SUDAN, NAPATAN PERIOD, 643-623 B.C.

Senkamenisken was the grandson of Taharqa, the most renowned pharaoh of Dynasty XXV. He ruled a greatly-reduced Nubian Kingdom following the Assyrian invasion of Egypt to the north. Like his grandfather, Senkamenisken commissioned a tremendous number of shabtis for his Pyramid tomb at Nuri, in fact, more than any previous Nubian or Egyptian king. George Reisner excavated 1277 of his shabtis, including 410 of serpentine and 867 of faience. The large format of his serpentine shabtis in combination with the high quality of their carving, in particular the details of his specific physiognomy, transforms them from "mere figurines into small sculptures, first-rate examples of the sculptor's art" (see Wildung, ed., Sudan, Ancient Kingdoms of the Nile, p. 194). The double uraeus, ubiquitous on Nubian royal portraiture, is unique to the shabtis of Senkamenisken (see Lacovara, et al., The Collector's Eye: Masterpieces of Egyptian Art from The Thalassic Collection, Ltd., p. 130).