The Upper Part of a of an Indurated Limestone Sarcophagus, 30th Dynasty, 380-343 B.C.

wearing a broad tripartite wig, the idealized face with full outlined lips deeply indented at the corners, broad straight nose, and almond-shaped eyes with long finely contoured eyebrows and cosmetic lines in relief.

German private collection, acquired between 1960 and 1980
acquired by the present owner in April 2002

Allard Pierson Museum, Archeological Museum of the University of Amsterdam, November 17th, 2006 – March 25th, 2007

Objects for Eternity, Egyptian Antiquities from the W. Arnold Meijer Collection, Carol A.R. Andrews and Jacobus van Dijk, eds., Mainz, 2006, pp. 248-249, no. 3.58, illus.

Very good and as shown, tip of nose broken off, area of scratches on proper left front of wig, wig abraded next to proper right ear, minor nicks overall difficult to distinguish from natural flaws in the stone, remains of black pigment on eyes and cosmetic lines, traces of red pigment on top and proper left side of wig
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The author writes (Objects for Eternity, p. 248): "This transversely broken fragment of a face comes from an anthropoid stone sarcophagus and is of extraordinarily fine quality. The symmetrically modelled features of the face, which is intact except for the broken tip of the nose, resemble sculpture from the beginning of the 4th Century B.C. and can be compared with two idealizing statues, one of which depicts Nectanebo I while the other can be attributed to him as well (see J.A. Josephson, Egyptian Royal Sculpture of the Late Period, 400-246 B.C., Mainz am Rhein, 1997, p. 8, pl. 3b, and p. 26, pl. 9b). A line carved in fine shallow relief marks the upper eyelid and the elongated cosmetic line, while a gently raised edge under the sunken eyeball marks the lower eyelid. The eyebrows are carved in shallow relief. They slope slightly towards their outer ends, and their inner ends form an inverted triangle with the root of the nose (cf. The similarly shaped eyebrows in Josephson, op. cit., p. 7, pl. 2a). A fine sharp edge outlines the full lips. Drill holes at the corners of the mouth and an undercut lower lip characterize Egyptian sculpture from the 30th Dynasty on. The philtrum is indicated and the nostrils are drilled out. A voluminous, slightly projecting wig, only the lower part of which is preserved beneath the right shoulder, frames the face. The transverse break starts at the left ear and ends beneath the right shoulder (...).

Anthropoid stone sarcophagi contained the mummy, covered by body-cases of cartonnage or resting in an inner wooden anthropoid coffin. Some well-preserved examples suggest that facial details like eyelids, eyebrows and the iris were accentuated in colour. In the group of well-preserved sarcophagi, both uninscribed and inscribed examples can be found. In some cases the original texts of sarcophagi which now appear to be uninscribed may have been washed off. As far as the repertoire of texts on this type of sarcophagus is concerned, there is a clear preference for spells from the Book of the Dead, especially Spell 72 or the speeches of the Sons of Horus. The owners of Late Period limestone sarcophagi usually bear titles belonging to the higher ranks of the administration, the military or the clergy."

For related examples see M.L. Buhl, The Late Egyptian Anthropoid Sarcophagi, Copenhagen, 1959, pp. 70-71, 76-82; figs. 32, 38-39, 41-43; nos. Eb5, Eb10-11, Eb15, Eb17-18; cf. also Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek AEIN 1039: O. Koefoed-Petersen, Catalogue des sarcophages et cercueils égyptiens, Copenhagen, 1951, p. 38, pl. LXXXVI; M. Jorgensen, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Catalogue Egypt III, Copenhagen, 2001, pp. 254-255, pl. 12.