A rare medium

By Jill Kamil

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Alabaster statue, headrest and offering tablet (Cairo Museum)

The exact provenance of this fine alabaster statue is unknown, nor do we know the name of the person for whom it was made. It seems likely, however, that it was produced in a royal workshop at the end of the Old Kingdom, probably the end of the Fourth or early in the Fifth dynasty, and that the woman was a relative of the king or the wife of a high official. Alabaster was not commonly used for private sculptures, and the quality of the modelling of this lady's fine features, and the suggestion of hair below her wig, is far superior to most Old Kingdom private work.

In workshops pictured in Old Kingdom reliefs, craftsmen of different trades, from sculptors and metal-smiths to joiners and jewellers, are shown working side by side, under the direction of a qualified artistic supervisor who was familiar with the techniques of several crafts. Such specialist craftsmen were high priests of Ptah at Memphis, on the west bank of the Nile opposite Helwan. The responsibility of these men for designing works of art is explicit in the directions given to them by the Pharaohs Menkaure and Sahure when these kings had tomb furnishings made for favourite courtiers. During the reign of Sahure, a room of the palace was set aside as a studio, so that the Pharaoh could inspect the daily progress of the work.

Shown here also is the alabaster headrest of Tetiankh-Kem discovered in the royal cemetery of sixth-century Pharaoh Teti at Saqqara, along with an offering tablet of the seven sacred oils used ritually both during mummification and in funerary offerings. Both the headrest and offering tablet were put on view for the first time in 2004, on the occasion of the centenary of the Cairo Museum, when unknown pieces of exquisite beauty or historical importance were brought out of storage for the first time.

It is tempting to suggest that the alabaster from which such masterpieces came, along with others like the alabaster bowl and canopic jar found at Abu Rawash north of Giza, was from the quarries at Helwan, and that it was the singular beauty of works produced in this medium that encouraged the high priests of Ptah to put so much time and effort into constructing the great dam so as to encourage maximum exploitation of the quarry.