Osiride statue of Senwosret I

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Along both sides of the causeway leading from the valley temple at the edge of the agricultural land to Senwosret I’s pyramid were niches with royal statues of the so called Osiride type. Each statue exhibits a tightly wrapped body with arms crossed over the chest and hands closed to fists. The statues along the southern causeway wall wore the tall white crown of Upper Egypt (like the one here); the ones along the northern wall, the red crown of Lower Egypt. The meaning of this type of representation is still being debated. The mummy form suggests connections with the god Osiris but also Ptah and others. Most probably, the wrapped body represents an inert phase of being preceding rejuvenation, showing the potential for movement (note the articulated knees) in a temporarily paralyzed body. The Osiride statues along the causeway would accordingly symbolize a transition from the place of embalming by the valley temple to the place of resurrection at the pyramid.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art