Statue of a scribe with a baboon

Statue of a scribe with a baboon

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This small figure of a scribe may lack the sculptural quality of the Museum's statue of Haremhab 23.10.1, but it does also emphasize the close relation of the depicted official with the god Thoth, deity of all things scribal. While the god features in the Haremhab statue prominently in the inscriptions, Thoth is here shown as a baboon who sits on the scribe's back. The most important example of this motif is the statue representing the 20th dynasty High Priest of Amun Ramessesnakht in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo (CG 41262), found in the "Cachette" of the temple of Karnak.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Statue of a scribe with a baboonStatue of a scribe with a baboonStatue of a scribe with a baboonStatue of a scribe with a baboonStatue of a scribe with a baboon

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.