MARSHA HILL: My name is Marsha Hill. I'm a curator in the Egyptian art department. In the form of this case, we tried to evoke an Egyptian shrine, of the type you see in the temple. Wooden shrines with doors protected the images of gods in the temples. When the shrine doors were opened, the statue would have been the recipient of offerings, incense, music, dance. On festival days, a god might have been specially clothed and crowned, or maybe even carried outside the temple where more people could see them. When their period of use in the temple was over, these gods would be removed from the shrine and buried in sacred deposits inside the temple.

The statues we have today and what you see in this case were excavated from these kinds of caches. At the center of this group stands a statue of the very great Egyptian god Ptah, who had many aspects, including those of both a creator god and a god who actually listened to the prayers of individuals. I think you can see, in his very kind and serene face, why he is called in Egyptian Nefer-her, a name that means the benevolent one. The statuette is remarkable for its beauty, its size and state of preservation. Much of the gilding that actually covered most ancient bronzes is actually still preserved on this statue. It's also remarkable because it dates to the Third Intermediate Period when donation of bronze divine images became a very important phenomenon.

The other two gods in the shrine are Neith, the goddess of Sais, and a seated statue of Amun, both of which we showed to you here because of the richness of their inlay.