HEAD OF A ROYAL STATUE

Granite.
Height. 29 cm, Width. 24 cm, Depth. 32 cm.
Provenance : Town of Meroë, building KC 104.
Joint excavations of the universities of Calgary and Khartum (P. Shinnie), 1976, No. inv. 6682.
Meroïtic Period.
Khartum National Museum, No. 24556

By the styling of the hair and its size, larger than life, this statue head can be attributed to a woman of royal rank. The sprouting beard on the chin is not in contradiction with such an attribution since the queens of Meroë wore ceremonial beards as a mark of their royal dignity. (Period: 1st or 2nd Century A.D.)