A PHOENICIAN SILVER PHYLACTERY AND LAMELLA

CIRCA 6TH CENTURY B.C.

Details

A PHOENICIAN SILVER PHYLACTERY AND LAMELLA
CIRCA 6TH CENTURY B.C.
The rolled lamella, now in two pieces, formed of thin sheet, engraved with three registers of Egyptian deities interspersed with serpents, the deities festively attired and bearing attributes, some depicted standing, some enthroned, reflecting the multiplicity of deities encountered in Egyptian funerary papyri and on temple walls; the phylactery a hollow cylinder into which the lamella was secreted, surmounted by a falcon-headed deity crowned with a solar disk fronted by a uraeus, a suspension loop at the back, a small piece of the lamella fused on the interior
Lamella: 1 3/8 in. (3.5 cm.) high
Phylactery: 1¾ in. (4.4 cm.) high (3)

Provenance

French Private Collection, 1994.

Lot Essay

For a related falcon-headed phylactery see pls. 32-33 in Aubert and Aubert, Bronzes et or égyptiens.
For a phylactery with the head of Sekhmet, preserving its lamella, see nos. 189-190, pp. 178-179 in Parrot, et al., Les Phéniciens: l'expansion phénicienne, Carthage.

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