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Egyptian Wooden Sokar Hawk
Circa 3rd-1st Century BC
Description: Wooden hawk figure with remains of the original black and brown polychrome. The body of the bird is covered in a reddish-brown paint. The details of the face, top of the head and chest are marked in black. The underside of the figure is unpainted with a recess for attachment. Wooden hawks or falcons, as in this example, were employed in late dynastic Egypt to serve as guardians over sarcophagi or shrines related to the deceased. The bird was sacred to the god Sokar, overseer of the tombs of Memphis and the workers that built them. During the Late Period, Sokar was most often represented as a funerary deity in the form of a Ptah-Sokar-Osiris. The wooden figure typically stood on a miniature sarcophagus accompanied by miniature mummiform hawks such as this example. Important provenance.
Height: 2.6 in. (6.5 cm)
Length: 4.5 in. (11 cm)
Condition: Intact with nicely preserved untouched original polychrome.
Provenance: Formerly in the Charterhouse School Collection, UK, assembled primarily between 1874-1940.
Background: The falcon, or hawk, was regarded as the ba of Horus and sacred to a number of deities in ancient Egypt. A Late Period catacomb at Saqqara had been constructed in antiquity especially for mummified hawks. Examination of the mummified birds revealed not only falcons or hawks were mummified, but a variety of birds of prey had been placed in this sacred catacomb as well.
Price: $ 2,400
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