In 2009, a team led by Kelsey Museum curator Janet Richards made an exciting discovery at the Abydos Middle Cemetery (AMC) in Egypt: an intact serdab filled with wood figurines that were more than 4,000 years old.
In ancient Egypt, a serdab was a vaulted chamber built into a corner or side of a tomb to hold the spirit, or ka, statues of the deceased. The serdab also held models of food, equipment, and servants for the tomb owner’s use in the afterlife.
It is rare to find an intact serdab, and the one discovered in 2009 was especially important because the tomb’s deep burial shaft had collapsed, making the tomb chamber inaccessible. This meant that the figurines in the serdab provided some of the only clues to the deceased’s social and economic identity.
Unfortunately, the statues were in terrible condition. The wood had been eaten by termites and was a crumbly matrix of sand, digested wood, and termite poop and saliva. Most figurines were in many pieces and missing large sections. Some were just hollow shells of paint, with nothing at all on the inside! The figurines were so fragile that conservators had to apply a conservation-grade wax called cyclododecane in order to lift them out of the excavation area. Yet in many cases, the original shapes of the statues were visible, as were decorative details like stone and metal inlays and finely woven textile garments.
AMC Project conservators carefully studied the statues, consulting with conservators and scientists from around the world to understand how they were made and investigate options for their treatment. We then painstakingly reconstructed two of the larger statues, using cellulose ethers to stabilize the painted surface, acrylic resins to reattach broken pieces, and acid-free paper pulp and glass micro balloons to fill voids.
This project lasted for many excavation seasons, during which the figurines became favorites of the entire excavation team. Although they are more than 4,000 years old, the statues have a calm, soulful gaze that is timeless. Dr. Hamada Sadek was the lead conservator for the statue of a striding man, while Suzanne Davis led the effort for the statue of the deceased as a child. These figurines became affectionately known as “Hamada’s baby” and “Suzanne’s baby” because their conservators put so much care and energy into their conservation.
Once the statues were reassembled and conserved, it was possible to appreciate how finely made they are. Their beautifully carved features, pleated kilts, and inlaid eyes indicate an elite level of craft production, maybe even a royal workshop. Today, the statues are on view in the Sohag National Museum in Egypt.
