Statuettes depicting the funerary deity Ptah-Sokar-Osiris are often attested in private burials from the 1st millennium BC, especially from the Late Epoch onwards. Made of wood and richly decorated, these represented the sah, the body of the deceased prepared for the afterlife by appropriate mummification rituals.
Their function was precisely to ensure the rebirth of the deceased and the protection of his body after death. The papyrus scrolls inscribed with funerary texts, any amulets or mummified parts of the deceased body (penis), inserted inside the parallelepiped base that supported them, were essential for this purpose. Two of the three statuettes in the Acerbi collection retain part of the original polychromy and some of the hieroglyphics of the inscription that associated the name of the deceased with the divinity, favouring its rebirth. The bases have been lost and we do not know their possible contents.
Where to see this work of art
Late Period (664-332 BC)
wood with traces of polychromy
