Bronze Sarcophagus of a Falcon

Culture: Egyptian

Period: Late period, 26th-30th dynasty, 664-343 B.C.

Material: Bronze

Dimensions: 14.5 cm x 14.6 cm

Price: Sold

Ref: 1498

Provenance: On the bottom an old label of the gallery Olivier Tiano "HIER et AILLEURS", 1980s. From there acquired by the collection M. R. S., Bordeaux. Last with Bonhams auction Paris on 7 October 2021, lot 126. Accompanied by a French antiquities passport.

Condition: Unrestored and very beautifully preserved. The tip of the Pschent crown missing. The mummy was probably removed shortly after its finding, the cover was taken off.

Description: Impressive animal sarcophagus with slightly inwardly angled outer walls and set off lid which once held the mummy of a sacred falcon. On the rectangular plate on the lid sits a high quality, massive bronze statuette of the god Horus in form of a falcon. He wears the Pschent, the double crown of Upper- and Lower Egypt. His wings are resting and abundantly decorated, the tail feathers are crossed in the back. His vigilant round eyes look straight forward. The sarcophagus was sealed in the back with a thin copper plate after the falcon mummy had been put inside. As with most of these bronze sarcophagi the mummy was removed in the meantime, the rear cover at the back was lost. See for the type the falcon sarcophagus in the Brooklyn Museum with the Accession Number 37.416Ea-b. There were falcon cults all over Egypt and the god Horus in particular was worshiped in many places as the son of Isis and Osiris. Thousands of falcons were mummified and buried in animal necropolises. While the mummies were mostly wrapped in linen, adorned with cartonnage heads and buried like this, bronze sarcophagi such as the present one were notably rarer.