.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
A note on the reverse of the frame states: "This ancient Egyptian Papyrus was found by me in Nov 1910 in the base of a wooden statue, which I brought back from Egypt in 1893. It was obtained from the Egyptian Government Museum at Cairo. It was mounted in this frame by the British Museum authorities who stated that it dates back to B.C. 900. Sir Wallis Budge, the head of the Egyptian Department at the British Museum pronounced it to be an interesting discovery and was genuine."
The label on the matting of the frame informs that this "Portion of a Roll of Papyrus" is "Inscribed with the text of the Eleventh section of the Book Am-Tuat. The scene represented is the birth of the Sun-god into the sky of this world at day-break, and the figures represent deities who accompany him with light, fire and songs. The whole symbolizes the birth of the human soul into heaven. In the lowest register is represented the punishment of the wicked. On the right is seen the mummified body of the deceased which its soul leaves behind in the other world when it enters heaven."
For a discussion of related papyri see Niwinski, Studies on the illustrated Theban funerary papyri of the 11th and 10th centuries B.C.. For a similar figure of Osiris, its base also once concealing a scroll, see p. 35 in Taylor and Strudwick, Mummies, Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt, Treasures from the British Museum. The Harer Osiris, and probably also the example in the British Museum, was originally a shabti figure from the late Eighteenth or Nineteenth Dynasty. Tomb robbery was rampant during the Third Intermediate Period, and older objects in scarce materials were commonly purloined and reused, as here. Chips to the thick plaster coating of the Harer Osiris reveal the form of the shabti below the surface. The absence of attributes usually associated with Osiris supports this theory.
The label on the matting of the frame informs that this "Portion of a Roll of Papyrus" is "Inscribed with the text of the Eleventh section of the Book Am-Tuat. The scene represented is the birth of the Sun-god into the sky of this world at day-break, and the figures represent deities who accompany him with light, fire and songs. The whole symbolizes the birth of the human soul into heaven. In the lowest register is represented the punishment of the wicked. On the right is seen the mummified body of the deceased which its soul leaves behind in the other world when it enters heaven."
For a discussion of related papyri see Niwinski, Studies on the illustrated Theban funerary papyri of the 11th and 10th centuries B.C.. For a similar figure of Osiris, its base also once concealing a scroll, see p. 35 in Taylor and Strudwick, Mummies, Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt, Treasures from the British Museum. The Harer Osiris, and probably also the example in the British Museum, was originally a shabti figure from the late Eighteenth or Nineteenth Dynasty. Tomb robbery was rampant during the Third Intermediate Period, and older objects in scarce materials were commonly purloined and reused, as here. Chips to the thick plaster coating of the Harer Osiris reveal the form of the shabti below the surface. The absence of attributes usually associated with Osiris supports this theory.