. The artistic elaboration of the ivory figure has been universally acclaimed by researchers as "masterful" and "professional".Barry J. Kemp, "The Osiris Temple at Abydos" in Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo. (MDAIK) No. 23, 1968, pp. 138–155.William S. Smith: A History of Egyptian Sculpture and Painting in the Old Kingdom. pp. 20 & 157. It is to this day the earliest known Egyptian sculpture showing a king wearing the Red crown. This becomes more common under Khafre.Christian Ziegler, Small Head of King Khafre with Red Crown in John P. O´Neill (ed): Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1999, , S. 260.
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