WALTERS-EG
Walters Art Museum (Egyptian) · statue
Block Statue of Nes-Ba-Neb-Dedet
Description
<p>This seated figures has his knees drawn up and his hands on his knees.</p><p>For the latest information about this object, <cite><a href='https://purl.thewalters.org/art/22.165' rel='external'>Block Statue of Nes-Ba-Neb-Dedet</a></cite>, visit the Online Collection of the Walters Art Museum.</p>
AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano
Machine-generated from the object's image on Jul 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
A small Egyptian block statue depicts a seated/standing human figure with long wig and a belt/robed lower body, with extensive incised hieroglyphs across the torso and base.
The object is a vertically oriented block (mummiform-style) statue. The face has a calm, forward gaze; the headdress/wig is represented by rounded, striated curls falling to the sides. The figure’s chest and upper body are smooth, while the middle section is filled with dense, gold-painted (or dark pigment) incised hieroglyphic text arranged in horizontal lines. A band of hieroglyphs also appears on the lower front and on the base/ledge. No clear royal cartouche or cartouches are confidently legible from the image resolution. No Greek/Coptic/Arabic text is visible. The catalogued material is green basalt; the image shows a dark stone with a greenish/gray tone but the exact material color is not fully verifiable from the photo alone.
royal
unclear (likely Late Period to Ptolemaic/early Roman period style for a block statue, but not confidently determinable from image alone)
good
Materials
dark stone (appears greenish/gray in photo; consistent with basalt but not independently confirmable)pigment/paint in hieroglyphs (gold/ochre appearance)
Signs
incised hieroglyphs (multiple phonetic and determinative signs; exact reading unclear) ×100
Inscriptions (3)
Inscription #1
English description
[Multipart Inscription; A, on front and sides of dress] An offering which the king gives to Amon-re, the primeval god of the Two Lands (i.e., the original god of the world, the first created), who has created all things, and to (the gods) who are in Thebes, that they may give all things which go forth on their offering-altar in the course of every day, whatever the heaven gives and the earth creates and what the Nile brings to them, flying of (my) soul to all places it loves, enjoying the rays of the sun-disc, smelling the breeze of the good north wind, strolling along the river, offering gifts of fresh water (?) in their temple eternally to the Osiris, the divine father and priest of Amun in Epet-sewet, the privy councillor, the ab-priest, the high priest of Southern On (Hermonthis), the great ... in Thebes, the prophet of the holy User-het-bark of Amun, Nes-ba-neb-Dedet (Smendes), the blessed, son of a man of the same titles, Pe-kher-Khons (Pchorchonsis), the blessed, born of the lady Nehems-ra-tewy, the blessed: May thy statue be in the venerable horizon (i.e., this temple) without perishing in it forever, may sacrifices be brought to thee when every face opens in the temple of ..., may you eat and follow the holy bark (in the procession) in the course of every day of making water-offering; may you receive loaves of bread on the beautiful offering-table ..., may all the young people bend their arms in joy (in greeting), for you have pleased them.
Inscription #2
English description
[B, on the rear column, the ""Saitic Formula""] The local god of the divine father and prophet-priest of Amun in Epet-sewet, the high priest in Southern On, the privy councillor, the ab-priest, the chief of ... the priest of the Sun of the roof of the temple of Amun in the first phyle (order) Nes-ba-neb-Dedet, the blessed, son of (a man of) the same titles, Per-kher-Khons, the blessed, born of the lady, the chantress of Amon-re, Nehems-ra-tewy, the blessed, may (the god) be placed behind him, while his Ka is in front of him, eternally.
Inscription #3
English description
[C, on the base] An offering which the king gives to Amon-re, lord of the Two Lands, and to the gods and goddesses who are in the temple of Soker, that they may give all good things every day to the divine father Nes-ba-neb-Dedet, the blessed, the son of (a man of) the same titles, Pe-kher-Khons, born of the lady Nehems-ra-tewy, the blessed.
Cross-references (2)
- Walters-AccNum 22.165 tier-2
- Walters-id 17566 tier-2
Similar inscriptions · by content embedding
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Walters Art Museum (Egyptian).
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
- Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.