An Egyptian Granodiorite Head

18th Dynasty

H: 13 cm

This is possibly the head of a royal official, wearing a flaring double wig of striated locks radiating from the crown and tucked behind the ears. Framing the oval face, the eyebrows and elongated cosmetic lines are sculpted in raised relief and contour the figure’s wide set almond-shaped eyes. Made from polished black Granodiorite stone, which is a plutonic igneous rock. It was quarried by the ancient Egyptians at Aswan on the Nile River, also at Faiyum in the Western Desert (basalt) and lastly in the mountains of the Eastern Desert. This head may have been a fragment from a statue that once adorned a temple.