Middle Kingdom Pharaoh Analysis

THE MIDDLE KINGDOME

The Middle Kingdom (mid-Dynasty 11–Dynasty 13, ca. 2030–1640 B.C.) began when Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II reunited Upper and Lower Egypt, location the stage for a second great peak of Egyptian culture. originally from the courtyard, MMA excavations, 1921–22 its dimension is H. 252.9 cm (99 9/16 in.); W. 47.7 cm (18 3/4 in.); D. 43.7 cm (17 3/16 in.)

Twenty-two statues of this type stood next to (but not in the shadow of) Sycamore and Tamarisk trees that lined the formal path through the area of the mortuary temple of Mentuhotep II at Deirel-Bahri. The uneven, rectangular base was place into the ground. The king wears the traditional short mantle of the pharaoh 's thirty-year golden jubilee festival (Heb Sed). In his fists were the now lost scepter and flail of Egyptian kings and the god Osiris, maybe made of metal. The head on this piece wears the "red" crown of Lower Egypt. No head with the "white" crown of Upper Egypt was found;

One innovation of the Middle Kingdom was a new type of sculpture called the block statue, in which a seated human figure taken the rough shape of the original stone block. Subjects were rendered as if wrapped in a sheet with their knees drawn up. Their distended heads and feet make them look like hunkering birds, but the taut fabric between the legs made a good flat surface for hieroglyphs.

However, the most thoughtful innovations of Mentuhotep II 's temple are not architectural but spiritual. First, it is the most basic funeral parlor temple where the king is not just the recipient of offerings but rather passes ceremonies for the gods (in this case Amun-Ra). [33] Second, the temple identifies the king with Osiris, a local Theban god which developed in significance from the 11th dynasty forwards. Certainly, the decoration and royal statuary of the temple highlights the Osirian aspects of the dead ruler, a thought seeming in the memorial statuary of many later