Illustrative model — an approximation, not a scan of the original object.
c. 2600 – 2350 BCE
The Seated Scribe
Fourth or Fifth Dynasty — the date is debated.
- Material
- Painted limestone with inlaid eyes
- Findspot
- Saqqara
- Discovery
- Found in 1850 during Auguste Mariette’s excavations at Saqqara.
- Held by
- Musée du Louvre, Paris
- Inventory number
- E 3023
A man sits cross-legged with an open papyrus roll on his lap; his right hand once held a now-lost pen. His inlaid eyes give him a strikingly lifelike gaze.
We do not know his name: the base that may have carried it was not preserved with the statue.
Certainty: Uncertain
The Seated Scribe’s identity and exact date are unknown.
Scholarly note: Scholars propose dates between the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties on stylistic grounds.
- Musée du Louvre, Paris — Department of Egyptian Antiquities “The Seated Scribe, inventory E 3023”
Certainty: Established
Scribe statues reflect the status of writing and administration in the pyramid-age state.
- Ian Shaw (ed.) (2000) “The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt” Oxford University Press
- Musée du Louvre, Paris — Department of Egyptian Antiquities “The Seated Scribe, inventory E 3023”