Ptah-Sokar-Osiris Figure inscribed for Pestjauwymin

Late Period

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 130

This mummiform figure represents the funerary deity Ptah-Sokar-Osiris, who embodied the concept of rebirth. On the head is a shuty crown: two ostrich plumes; a sun disk; and ram's horns.The inscription down the center of the body introduces a prayer to be spoken by Osiris for the benefit of a woman named Pestjauwymin, daughter of a Stolist (the priest who adorned a divine image). Flanking the upper part of the text are figures of the canopic deities, who embodied and protected the internal organs.

The figure sits on a square pedestal. Underneath this is a tenon that would have held the statue to a longer rectangular base (see 86.1.88a–d). A cavity in the now-missing base might have held a piece of papyrus or a "corn-mummy," a small bundle of mud and vegetal matter connected with agricultural fertility and the resurrection of the dead.

This type of funerary statuette was an important element of the burial assemblage in the Late and Ptolemaic Periods.

Ptah-Sokar-Osiris Figure inscribed for Pestjauwymin, Wood, paint, paste

This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Open Access

As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.

API

Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.