Statuette of An Old King
Dynasty 0-1   (~ 3.100 BC)
The smiling pharaoh

This little ivory statuette is of an unidentified king in his later years. It was found at the royal cemetery at Abydos in 1901 by the English egyptologist Flinders Petrie. Though it measures only 12 cm in heigth it clearly shows an old smiling man with a bent back. He is wearing a fancy chequered robe for his Hebsed celebration, a jubilee normaly held after about 30 years on the trone, and thereafter every third year, at least in later times. It's believed that this is a king from the first dynasty or just before, possibly king Ka.