Statuette of Maat
Medium:Cast bronze
Geography: Excavated at Saqqara, Egypt
Period: Undetermined Period
Dimensions:6 × 1.1 × 1.8 cm
Object number: 969.137.3
Gallery Location:Galleries of Africa: Egypt
Description
The
goddess Maat is usually shown, as here, in the form of a woman, often
squatting, wearing an ostrich feather in her hair. Maat embodies the concepts
of the orderliness of the universe, of justice, and of truth. It was the king’s most important duty to
uphold truth and justice, and to offer Maat, often in the form of a small
statuette such as this one, to the gods. Tomb biographies often stress that the
deceased was a man who ‘did Maat’ by feeding the hungry, giving clothes to the
naked, assisting the poor and the bereaved and keeping the balance of nature by
not over-hunting or fishing. At the Judgement
of the Dead, each human heart was weighed against the feather of Maat; what
was required was for the heart to balance with the feather as a sign that one has
lived a balanced life, in harmony with society.
Despite
her great importance to Ancient Egypt, Maat had few temples of her own, and little
mythology. She was sometimes seen as the
first daughter of Atum, the Creator, and as such is present at the very beginning
of Creation. She existed before air or moisture, earth or sky. Sometimes she was considered to be the wife
of the god of writing, Djehuty (Thoth), more often she seems to be alone, the
daughter of Re, sister of the king, but not a wife or mother. Images of Maat
are common in royal tombs, stressing her close association with the king.
