Falcon Casket

Place CreatedEgypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodLate Period

Date722-332 BCE

MediumBronze

Credit LineGift of the Georges Ricard Foundation

Dimensions8 1/16 x 2 11/16 x 9 15/16 in., 2 kg 420 g (20.4 x 6.9 x 25.2 cm, 5 lb. 5 3/8 oz.)

Object number2018.010.108A

Label TextIn the 1st millennium, animal cults became increasingly popular. The ancient Egyptians worshiped certain animals as the embodiments of a god’s power on earth. Falcons represented the god Horus and his various cultic forms. Falcons were bred at sites such as the sacred animal necropolises at Saqqara and Abusir. Pilgrims could purchase ritually sacrificed and mummified falcons contained within metal coffins to present as offerings to the cults of Horus.

Horus rests on a rectangular box as a shrine with cornice molding. The god wears a double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, with the curling element of the lower Egyptian crown intact. The feathering and the rough skin of the falcon’s talons are carefully incised. The fierce expression of the raptor is rendered with unusual intensity. The panel at the rear end of the shrine could be removed to place the mummified falcon inside the casket.
Exhibition HistoryMichael C. Carlos Museum, Veneralia 2019 Senuseret Collection Preview, May 18, 2019
Life and the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Art from the Senusret Collection, Michael C. Carlos Museum, February 4 - August 6, 2023
Published ReferencesMelinda K. Hartwig, ed., Life and The Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Art from the Senusret Collection (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2023), catalogue entry 54.

ProvenanceSaid to be ex coll. Lord George Talbot. Ex coll. Georges Ricard Foundation, Santa Barbara, California, possibly purchased from Roger Fernand Galliano, Paris, France.

Status

Not on view

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