# First full-frontal Pharaoh



## Brian G Turner (Apr 5, 2004)

Here's an interesting story - the first ever full-frontal drawing of a Pharoah discovered - probably a design-plan for a statue:


*Unique full-frontal portrait reveals pharaoh's face*

The first full-frontal portrait of an Egyptian pharaoh has been discovered by archaeologists. It is thought to be more than 3500 years old.

The artefact was buried beneath a courtyard in front of a tomb in Luxor in southern Egypt, and was unearthed by a Spanish team of archaeologists. 

The portrait is painted onto a wooden board measuring 50 by 30 centimetres and is unique. Other Egyptian paintings and drawings only ever show people in profile, which the artists may have thought would help identify their subjects more easily.

Jose Manuel Galan, who discovered the picture with colleagues at the Instituto de Filologia, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cienticas, says that it probably dates from 1400 BC. He thinks it most probably depicts the pharaoh Tuthmosis III or his mother Hatshepsut. 

The figure in the image is almost certainly royalty because he or she is wearing a trapezoid cloth garment known as a "nemes" that was reserved for kings or queens.


More: http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994847


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