e sema - tawi, an emblem of unification that combines the hieroglyph sema ("union) with the symbols for the two lands of Egypt - papyrus for the north and a flower for the south."(Met) Other hieroglyphs are displayed on the front of the throne, by the figures legs, perhaps representing Khafres name or his dynasty. One hieroglyph, that of a bird, may, in fact, represent "the falcon of Horus, indicating the pharaohs divine status," as some other ka statues of Khafre provide an indication of Horus.(Gardner, 75 - 76) The compact figure of Khafre sits in a sort of permanence with no projecting limbs or easily breakable parts. "The sculptor produced the statue by first drawing the front, back, and two profile views of the pharaoh on the four vertical faces of the stone block; by chiseling away the excess stone on each side, working inward until the planes met at right angles; then rounding the corners. This subtractive method of creating the pharaohs portrait accounts in large parts for the blocklike look of the standard Egyptian statue," (Gardner, 75) This form of carving and creating statues is one that not only encompassed Khafres reign, but extended beyond and is apparent in later dynasties as well. The statues adorning the front of the Temple of Ramses, for example, have the same basic positioning, and rendering as the ka statue of King Khafre Seated. Therefore, two things become apparent, one is that a similar technique of carving was used for the Ramses figures, and the other is that sculptors of later years would look back at the ka statues built in the fourth dynasty as a template for their own. Similar examples of sculpture go on for years after Khafres reign, the fourth dynasty was just the beginning. Monumental Egypt, although it existed in burial tombs before Khafres reign, truly became a traditional pattern in the fourth dynasty. Khafres seated ka statues were numerous and perhaps the beginning of the formulaic scul...
