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 piece is a painted and gessoed wood (probably sycamore based on similar examples) statuette depicting Ptah-Sokar-Osiris in his human-faced form standing atop a wooden box that represents a coffin. The box is constructed largely as a platform for the figure to stand upon. The lid of the box is a slot that slides out from the top of the box opposite the standing figure, and the handle is a figure of the god Sokar in his hawk form. Size when fully assembled: 17.25" L x 5.1" W x 25" H (43.8 cm x 13 cm x 63.5 cm)

The figure has a separate headdress that slots into the top of the head; it is in the form of a sun-disc with two plumes. It may at one time have had horns based on similar figures. The mummiform figure is painted brilliantly with different greens (the light green of the face now having faded somewhat to look more blue), with red, white, and brown decoration of the body around a long, vertical panel of hieroglyphs. He stands on a pale blue (maybe once green?) panel that has a tab that fits into the box/coffin. The coffin is painted on its long sides with horizontal registers of hieroglyphs in black on white with red borders. The removable lid of the box is dark red, with Sokar-as-bird perched atop it. He, too, is mummiform, with the same red, white, and brown painted pattern as the mummiform body of the standing figure; his head is exposed, with large eyes and a small beak. Lift him up to reveal a hollow space for creating your own cycle of death and rebirth.

Ptah Sokar Osiris is one of the most complicated concepts of Egyptian mythology. The figure shown here represents the god's 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 a single combined man, 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. In each, the god stands atop a box with a simple lid; a linen-wrapped mummy made of vegetable matter 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 "mummy" was a substitute image of the deceased, and when it sprouted, it would symbolize rebirth. The entire artifact, as this one is, would be painted with rich colors, and decorated with hieroglyphics. 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.

Provenance: private Swiss collection, acquired before 1972

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#122989

Pigment, especially on the standing figure, is bright, with expected losses but generally very nice preservation. The wood itself also has expected age wear but the box still opens and the figure still fits together nicely. The tab where the figure fits into the box has been repaired. The top of the figure's headdress has a small loss, as do the edges of the box. There are small surface cracks around the figure's goatee.