One of the earliest – and even after four and a half thousand years, still among the finest – true sculptured portraits, it is an almost unprecedented depiction of the unidealised features of an actual man.

The face is stern, with a slightly uneven mouth which makes him appear as though he is smirking from one side, and aloof and impersonal from the other.

It was evident that it had once been the focus of a funerary cult, as the bust had crushed several small pottery vessels of the type used for offerings when it fell in antiquity from its pedestal.

However, this piece was awarded as thanks for the extensive work done by this expedition and the discovery of the intact royal tomb of Queen Hetepheres, who was Ankhhaf's aunt, a sister of his father.

J. Assmann, Preservation and Presentation of Self in Ancient Egyptian Portraiture, in Studies in Honor of William Kelly Simpson Volume 1, pp.