LATE PERIOD TO PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, 664-30 B.C.

Enhanced by precious metal inlays and separately-made attachments (now missing), this seated bronze Harpocrates has the wide eyes, chubby face and soft limbs of a small child. A small tang on the right of his atef-crown is all that remains of his sidelock of youth; mortises at the forehead and in the center of the crown served to affix a uraeus cobra. His hand is raised to his mouth, but the index finger pointed at his mouth is missing. The double amulet on his chest (inlaid in silver and metal of a lighter color) is of a type first seen in the Middle Kingdom, and is frequently encountered in art of the Late Period. For a similar example see no. 219 in O. Muscarella, ed. Ancient Art: The Norbert Schimmel Collection), while an example excavated in the Sacred Animal Necropolis at Saqqara may be dated to Dynasty 30 (Petrie Museum UC 30478).