The kA or Guardian statues of Tutankhamen

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Discovery:

When Howard Carter shone his torch through into the antechamber among the first things that caught his eyes were these two large black statues of the king with the remains of their ancient linen shawls still hanging around their shoulders. They were found flanking the entrance of the burial chamber; the one on the west wore the xAt headdress while the one on the east wore the nms headdress.

There are two standing statues of the king they were facing each other on either side of the blocked doorway of the burial chamber. Their position on either side gave Howard Carter an idea that there is something important inside the chamber.

They are almost identical except for two things:

The first is in the type of the headdress as one is wearing the nms headdress (the one on the right hand side) and the other is wearing the xAt headdress (the one on the left hand side)

The second was in the inscriptions as there are some inscriptions on the right statue different from the inscriptions which are on the left statue.

These two statues are almost life size because the height of each one is 192cm and we knew from medical examination that the height of the king was 170cm while the height of the pedestal of each statue is 20cm so if we calculate the height of the king plus the height of the pedestal it will make the height of the statues 190cm so they are almost in life size.

Material:

They are made out of wood coated with bitumen or black resin except for the headdress’, jewelry and the kilt. But the outlines of the eyes, the eye brows, cobra on the forehead and the sandals are made of gilded bronze

At the time of their discovery traces of the linen shawls or sheets in which they had been draped were found. Also there were two garlands of olive branches placed as offerings one on the door and the other still propped against the wall.

Description:

The statue wearing the nms headdress:

The king is represented standing in the traditional pose of the royal king; left leg stepping forward, wearing the nms headdress which covers the hair but leaves the ears free and a pleated kilt Sndt with a starched central tab which was in fashion during this era. The tab of this kilt is decorated by two cobras wearing the sun disk and on both sides there are sunrays to enlighten the inscriptions carrying the titles of the king which are in the middle of the kilt.

He is holding a mace head decorated with scales in his right hand and a long staff in his left hand with a papyrus umbel just under his hand as a hand rest, the cobra above his head is for protection. He is wearing around his neck a broad collar or wsx and necklace called pectoral decorated with a winged scarab which represents rebirth. He is wearing on both arms armlets and on both hands bracelets. In his feet he is wearing gilded bronze sandals.

The eyes are inlaid with crystalline limestone for the white and the obsidian for the pupil set in frames of gilded bronze. There are red patches on either sides of the inside of the eyes known as caruncles (this indicates that the Egyptian artist was very accurate in representing the tired eyes, maybe he was tired because of his work as a guardian

The inscriptions on this statue:

Niswt bity nb xprw ra

The king of upper and lower Egypt, the lord of the forms or the existences of Re

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(The son of Re, lord of the crowns (or appearance) the living image of imn the ruler of southern Heliopolis, living forever, like Re, every day)

The statue wearing the xAt headdress:

This statue has the same description of the previous statue except for the type of the headdress as he is wearing the xAt headdress which covers the hair and leaves the ears free. The inscriptions on the tab of this statue read as follows:

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(mAa xrw) True of voice

They were called guardian statues because of two theories:

The first is related to the location of the statues

The second is that the red patches represented in the eyes show that maybe he was tired from being awake all night guarding the burial chamber

They were also called ka statues because of two reasons:

The first they resemble the features of Tutankhamen so they act as a guide to the double ka of the king when it returns back to him in the afterlife. There are inscriptions in the statue which is wearing the xAt headdress say n kA n ra Hr Axty which means to the ka of Re hr Akhty who was important god in the afterlife so he was related to ra Hr Axty. The second reason is the name inscription describing Tut as the royal kA of ra Hr Axty which is found on the statue wearing the xAt headdress so it confirms that this statue represents the royal kA or spiritual double of the king

Notes about the ka:

According to ancient Egyptian beliefs each human personality consisted of seven elements; the kA or the double, the bA or the soul, the rn or the name, the Xt or the body, the ib or the heart, the Ax or the illumination and the Swt or the shadow. The ka was fashioned at the time of birth of the person by the creator god xnwm on his potter’s wheel. After the death, the ka continued to live and needed to recognize its owner to ensure his resurrection thus it was important to preserve the mummy as intact as possible or provide statues incase that the mummy is destroyed.

So the importance of the ka was that the ka used to come back to the body to benefit from the offering which was put to the mummy of the king to enjoy his offerings in the afterlife.

The theory of the black color:

It is the color of death

It is the color of Osiris god of resurrection and the afterlife because the colors of Osiris are green, black and white

It is the color of the black land or kmt

Amarna features:

Heavy belly (protruding abdomen)

Pierced ear lobes

Slim legs

Sandals