Statue of the Vizier Iymeru

In the 13th Dynasty, kings followed one another quickly, and many of them reigned for only a few years. Part of what held the state together was a handful of official families, and one of them provided viziers, the king's chief ministers, across two generations. The inscription on this statuette names Iymeru as the son of the vizier Ankhu, and his brother Resseneb held the office before him. The museum says Iymeru served as vizier under three kings, and it places the statue in the years of King Khendjer and those just after.

His office is shown by the shenpu collar at his neck, from which a seal may once have hung, and he wears the long gown, tied under the chest, of dignitaries of the late Middle Kingdom. The head, though, is not his. On grounds of style the museum dates it to the early New Kingdom, centuries later, and says it first belonged to another statuette. It was probably retouched and fitted to this body in the 19th century, when completing broken statues in this way was common practice.