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Lot Essay
The single-column of hieroglyphs along the back pillar reads: "(O) Ushebt(y), the Osiris Overseer of the King’s Ships (i.e. Admiral) Heka-em-saef, in your time of service, at every proper time."
Fashioned of turquoise-colored faience, this funerary figure of the Admiral (lit. “Overseer of Royal Ships”) Hekaemsaef is one of 401 examples found by Alessandro Barsanti (1858-1917) in a tomb at Saqqara in January 1903, now widely dispersed in public and private collections. Holding agricultural tools and wearing a beard, Hekaemsaef is represented as a divinized being, and the brief inscription providing his identity is relegated to the back pillar.
The subterranean tomb of Hekaemsaef was located near the pyramid of King Unas and was constructed on a monumental scale. Hekaemsaef’s mummy was discovered intact in a massive stone sarcophagus at the bottom of a deep shaft, along with an extraordinary set of burial equipment, including a gold mask and a decorative bead net adorned with amulets of gold and semi-precious stones. The shabtis were found upright on either side of the door, originally arranged on wooden bases (see A. Barsanti “Fouilles autour de la pyramide d’Ounas. (1902-03). XII. Le tombeau de Hikaoumsaf. Rapport de la découverte,” Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte, vol. 5, 1904, pp. 29-34).
Fashioned of turquoise-colored faience, this funerary figure of the Admiral (lit. “Overseer of Royal Ships”) Hekaemsaef is one of 401 examples found by Alessandro Barsanti (1858-1917) in a tomb at Saqqara in January 1903, now widely dispersed in public and private collections. Holding agricultural tools and wearing a beard, Hekaemsaef is represented as a divinized being, and the brief inscription providing his identity is relegated to the back pillar.
The subterranean tomb of Hekaemsaef was located near the pyramid of King Unas and was constructed on a monumental scale. Hekaemsaef’s mummy was discovered intact in a massive stone sarcophagus at the bottom of a deep shaft, along with an extraordinary set of burial equipment, including a gold mask and a decorative bead net adorned with amulets of gold and semi-precious stones. The shabtis were found upright on either side of the door, originally arranged on wooden bases (see A. Barsanti “Fouilles autour de la pyramide d’Ounas. (1902-03). XII. Le tombeau de Hikaoumsaf. Rapport de la découverte,” Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte, vol. 5, 1904, pp. 29-34).