Antelope Head from a Ceremonial Boat

This finely carved antelope’s head, once affixed to the prow of a sacred ceremonial boat, hails from the hushed sanctuaries of an Egyptian temple. Hewn from hard stone (perhaps diorite or greywacke) it would have adorned a ritual barque, gliding not upon the Nile but along the sacred imaginations of the priests who summoned the gods through rite and relic.

Such boats were devoted to Sokar, the ancient god of the necropolis, a deity deeply entwined with death, rebirth, and the mysteries of the underworld. Sokar, often represented as a mummified falcon or a man with a falcon’s head, was a guardian of the Memphite necropolis and later associated with Osiris and Ptah in triune form. In temple processions, Sokar’s barque (often featuring antelope-head prows) was carried reverently on festival days, a symbolic ferrying of the divine through the realms of the living and the dead.

The antelope itself held a curious prestige in the visual lexicon of Ancient Egypt. Graceful and swift, the creature embodied elegance, vitality, and a harmony with the wild deserts that framed Egypt’s fertile heart. In artistic renderings, antelopes appear in scenes of tribute, desert hunts, and temple ornamentation. They were at once offerings, symbols of agility, and creatures of the threshold; standing between the cultivated Nile Valley and the mysteries beyond.

A Sokar boat bearing a near-identical prow is famously painted upon the inner coffin of the official Kharushere (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 86.1.33a, b), where the antelope head extends forth as if leading the soul into the realms of eternal renewal.

This fragmentary head, therefore, is not merely decorative, it is a poignant vestige of sacred theatre, embodying the elegance of the animal world, the metaphysics of death, and the eternal voyage of the soul.

Summary:

Greywacke head of an antelope, with Egyptian Alabaster and travertine & agate inlays

Late Period, 27th Dynasty, c. 525–404 B.C.

Likely from Memphis.

Purchased from Peter Sharrer, Ancient Art Inc, New Jersey, 1992. Before that Charles Ede Limited, London, and before that Mieke Zilverberg Kunsthandel, Amsterdam who acquired the piece from a German private collection.