LATE PERIOD, 26TH-27TH DYNASTY, 664-486 B.C.

Sensitively carved and highly polished in a fine-grained stone, this small torso bears the hallmarks of sculpture of the Saite period and its aftermath. The official wears a pleated, belted kilt and possibly a rounded bag wig as traces along his shoulder suggest. His nude chest is portrayed slender yet muscular, with strongly delineated clavicles. The placement of his left arm along his side suggests that either he stood holding a shrine or small figure of a god, or he knelt with his hands on his thighs in a gesture of submission. The prominent back pillar is carved with beautifully-rendered hieroglyphs on two faces; on the left with his titles and on the rear with part of his biography.
The title of “Overseer of the Foreign Lands of the Hau-nebu,” sometimes translated as “Overseer of the Foreign Mercenaries” or even “Chief of Aegean Foreign Troops,” is an unusual one, likely indicating a connection to Greek mercenaries active in Egypt (D. Agut-Labordère, “The Saite Period: The Emergence of a Mediterranean Power,” in J.C. Moreno García, ed., Ancient Egyptian Administration, pp. 965-1027.) A similar title occurs in the tomb and sarcophagus at Abusir of the well-known official Udjahorresnet, an individual better-known from the biographical texts of his statue in the Vatican that describe his activities under the Persian kings Cambyses and Darius (L. Bareš, The Shaft Tomb of Udjhahorresnet at Abusir, Abusir IV, pp. 38-39). High officials of the Saite period bearing titles relating to the Hau-nebu include Iufaa, also buried at Abusir, and the Admiral Hor, whose fragmentary naophorous statue is in Manchester (see C. Price, “The ‘Admiral’ Hor and His Naophorous Statue,” in C. Jurman, et al., eds., A True Scribe of Abydos: Essays on First Millennium Egypt in Honour of Anthony Leahy). The individual depicted in this example was almost certainly of equal significance, and a Lower Egyptian origin for the piece seems likely.
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