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A Gilded-Silver Pendant of Nephthys Naming Mereskhonsu [Pl

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A Gilded-Silver Pendant of Nephthys Naming Mereskhonsu [Pl A GILDED-SILVER PENDANT OF NEPHTHYS NAMING MERESKHONSU [PL. I-II] BY MARSHA HILL Department of Egyptian Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art – NEW YORK With an appended technical examination by DEBORAH SCHORSCH The Metropolitan Museum of Art recently acquired a small gilded silver statuette of the seated goddess Nephthys with a loop behind her crown and an inscription beneath the base.1 The statuette belongs to the group of “temple pendants” to which Olivier Perdu has recently drawn attention, and which has been supplemented and further explored in more recent contributions.2 The small temple pendant of Nephthys has not previously been known and offers an additional reference point for discussing the dedication and purpose of such an object.3 1 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2014.259, Purchase, Liana Weindling Gift, 2014. “Temple pendant of the goddess Nephthys,” “Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 2012–2014.” MMAB (fall 2014), p. 6. I am grateful to Diana Craig Patch, Lila Acheson Wallace Curator in-charge of the Department of Egyptian Art at the Museum, and to Liana Weindling, a good friend of the department, for their enthusiasm for the statuette. 2 O. Perdu, “Des pendentifs en guise d’ex-voto,” RdE 54 (2003), p. 155-166; M. Hill – D. Schorsch (eds.), Giftsfor theGods:imagesfromEgyptiantemples (exh. cat. New York), 2007, p. 84-89; Fr. Payraudeau, “Un socle de triade au nom de Takélot II (Caire JE 25672),” RdE 61 (2010), p. 201-207; R. Meffre, “Remarques à propos du texte de la triade d’Osorkon II (Louvre E 6204), avec en annexe une liste récapitulative des dénommés Di-aset-heb-sed,” RdE 64 (2013), p. 41-61. 3 The statuette had been in the collection of Mrs. Henry Walters, Baltimore and New York, from whom it was pur- chased by Joseph Brummer on March 15, 1941 (Brummer Galleries Archive online at http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/ cdm/landingpage/collection/p16028coll9, no. N5081). It subsequently appeared in the second Brummer sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, May 11-14, 1949, as part of lot 17 (the so-called silver standing Isis in the same lot has a different history, and the silver wedjat is not traced). In 1977 it was sold by one Samuel Rulnick at Sotheby’s New York on May 21 as lot 338, dated 22nd-26th dynasties, subsequently entering the Symes/Michaelides collection. It was then obtained by the Rupert Wace Ancient-Art Ltd. from the Michaelides estate in 2010, and eventually sold to the museum. Mrs. Walters was the wife of the collector Henry Walters, and the purchase of the Nephthys presumably predated his death in 1931. More than that it is difficult to speculate as Walters traveled and bought widely; for a study of Walters, see W. R. Johnston, WilliamandHenryWalters:thereticentcollectors, 1999. Revued’égyptologie66, 33-49. doi : 10.2143/RE.66.0.3149545 Tous droits réservés © Revue d’égyptologie, 2015. 34 M. HILL Description The statuette (pl. I-II) measures only 6 cm high and shows the goddess Nephthys seated on a now mostly missing block throne, which rests on a plinth of thick metal sheet. Coiffure and dress follow very ancient models, as is appropriate for a goddess. On her head the goddess wears a modius surrounded by uraeus cobras, and above that rises a version of her hieroglyphic symbol: the sign for a ḥwt-building is comprised of a slightly narrowing rectangle surrounded by a block-border and with a door depicted against the left upright of the rectangle. Not far above the upper edge of the door, the metal is broken away so that the nb-basket normally found atop the ḥwt sign is missing. Behind the ḥwt sign, in the right angle formed with the top of the modius, is a loop composed of two thick vertically-placed rings. The goddess wears a striated tripartite wig banded along its lower margin and beautifully rounded where it is tucked behind her ears and where its lower margin passes over her shoulder. Her face is rather round, her eyes and brows have cosmetic strips running to either side, and the pupils are raised. Her eyes and cheeks are prominent. Two narrow horizontal creases pass across her throat beneath her jaw. Broad shoulders and a high rounded breast lead into a body slim at the waist and hips. The dress is form-fitting, its presence discernable only by the horizontal hemline, and she wears a simple broad collar composed of a double upper border, two strands of tube beads, and a row of pendants. Her forearms rest on her legs, her right fist vertical and her left horizontal. The back upper edge of the throne on which she sits rises slightly behind her seated figure. The throne itself is mostly missing, and was certainly not solid like the figure of the goddess. Traces of its decoration remain: a vertical Egyptian block border is particularly visible on the front directly beside the goddess’s right leg, and a feather pattern and rem- nants of a block border can just be seen with the naked eye on the