ORIENTAL ANTIQUITIES DEPARTMENT

Painted Wooden Ptah-Sokar-Osiris Statue

Being restored thanks to the generosity of Mr. Graziano Curri, International Chapter

In Egyptian mythology, Ptah was the deification of the primordial mound in the Ennead cosmogony from which the world was formed. It is more literally referred to as Ta-tenen meaning risen land, or as Tanen, meaning submerged land. Tatenen was a god in his own right, before being assimilated with Ptah. Ptah called the world into being by having dreamt creation in his heart and speaking of it. His name means opener, in the sense of opener of the mouth. Indeed the opening of the mouth ceremony, performed by priests at funerals to release souls from their corpses, was said to have been created by Ptah. Thus, there is a relation of Ptah with life (creation) as well as death. This statue represents the deceased and is identified the syncretistic form of the god Ptah in Ptah-Sokari-Osiris. Written on part of the front and back of the head of this statue, is an inscription indicating that this figure was created to ensure the rebirth of the deceased. In art, Ptah is portrayed as a bearded mummified man, often wearing a skull cap, with his hands holding an ankh (key), was (sceptre), and djed (pillar): the symbols of life, power and stability, respectively. Statues of this kind, very popular in the late period, were placed in burial chambers next to the sarcophagus of the deceased.

Wooden Shatbi Box of Djedmaatiuesankh

Being restored thanks to the generosity of the California Chapter

This box belonged to the “singer of Amon” Djedmaatiuesankh and was to hold the ushatbi, the funerary statuettes that the Egyptians believed would help with the agricultural work in the afterlife. The outer surface is richly decorated: on the back is a representation of the mummy of a goddess lying on a deathbed, next to which are four canpoic jars that were to contain the extracted parts during the embalming process; on the front is the god Anubi depicted in the form of a jackal, over which runs a horizontal line of hieroglyphics; and the four sons of Horo (Amset, Kebehsenuf, Hapi and Duamutef) decorate the two lateral surfaces. The finding comes from the famous tomb of “Bab el-Gasus” at Deir el-Bahari discovered in 1891 by French archaeologists Grébaut and Daressy. The importance of this discovery comes from the fact that this burial held its own collection of 153 sarcophagi of gods and goddesses during the XXI dynasty (1070-945 BC). Other objects in the funerary set of Djedmaatiuesankh are housed today in various museums around the world. The wooden case is on display in Room II of the Egyptian Gregorian Museum.

Plaster Copy of the Rosetta Stone

Being restored thanks to the generosity of Mr. and Mrs Foster, Florida Chapter

This plaster is a perfect and extremely rare copy of the Rosetta Stone (today at the British Museum in London). The Rosetta Stone was found in the archaeological site of Rosetta in the valley of the Nile river in 1799 by an officer of Napoleon. Soon afterwards, this discovery allowed J.F. Champollion to decipher the hieroglyphics leading the way to the advent of modern Egyptology. The Stone was subsequently kept by the British. At the beginning of the XIX century four copies of the Stone were made for the four most important universities of the English speaking world at the time: Cambridge, Dublin, Edinburgh and Oxford. The plaster copy of the Oriental Antiquities Museum in the Vatican was created in the XIX century. It is of extreme importance to the Egyptian collection for two reasons: first, it is a rare document to have in copy form, and second the reproduction of the inscription is exceedingly faithful to the original. Being a perfect reproduction of the original, this object serves as a precious instrument for instruction and education in the Vatican Museums.