Abstract
During the 2000–2001 campaigns of the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM) on the site of Abukir off-shore, conventionally called East Canopos, many sculptures from Pharaonic and Graeco-Roman Periods were found, and among them two heads of hard stone, adorned with the royal uraei. The first one, Inv. No. SCA 167, is of black diorite. The king wears the nemes with an uraeus on front, and traces of an artificial beard remain on his chin. The polished surface and the sharp cut details characterize the so-called Saite Style of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, and the face and the headdress find their analogy among some portraits attributed to the rulers of this time. Very near comes a head of king Apries from Bologna, Museo Civico, and an another, from the Cairo Museum. Nearly similar in style is finally a head of king Amasis from Baltimore, Walters Art Museum. Then, this attribution for the investigated sculpture seems the most probable – and even more: Karol Myśliwiec places the source of this style in Lower Egypt – not far from Canopos, indeed… The second piece, Inv. No. SCA 168, is of black granite with an oblique intrusion of white quarz. The king wears the so-called Blue Cap, with a long uraeus, typical for the royal portraiture of the Thirtieth Dynasty. The face is fleshy and features a plasticity characteristic for the style of the fourth century BC. Since both these marks appear in some portraits of Nectanebo II, for example in sculptures from London, British Museum, and New York, private collection, we suggest to see also in this head yet another, hitherto unknown, image of this king, and a real masterpiece of the late period of pharaonic art.
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