A bronze figure of a shrew, the long snouted animal standing on a rectangular miniature sarcophagus, open at one end, his coat marked with striations, standing with long tail falling behind -- 5¼in. (13.3cm.) long, Ptolemaic period, 4th-1st Century B.C.

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A bronze figure of a shrew, the long snouted animal standing on a rectangular miniature sarcophagus, open at one end, his coat marked with striations, standing with long tail falling behind -- 5¼in. (13.3cm.) long, Ptolemaic period, 4th-1st Century B.C.

Lot Essay

Cf. D. Arnold, An Egyptian Bestiary, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1995: "In ancient Egyptian popular mythology the shrew was closely associated with the ichneumon. The shrew represented the blind aspect of a solar deity whose complement, endowed with keen eyesight, was understood to be the ichneumon."

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