Sarcophagus. Ancient Egypt, Third Intermediate Period, 22th Dynasty, 945 - 754 BC. Wood, Stucco and Pigment. 181 cm height, 52 cm width and 33 cm depth. Condition: Good condition, it has been restored in some areas of the polychrome, preserving all the original parts. Provenance: - Bert Schneider Gallery, Schaffhausen, Switzerland, since the 1980s. - Private collection, R.W., Switzerland. Acquired in 2015. Documents: Attached is a study on the antiquity of the piece issued by an Egyptologist. Description: An anthropomorphic sarcophagus carved from a single block of Lebanese cedar, split in two and hollowed out to form the bowl and lid. These are joined together by a tongue-and-groove joint system, with the eight locking points common to this type of sarcophagus. This construction from a single piece of wood is rare and indicates that it is a work of great value; sarcophagi were normally made from planks, given the scarcity of wood in Egypt. A plaster mortar has been applied over the carved surface, serving as a base for the black color that dominates the decoration. This black pigment was the only one of plant origin in the Egyptian palette and was obtained by burning wheat and barley straw in a reducing atmosphere (closed furnace) after harvesting. Black was a deeply symbolic color in Egypt, identified with the dark, fertile silt formed by the annual flooding of the Nile. It is therefore associated with the hope of a future harvest, the cycle of agricultural regeneration, and therefore with the skin of Osiris, the god of the dead. The use of black on sarcophagi thus sought to assimilate the deceased with the god, in order to ensure their rebirth in the Afterlife (fig. 1). On this black background, the lid features ochre inscriptions and a raised face, painted in a light pink tone with white eyeballs and black brushstrokes on the eyes, eyebrows, and ear profiles. The deceased wears a tripartite wig and a long, false Osirian beard, both also in black. His torso is completely covered by a nine-stranded ushek ("wide") necklace, alternating geometric motifs with rosettes and blue lotus flowers. Beneath the necklace is a representation of the falcon god Horus, his wings spread in a sign of protection, holding two shen symbols in his talons, a rope ring representing wholeness, the eternally united. On the left is a very deteriorated image of the goddess Isis, still identifiable thanks to the throne on her headdress. Beneath Horus's wings is a starry band representing the sky, the realm of the falcon god. The lower half of the lid is organized into registers to house hieroglyphic writing and images, delimited by plain lines and baguettes. The central part is occupied by four narrow, parallel, vertical registers that would have housed the main texts (fig. 2). However, only the lower part of three of them shows traces of writing, where one can read "Offering made by the king to Osiris who presides over the West, great god...", repeated twice (it appears a third time on the vat). The square registers on the sides originally depicted the four sons of Horus, arranged symmetrically, but only the images of Duamutef, protected by the goddess Neith, and Hapy, with the goddess Nephthys, remain. On the sides of the lid are the inscriptions "Osiris, who presides over the Western god..." / "Words spoken by..." / "Osiris...". The vat is also richly polychromed, on the sides and the base. The upper part of the latter depicts the head seen from behind, with the wig of well-defined, geometrically arranged curls. Below it is what appears to be a dorsal pillar, with a border of triangles at its top. Below it is a platform that could represent an offering tray, from which emerge two ram's horns and two ostrich feathers (symbols of Maat, goddess of truth) flanking a red sun disk, a representation of the god Ra. On either side of the feathers, two cobras wearing the sun disk protect Ra. On the platform are two similar, smaller cobras, facing outwards to protect against any external threat. At the bottom of this dorsal pillar, the trunk of a palm tree can still be seen, flanked by long red ribbons, identified by their color with the bandages used for mummification. In his study of this sarcophagus, Fernando Estrada points out an interesting anomaly. It is a piece made of a rich, luxurious material, a single piece of Lebanese cedar wood. Such a material would only have passed through the hands of the finest masters, but both the figures and the texts are rather sloppy. Furthermore, the registers are clearly drawn but remain largely blank. This can be related to the practice, during Egyptian Antiquity, of reusing sarcophagi stolen from unguarded ancient tombs. In these cases, texts alluding to the sarcophagus's original owner were eliminated: proper names were corrected, but sacred formulas were not erased or altered, since doing so would have meant an affront to the gods. Thus, here all texts would have been erased except for purely religious ones, although it is particularly strange that the old names were not replaced with new ones, leaving the registers empty, given that no one would use a sarcophagus on which their name did not appear. Estrada points out that it is possible, therefore, that this sarcophagus was a stolen specimen that had been deposited in a workshop, awaiting sale to a new owner. This fact would explain the exceptional nature of this piece, given that many other recovered sarcophagi are known, but few if any show this state prior to the change of ownership, and even more so in the case of a particularly sumptuous specimen. One of the few comparable examples currently preserved in New York is dated between the end of the 21st Dynasty and the beginning of the 22nd Dynasty (fig. 3). Regarding the dating of the sarcophagus, Estrada places it in the 22nd Dynasty based on its material quality and also on the large size of the ushek collar (which determines the type of sarcophagus known as the "stole") and the appearance of the small platform or offering table on the dorsal pillar. After the death of Ramses III, a member of the 20th Dynasty and the last pharaoh of the New Kingdom, and the disastrous times of the 21st Dynasty, when Egypt fragmented and lost its foreign prestige, the country did not begin to recover until the reign of Sheshonq I, the Libyan founder of the 22nd Dynasty. Thanks to this pharaoh, and for several successive generations, Egypt would once again enjoy its lost hegemony, as evidenced by the boom in foreign trade, especially with regard to the much-needed timbers from Lebanon. Bibliography: - LIPTAY, E. Coffins and Coffin Fragments of the Thrid Intermediate Period. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest. 2011. - SOUSA, R. Gilded Flesh: Coffins and Afterlife in Ancient Egypt. Oxbow Books. 2019. - TAYLOR, J.H. Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt. University of Chicago Press. 2001. Parallels: Fig. 1 Sarcophagus and inner coffin of Bes. Egypt, Third Intermediate Period, 22nd–24th Dynasties, c. 945–700 BC. Stuccoed and polychrome wood. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, inv. 72.4823b, c. Fig. 1 Sarcophagus and inner coffin of Bes. Egypt, Third Intermediate Period, 22nd–24th Dynasties, c. 945–700 BC. Stuccoed and polychrome wood. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, inv. 72.4823b, c. Fig. 2 Sarcophagus of Kerpetchtiti. Egypt, Third Intermediate Period, dynasties XXII-XXVI, c. 760-526 BC Stuccoed and polychrome wood. Musée du Louvre, Paris, inv. E 3987; D.86.2.24. Fig. 3 Stole sarcophagus without ownership inscriptions. Egypt, Third Intermediate Period, 21st–22nd Dynasties, c. 975–950 BC. Stuccoed and polychrome wood. Metropolitan Museum, New York, inv. 90.6.120a, b. Notes: - The piece includes authenticity certificate. - The piece includes Spanish Export License (Passport for European Union) - If the piece is destined outside the European Union a substitution of the export permit should be requested, can take between 1-2 weeks maximum. - The seller guarantees that he acquired this piece according to all national and international laws related to the ownership of cultural property. Provenance statement seen by Catawiki.