Statue Attributes of the Old Kingdom Queens

Document Type : Original Article

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Abstract

The Ancient Egyptian traditions respect women immensely. Women in Ancient Egypt have legal rights and enjoy an amazing margin of freedom far more than any other ancient civilization. They were perceived and respected legally as almost equal to men. Some women were privileged by being members of the royal family as queens and princesses. Queens held a special position in the Old Kingdom, which was conveyed through their monuments and titles and their distinct sculpture characteristics and features.
After studying all the available queens’ statues in the Old Kingdom (from the Third to the Sixth Dynasty), which had forty seven different queens, the researcher unfortunately found only seventeen statues. Consequently, the research presents a complete descriptive study of those seventeen queens’ statues in the Old Kingdom. Eleven sculptures were apportioned to the Fourth Dynasty, two from the Fifth Dynasty and four royal female statues from the Sixth Dynasty.
Afterwards, this study recognizes specific iconographical attributes, which differentiate the attributes of queens from the non-royal ones, such as attitudes and gestures, hairstyles, costumes, statue’s sizes, materials and the inscriptions on those available sculptures. Finally, the study concludes by recapping the most important results of our study. 
 

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