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THREE ROYAL SCULP1 URES

Old and Middle Kingdoms, appear, so far as I have been able to asccrtain, on royal sculptures only early in the Old Kingdom. Thcir first appearance in this period is on at least three of the six limestone reliefs which are slill in place in the subterranean passages ofthe Step Pyramid and the great Southern Tomb of the Pyramid Enclosure at Sakkara³. Available photographs leave much to be desired in the way of clarity and the possibility of studying details. Fortunately these reliefs are of no great importance in the study ofthe Washington head, but are here introduced only as part ofthe survey of moustaches on royal representations in the Old Kingdom. There is, of course, no possibility that the Freer sculpture, whatever its datę, belongs to Dynasty 111.

No other royal moustaches are known until well into Dynasty IV. Of that dynasty we have a better than average representation of royal sculptures thanks largely to the excavationsoftheChcphren and Mycerinus complexes at Giza, particularly in the funerary temples adjaccnt to the great pyramids of this site. Of the numerous sculptures recovered one of Chephren and several of Mycerinus wore moustaches. The Chephren sculpture, now in Leipzig. is smali being only 8cm high (3 1/8 in.)⁴. It is in the unusual medium of limestone, in that respect unique among royal works of Dynasty IV, and has been curiously ignored in most surveys subseąuent to its discovery. It comes from the Valley Tempie and represents Chephren wcaring the Red Crown. The inlaid cycs are outlined with copper rims. But the detail of interest to my argument is the presence of a moustache painted in black. Despite the soft medium the work is not fine and the features show little resemblancc to other representations of this king. But, there seems no possibility of questioning the attribution to Chephren. If other of his sculptures wore moustaches, as they doubtless did, they have disappeared.

As the moustaches on the Mycerinus sculptures were also, without exception, painted rather than incised, the evidence is by now largely perished, but we do have Reisner’s original field negativcs and photographs which leave no doubt that at least scvcn of the Mycerinus sculptures had painted moustaches, all of the thin, British army officer type. The most imprcssive was doubtless the painted moustache on the colossal seated alabaster statuę of Mycerinus now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston ⁵. Indccd, on close inspection faint traces of it are still barely discernible. In all probability, an incised moustache was planned for the famous siatę pair statuę of Mycerinus and his

³    ASAE 27, 109, and 28, 87 These details were called to my attention by Professor Earl Ertman of the (Jniversity of Akron.

⁴    Hólschcr. Dos Grahdenkma! des Konigs Chephren. p. 93. fig. 83,84 wherc it is dcscribed as «reddish, rather hard limestone». The crown still retains the copper base of the curved rod associated with this headdress. I owe this infor-mation to the kindness of Professor F.arl F.rtman of the Univcrsily of Akron.

⁵    Reisncr, Mycerinus, pl. 13-5. This moustache would perhaps still be visib!e bul for an episode of many years ago. A guard. new to his dulies in the Egyptian Department, on coming to work one morning suddenly saw the moustache on the colossal alabaster statuę. Assuming that it was the work of a prankster and cager to remove it as a sign of his lack of attention to duty, he scized a ladder and scrubbed the ofiending symbol out of cxistencc.