right side of the throne. The underside of the plinth on which the throne rests is inscribed in two columns, read from right to left and front to back in relation to the statue (pl. II). Dd-mdwỉnNbt-Ḥwtsmnḫ(t)r’w-prdỉt῾nḫwdꜢsnb῾ḥ῾q῾ỉnMr-s(t)-ḫnswmꜢ῾ ḫrw Recitation by Nephthys who embellishes chapels, who gives life, prosperity, health, and a long life to Mereskhonsu, justified. Two features of the inscription warrant comment. The use of dd-mdwỉnwithout a fol- lowing direct statement is discussed by Karl Jansen-Winkeln, who notes there are instances where a participle absorbs the substance of the direct statement as here.4 Moreover, before engaging in trying to understand and contextualize this small piece, it is important to cite 4 K. Jansen-Winkeln, TextundSpracheinder3.Zwischenzeit.VorarbeitenzueinerspätmittelägyptischenGrammatik (ÄAT 26), 1994, p. 100-101. I thank Niv Allon for the reference. RdE 66 (2015) A GILDED-SILVER PENDANT OF NEPHTHYS NAMING MERESKHONSU 35 Erhart Graefe’s rule of thumb for understanding the use of “justified,” noted and further demonstrated by Carola Koch: in genealogical contexts the phrases living or justified con- trast living and deceased, but on donation pieces and in isolated uses the words serve only as a kind of blessing.5 Commentary The statuette’s figural style is attributable to the later 8th and first half of the 7th centuries BC, that is, to the period of Kushite style. The seated image of the goddess appears occa- sionally before the Late Period in her Osirian role, but goes out of vogue with the Late Period under the influence of the ubiquitous funerary amulets of Isis and Nephthys.6 Relatively broad shoulders and narrow waist are characteristic of small bronze female god- desses and Divine Consorts of the period,7 as are tear-drop navel depressions.8 Nephthys’ particularly high and shelf-like breasts emphasize her square shoulders and recall the high pectorals of the bronze statuette of Shabaqo9 and other statuettes that relate to Old Kingdom models. The round face is typical of the Kushite period. And, as often, the eyeballs are curved around a vertical axis, and more or less the same axis is continued by the prominence of the cheeks.10 Her raised pupils are frequently employed in Third Intermediate Period metal stat- uary, but raised or marked pupils are rarely seen thereafter.11 The creases across the throat, which are, of course, characteristic of Egyptian sculpture from the late 18th dynasty through pre-Kushite dynasties of the Third Intermediate Period when New Kingdom models were prevalent, are usually thought to have disappeared with the Kushite dynasty; in fact, they 5 See C. Koch,“DiedenAmunmitihrerStimmezufriedenstellen”:GottesgemahlinnenundMusikerinnenimthebani- schenAmunstaatvonder22.Biszur26.Dynastie (SRaT 27), 2012, p. 47, citing p. 46 in E. Graefe, “Stellung, Familie und Herkunft des ‘Anch-Hor,” in M. Bietak – E. Reiser Haslauer, DasGrabdes‘Anch-Hor, I, 1978, p. 41-54. For the history of writings/meanings as here with the plant classifier, see B. Gessler-Löhr, “Zur Schreibung von mꜢ῾ ḫrwmit der Blume,” GM 116 (1990), p. 25-43, usefully posted on Wortdiskussionen https://aegyptologie.unibas.ch/werkzeuge/wortdiskus- sionen. 6 C. Andrews,AmuletsofAncientEgypt, 1994, p. 48. 7 Neith from the Heraion, Archaeological Museum, Vathy, Samos, Greece B354, see M. Hill, op. cit., p. 108-109; Princess or Divine Consort, Brooklyn Museum, 1999.110, see B. V. Bothmer, “Egyptian Antiquities,” in Antiquitiesfrom theCollectionofChristosG.Bastis, 1987, p. 36-38. 8 For this feature in sculpture of these women, see E. R. Russmann, “Sculptural Representations of the 26th Dynasty Divine Consorts of Amun, Nitokris and Ankhnesneferibre,” in M. Eldamaty – M. Trad (eds.), EgyptianMuseumCollections aroundtheWorld, 2002, p. 1037-1038. 9 M. Hill, RoyalBronzeStatuaryfromAncientEgypt,withSpecialAttentiontotheKneelingPose, 2004, pl. 29. 10 About the head probably depicting Shabaqo, London, British Museum EA 63833, E. R. Russmann (ed.), Eternal Egypt:MasterworksofAncientArtfromtheBritishMuseum, exh. cat., 2001, p. 223-225, comments on p. 223, “It is broad, with full cheeks bulging along the line between nose and mouth.” See also Athens, National Archaeological Museum ANE 624, as described by Hill, 2004, p. 60. 11 M. Hill, op.cit., 2004, p. 30 n. 40. RdE 66 (2015) 36 M. HILL continue to be a feature in certain temple reliefs and temple ritual statuary, all created in the environment of huge New Kingdom temples. So, while at first surprising, the feature is a nice marker of the environment in which the piece was created.12 The style of the inscription bears remark. The signs are handsomely and precisely drawn with ample space: some have the thickness and detail characteristic of monumental inscrip- tions, while others are more simply incised.13 Certain signs are formed in ways that are ornamental even to the extent of subverting the image underlying the sign: the n-sign, normally a zigzag replicating waves of water, looks like a tightly twisted strip of ribbon; the s-sign, the image of a horizontal bolt passing through two catches, is decomposed into two discontinuous elements.
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