Image Details

Strong Nubian features do appear in sculptures and reliefs that portray royal personages whose origins were in foreign populations, or who came from border areas. This relief of Senwosret I (c. 1971–1926 B.C.E.), found in a limestone shrine at Karnak, displays such Nubian traits as thick lips and a broad nose with flaring nostrils. A member of the XIIth Dynasty, whose origins lay in southern Egypt’s Aswan region, Senwosret wears the towering pharaonic hat of Upper Egypt. His personal name appears in the cartouche (the hieroglyphs enclosed by an oval) above his head.