Bulletin du Musée National de Varsovie (42.2001)

and for the feet. No back pillar nor pillow are depicted. The front side is
inscribed with four lines of invocation to Osiris, Lord of Abydos for the spirit
of Hornakhte, justified. In both cases there are no titles of men, although the
high ąuality of workmanship suggests they were persons of some importance.
Both statues display features pointing to the Middle Kingdom datę of their
execntion. The block-statue has plenty of parallels to works from the 12th
Dynasty,9 but some of the early 18rh Dynasty can also be taken into
consideration. The hands placed fiat upon the knees in case of the first statuę
are characteristic of the later 12th Dynasty,10 11 and although a sendjot may also
have been worn by private individuals during the New Kingdom, it is in these
cases only a survival of the earlier fashion." The archaising shape of the chair
and the modelling of the legs also point to the Middle Kingdom. The classic
Egyptian version of the Offering Formula with its characteristic palaeographic
features also supports the dating both statues to the Middle Kingdom. If the
theophoric names of all three persons mentioned in the inscriptions indicate
their place of origin, one is tempted to consider Edfu. Horus Behdeti is not
mentioned in the Formulae, but in case of other Middle Kingdom objects
from Edfu, the name of this god is written only sporadically, Osiris being the
favourite.12 13 So, the ąuestion remains open.

One of the best known exhibits held at the Warsaw collection is the statuę
of a sphinx (ill. 8) bearing the name of Thutmose III,15 * which also came from
an unknown source.14 This sculpture, almost one metre long,15 was evidently
madę in some provincial workshop, considering the poor modelling of the
body of the animal, and the very uneven base. But the reason for recalling this
sculpture here is the opinion of Dimitri Laboury, who doubted the

9 Cf. R. Schulz, Die Entwicklung und Bedeutung des kuboiden Statuentypus, Hildesheim 1992,
cat. nos 032, 067, 215, 256, 303, 332.

10 J. Vandier, Manuel d!Archeologie Egyptienne, vol. III, Paris 1958, p. 230 , pl. LXXVII, 5.

11 Cf. Statuę inv. no 1787, Florence, Museo Archeologico, also there a stela inv. no. 2547;
W. Seipel, Agypten: Gótter, Gruber und die Kunst, vol. 1, Linz 1989, cat. nos 90, 99; and
close parallel: cat. no. 311, seated statuę of Sebeknihotep, 12'1’ dynasty in Agyptisches
Museum, Berlin 1967.

12 Cf. Z. Szafrański, “Problematyka stel z Drugiego Okresu Przejściowego pochodzących z Edfu
w zbiorach Muzeum Narodowego w Warszawie”, Rocznik Muzeum Narodowego w Warszawie,
XXIV, 1980, pp. 7-67. In the case of nine Edfu stelae dated to the 13th Dynasty, only two
included an invocation to Horus Behdeti. But in the case of a block-statue of Ibi from the
National Museum in Warsaw (inv. no. 139326) from Edfu, Horus Behdeti is invoked in the
first place, and Osiris, also from Behdet (!) is the second. Cf. Schulz, op. cit., cat. no. 313.

13 Michałowski, Sztuka..., op. cit., 1955, p.134; M. Eaton-KrauE, “The khat Headdress to the
End of the Amarna Period”, Studien zur Altdgyptischen Kultur, 5, 1977, p. 36, no 21;
Tajemnicza Królowa Hatszepsut / Geheimnisuolle Kónigin Hatscbepsut, exh. cat., Muzeum
Narodowe, Warsaw 1997, p. 100, cat. no. 4; D. Laboury, La Statuaire de Thoutmosis III, Liege
1998, p. 371-373.

14 The sphinx was mentioned in all pre-war guidebooks sińce 1937, but in the inventory
records it is described, as: “brought from Edfu” in 1938.

15 Inv. no 141267; sandstone with remains of dark red paint and white gesso, 52 cm high, 93 cm

long, 27 cm wide. The nose is damaged, as well as the front left paw.

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