Pharaoh Khasekhemwy ruled ancient Egypt during the 2nd Dynasty, in the 27th century BCE, between 2727 and 2700 BCE. He unified Upper and Lower Egypt after a period of turmoil and established his capital in Hierakonpolis, in the southern region of the country. Khasekhemwy was the first Egyptian pharaoh known to have commissioned statues of himself.
During his lifetime, he ordered the creation of two nearly identical statues depicting him seated, which became not only the first stone-sculpted statues to represent an Egyptian pharaoh but also the oldest to depict a historical figure.
One statue is made of limestone and the other of schist. Both depict Khasekhemwy wearing the long Heb Sed tunic and the white crown of Upper Egypt.

The Heb Sed festival was the royal renewal ceremony, the most important celebration for Egyptian sovereigns, intended to rejuvenate their physical strength and supernatural energy.
The white crown, known as the Hedjet, was a tall, elongated headdress that identified the monarch of Upper Egypt. What it was made of remains unknown, though archaeologists have suggested various materials, from leather to plant fibers.
No white crown has ever been found in any tomb, suggesting they may have been passed from one pharaoh to the next. On both statues of Khasekhemwy, the upper part of the crown appears to be broken.

The statues are approximately 62 centimeters tall. Both are similar in design, with Khasekhemwy’s left arm crossing horizontally in front of his body beneath the tunic. His other arm rests on the top of his thigh, with a closed fist emerging from the tunic (the fist has a hole, possibly to hold a scepter or similar object) in a gesture of authority. Both hands are similarly broken on one of the statues, which is preserved in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
The one housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo is missing half of the head but remains otherwise in remarkably good condition. On both, the base of the statue depicts a military campaign led by the king against the inhabitants of the Delta, symbolized on the front right side by a group of papyrus plants sprouting from the head of a bound figure being struck with a mace.
On the sides of the base, the bodies of defeated enemies are engraved, falling in all directions, with the front panel recording the total: 47,209 (a number now considered exaggerated) and the Horus name of the king, Khasekhem, roughly carved into the stone in front of his feet. The name is oriented as it would be seen by the seated king, meaning it appears upside down to anyone approaching the statue.

Although the statues may commemorate an actual event or series of events, they are also icons of kingship. The king, as the establisher of order, is depicted as towering above his enemies, the representatives of chaos, and dominating them. Thus, the image portrays the successful fulfillment of one of the king’s principal duties and conveys a clear message.
The two statues were discovered buried within the temple complex of Hierakonpolis by British archaeologists Quibell and Green during excavations in 1897–98. A third statue, of which only the head survives, is kept at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
Before his reign, statues were typically reserved for deities, but Khasekhemwy elevated the status of the pharaoh by depicting himself in sculpted form, initiating a tradition that would last for 3,000 years.

Representing the pharaoh in statue form helped consolidate his position as a living god. The identical nature of the statues reinforced the idea of a singular, divine kingship.
Khasekhemwy chose to depict himself in a majestic seated pose, a position that would be adopted by pharaohs for centuries. The stable base provided by the block throne gave balance and symmetry to the massive stone figures. The seated posture also allowed for an efficient use of the stone blocks from which they were carved.
The posture projects an aura of omnipotent power and control. Though seated, the pharaoh appears ready to rise at any moment to strike down Egypt’s enemies. However, the stillness of the posture conveys reason, wisdom, and composure—qualities of the ideal leader.
This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on September 12, 2023: Las dos estatuas que Jasejemuy encargó de sí mismo son las primeras de un faraón y las más antiguas en representar a una figura histórica
SOURCES
Ancient Egypt and Archaeology Web Site, King Khasekhemwy
Ezra Ivanov, Strange Mythology of the Ancient Egyptians
E.O. Blunsom, The Past And Future Of Law
Toby A.H. Wilkinson, Early Dynastic Egypt
Gay Robins, The Art of Ancient Egypt
Wikipedia, Jasejemuy
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