During the reign of the young King Tutankhamun, the man you see here was a formidable power behind the throne. His name was Haremhab. After the death of King Aya, Tutankhamun’s successor, Haremhab himself became king of Egypt. This statue was created before he ascended the throne, at a time when he was army commander-in-chief and an administrator. Here, however, we do not see him in military garb. He sits on the ground, with his legs crossed in the pose of a scribe. His left hand holds the rolled end of a papyrus that is spread over his lap, while his right hand—now missing—was poised as if ready to write. The scribal badge of office—an ink pot—hangs over his shoulder, and a real ink pot lies on his left knee. Such scribal statues were first created during the Pyramid Age for princes of the royal house, and they remained reserved for high officials. Clearly, literacy meant power in ancient Egypt.

Most earlier scribal statues sit upright, and their gaze goes into the far distance. Haremhab’s head is bent slightly forward, and his eyes look down as if in contemplation. In this posture, the work follows a number of famous scribal images from the reign of Akhenaten’s father Amenhotep III. In this statue, Haremhab’s artists strove to recreate the pre-Amarna image of a wise man.

There is an invocation to the god Ptah inscribed on the statue’s base, while a hymn to Thoth, the god of writing, is carved on the papyrus. On Haremhab’s right arm is the figure of the god Amun. This may be a tattoo. In any case, it’s a sure sign of Haremhab’s loyalty to the old gods.

The statue of Haremhab as a scribe is one of the great masterpieces of what art historians call the post-Amarn period. If you’d like to hear more about this time, press the green play button now.