Statue of Meryptah: a small black steatite statue of a kneeling man adoring the cartouche of Ramses II. The right-facing inscription in Middle Egyptian on the statue's back pillar identifies him as Meryptah. Meryptah's arms are raised in adoration of a cartouche. A figure of the goddess Maat ('Truth') writes m? 't; she wears her hieroglyphic emblem on her head and holds in her hand the hieroglyph 'wsr', which represents an animal-headed staff. As often, the cartouche rests on a sign for gold, and wears a royal headdress of plumes and sun-disk; it is flanked by two hieroglyphs for 'year' (now broken), evoking a long reign for the king.
the British Museum
