SEKHMET STATUES FROM THE REIGN OF AMENHOTEP iii IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM and A FORMERLY UNCATALOGUED HEAD FRAGMENT: A REASSESSMENT

Abstract

Beyond the borders of Egypt, the British Museum has the largest collection of granodiorite statues and fragments of statues of the goddess Sekhmet produced in the reign of Amenhotepiii(c 1390–1352bc; eighteenth dynasty). With so much new material being uncovered in recent years at the site of Amenhotepiii’s funerary temple at Kom el-Hettan in Luxor (Egypt), a reassessment of the British Museum statues was inevitable. The British Museum statues are an ideal sample group for study, offering variations in type, proportions, stone colouration, decoration and state of finish. The group also includes a formerly uncatalogued head fragment with an unusual uraei crown, which relates to surviving examples found at the Mut Temple at Karnak and at Kom el-Hettan in Luxor.