A child god, probably Harpokrates

Unknown

1st century B.C. or earlier · Leaded bronze, formerly gilded · Egyptian Art

This small statuette of a child god was found in the catacombs of the Falcon Complex in the Sacred Animal Necropolis at North Saqqara, where offerings made in the shrine were buried after an undetermined period. Inscribed material suggests this branch of the catacombs was sealed in about 89 B.C., dating the statuette to that time or earlier. Although child gods are difficult to distinguish from one another in the absence of an inscription or highly specific iconography, the falcon spread across the back of this figure's headcloth tends to support his identification with Horus-the-Child, that is, Harpokrates, as indeed does the particular deposit context at Saqqara, since falcon was the sacred animal of Horus.

Artist

Unknown

Date

1st century B.C. or earlier

Medium

Leaded bronze, formerly gilded

Department

Egyptian Art

Credit line

The Adelaide Milton de Groot Fund, in memory of the de Groot and Hawley families, 1976