Statue of Padiiset

By the Editors of the Madain Project

#Statue of Padiiset The Padiiset's Statue or Pateese's Statue, also described as the Statue of a vizier usurped by Padiiset, is a basalt statue found in 1894 in the Egyptian delta which includes an inscription referring to trade between Canaan and Ancient Egypt during the Third Intermediate Period. It was purchased by Henry Walters in 1928, and is now in the Walters Art Museum.

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Overview

It is the last known Egyptian reference to Canaan, coming more than 300 years after the preceding known inscription.

The statue is made of black basalt and measures 30.5 x 10.25 x 11.5 cm, and was originally created in the Middle Kingdom period to commemorate a government vizier.

A remarkable example of the re-use of a work of art, the small statue reflects the course of Egypt's long history. A thousand years later the inscription naming this unknown man was erased, and a carved scene was added depicting its new owner, Pa-di-iset, son of Apy, worshipping the gods Osiris, Horus, and Isis. From a text on the rear of the statue we learn that Pa-di-iset was a diplomatic messenger to the neighboring lands of Canaan and Peleset (Palestine).

Inscription Details

circa 1740 BCE

The inscriptions read: Ka of Osiris:
Pa-di-iset, the justified, son of Apy. The only renowned one, the impartial envoy/commissioner/messenger of/for Canaan of/for Peleset, Pa-di-iset, son of Apy.

References

Drews, Robert (1998), "Canaanites and Philistines", Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 81: 39–61.
The Statuette of an Egyptian Commissioner in Syria, Georg Steindorff, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Jun., 1939), pp. 30-33: "At the beginning of the year 1894 was found, reputedly in the Delta, a slightly damaged statuette of black basalt..."
Editio princeps: Émile Gaston Chassinat, "Un interprète égyptien pour les pays cananéens". Bulletin de L'Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale 1, 1901, 98.
Statue of a vizier usurped by Padiiset, at the Walters Art Museum.
Drews 1998, p. 49a:"In the Papyrus Harris, from the middle of the twelfth century, the late Ramesses III claims to have built for Amon a temple in ‘the Canaan’ of Djahi. More than three centuries later comes the next—and very last—Egyptian reference to ‘Canaan’ or ‘the Canaan’: a basalt statuette, usually assigned to the Twenty-Second Dynasty, is labeled, ‘Envoy of the Canaan and of Palestine, Pa-di-Eset, the son of Apy’."
Chassinat, 1901, p.98: "Au commencement de 1894, on découvrit, dans une localité du Delta dont je n’ai pu savoir le nom, une statuette en basalte noir légèrement mutilée." [translation: "At the beginning of 1894, a slightly mutilated black basalt statuette was discovered in a locality in the Delta whose name I have not been able to know."].
Helmut Brandl, Untersuchungen zur steinernen Privatplastik der Dritten Zwischenzeit: Typologie - Ikonographie -Stilistik, mbv-publishers, Berlin 2008, pp. 218-219, pls. 122, 180b, 186a (doc. U-1.1).

Statue of Padiiset

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