Ancient Egypt, Late Dynastic to Greco-Roman periods, ca. 712 to 30 BCE. An amazing, rare artifact from a culture whose enigmatic funerary rituals hint at a truly lost way of life, this is a painted wood statuette depicting Ptah-Sokar-Osiris in his human-faced form. The god is made of three parts: Ptah, the creator god of Memphis; Sokar, the patron of the Memphite necropolis, and Osiris, the god of the afterlife and and lord of the underworld. All three are depicted in mummy forms; Osiris and Ptah as men, and Sokar as a falcon. Together, they tell a story of birth, death, and resurrection. These figures became popular after ca. 1000 BCE and are associated with elite burials. The god stands atop a box with a simple hinged lid; a linen-wrapped mummy made of corn would be placed into the hollow box to represent rebirth in the afterlife (the earliest examples instead had funerary papyri placed inside of them). This corn "mummy" was a substitute image of the deceased. The entire artifact was once painted with rich colors, and decorated with hieroglyphics, many of which remain here in faded form. Notable is Osiris's green face; he is always depicted this way, to show that he is dead and in a state of decay. Items like these were almost certainly made by priests as part of the funerary ritual. This figure represents the complex religious iconography of ancient Egypt and also serves as a good example that this religion and culture was not unchanging over the vast time period that it lasted; instead, new practices and gods arose over time. Size: 12.75" L x 5.2" W x 18.25" H (32.4 cm x 13.2 cm x 46.4 cm)

To read more about these fascinating objects, please see: https://blog.britishmuseum.org/2013/08/

Provenance: Ex-Simonian collection, Switzerland, acquired before 1972

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#117534

Crown is missing. Figure has signs of wear as shown and has been repaired at the feet. Box lid can be opened.