Day 24 - Greywackle antelope head


February 19, 2018


This galley (123) spans many centuries and dynasties. Its objecta range from massive sculptures to small statuettes to reliefs covered with hieroglyphs to an incredibly well preserved, highly colored papyrus scroll. I feel like I'm taking the easy way out by writing about something relatively straightforward, this six-inch long head of what I take to be a sheep but is, according to the caption, an antelope. (What do I know?) But it's irresistible.  It's sculpted of a stone called greywackle; its eyes are inlaid with alabaster and agate. It dates from Dynasty 27, ca. 525-404 B.C., which is in itself a long time span for a dynasty, it seems to me.

The muzzle is really wonderful, with its flattened nose and nostrils and cleft upper lip and well-modeled  cheekbones and eye sockets. I can't decide whether the sheep/antelope looks wise or as stupid as we kind of expect these animals to be. It really does look lke it's smiling. Happy but stupid,  maybe, if it' smiling when its final destination is a sacrificial altar. Oh, the bliss of being unaware of one's mortality.

The caption says that boats with antelope heads at the prow were sacred to the god Sokat. Another Egyptian god I've never heard of. 

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