Colossal Granite Head of Amenhotep III at The British Museum, London

King Amenhotep III (1390-1352 BC) commissioned a large number of statues of himself in Thebes, mostly for his mortuary temple on the west bank of the Nile. This colossal head was found in the Temple of Mut, the consort of the principal god Amun. The temple is just to the south-east of the Temple of Karnak. Royal statues in Egypt were sometimes usurped (taken over) by later rulers. The normal procedure was simply to re-carve their name over the old one, but in some cases the physical features were also altered. Ramesses II (1279-1213 BC) seems to have altered a number of statues of Amenhotep III in this way, presumably because he wished to represent his ideal image in a certain form. In this statue, Ramesses seems to have concentrated on changing the characteristic thick lips of the older statuary to thinner ones. In other cases he took to reducing the plump stomach areas of Amenhotep's statues to make them closer to his ideal of the physical shape of the king. The statue wears the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. This object is part of Scan The World. Scan the World is a non-profit initiative introduced by MyMiniFactory, through which we are creating a digital archive of fully 3D printable sculptures, artworks and landmarks from across the globe for the public to access for free. Scan the World is an open source, community effort, if you have interesting items around you and would like to contribute, email [e-mail] to find out how you can help.阿蒙霍特普三世（Amenhotep III，公元前1390年—公元前1352年）曾下令在底比斯打造大量自身肖像雕像，其中多数安置于其尼罗河西岸的祭庙之中。这尊巨型头像出土于穆特神庙——古埃及主神阿蒙的配偶穆特的专属神庙，该神庙紧邻卡纳克神庙东南侧。 古埃及王室肖像雕像有时会被后世统治者篡用，常规操作仅为在旧铭文上重刻新统治者的名号，但部分案例中还会修改雕像的面部与形体特征。拉美西斯二世（Ramesses II，公元前1279年—公元前1213年）便曾以该方式改造多尊阿蒙霍特普三世的雕像，推测其初衷是将雕像塑造成契合自身审美与政治诉求的理想君主形象。在这尊头像中，拉美西斯二世着重将原雕像标志性的厚唇修改为薄唇；在其他改造案例里，他还将阿蒙霍特普三世雕像丰腴的腹部收窄，使其更贴近其推崇的国王身形标准。 该雕像头戴象征上下埃及统一的双王冠。 本藏品隶属于“扫描世界（Scan The World）”项目。“扫描世界”是MyMiniFactory推出的非营利性公益计划，旨在打造覆盖全球的可免费3D打印雕塑、艺术品与地标建筑数字档案库，供公众免费获取使用。该项目为开源社区协作项目，若您身边有合适的藏品并希望参与贡献，可发送邮件至[e-mail]了解具体参与方式。