Egyptian Offering Cup Lid Fragment Group

A group of five ceramic and composition statuette fragments including glazed examples: a terracotta royal head with Nemes headdress and uraeus; the green glazed foot of a shabti with hieroglyphs; the head of a figure in raised relief, painted geometric column to the rear; copper-alloy strap junction displaying a human face, four-way attachment reverse; glass ram head with applied eyes and horns. 105 grams total, 21-54 mm



Acquired early 1990s. Ex private American collection; thence by descent. Private collection since 1998.

A glazed composition shabti fragment representing the head of a bull surmounted by a sun-disc between its horns, wearing a lappet wig and with human arms crossed over the chest; the missing lower portion continued the shape of a mummiform human body; the back of the figure flat and bearing faint traces of inscription, the opening begins with a common shabti introduction which appears to be followed (as would be expected) by the name of syncretic deity Osiris Apis. 34 grams, 60 mm



Acquired early 1990s. Ex private American collection; thence by descent. Private collection since 1998. Accompanied by a scholarly note by Egyptologist Paul Whelan.

The figure comes from the catacombs at Saqqara where the sacred Apis bulls were buried, known today as the Serapeum. The Apis bull was associated principally with the gods Ptah, patron deity of Memphis, and Osiris, and when one died it was afforded the kind of lavish burial befitting a pharaoh. All bull-headed shabtis date to the 19th and 20th Dynasties and were left as offerings beside the huge granite sarcophagi of the deified bulls. These shabtis were among hundreds of objects recovered from the catacombs by Auguste Mariette during his excavations there between 1850-1853. The Musée du Louvre in Paris holds the largest collection of artefacts from the Serapeum outside Egypt, including around 120 Apis shabtis. They reveal that the this fragment with its sun-disc is from a rare variant of this shabti type; just 5 of the Louvre examples have sun-discs (S 1823, N 5234 51-54), the remaining shabtis have a bull’s head with short stubby horns and no sun-disc.

A blue glazed composition figure of the advancing god Ra (possibly Ra-Horakhty), falcon-headed and wearing a sun disc, set on an integral rectangular base, left leg positioned in front of the right, arms held straight by his sides, wearing a wig and kilt; tapering pillar with suspension loop behind solar disc; repaired. 18.4 grams, 87 mm high



Acquired from Dr Jan Beekmans, circa 1982. UK private collection.

In ancient Egypt, Ra sat as the king of all the deities and the father of all creation, the god who could not only govern the sun, but who transformed himself into the sun. He was associated with the falcon, hence he is typically portrayed as a human with a falcon's head. The major cultic centre for Ra was the ancient city Iwnw, known as Heliopolis to the Greeks, which today lies under modern Cairo. The ancient Egyptians were an agricultural society inhabiting a desert; the sun (and thus Ra) was an integral component of their world view. Placed on the chest of the deceased, this amulet offered the wearer the chance of eternal renewal each morning with the sun.