An Egyptian Granite or Basalt Healing Block Statue Fragment, Late Period, circa 4th Century B.C.

purchased in Egypt in 1949 by J. A. Patterson

acquired by the current owner at the estate sale of the above in 2021

An undated photograph of the present lot taken by French Egyptologist Serge Sauneron (1927-1976) when the object was on the Cairo antiquities market is part of the "Base de données Sculpture égyptienne d'époque tardive" (about this project see https://www.ifao.egnet.net/recherche/operations/op17224/). We are grateful to Olivier Perdu for this information.

The present fragment is very likely to have been part of a healing/magical block statue similar to the famous one of Djedhor the Saviour in the Cairo Museum, JE 46341. Water would have been poured over the apotropaic inscriptions covering the statue and collected in a basin primarily to protect against poisonous bites (see P. Lacau, "Les statues 'guérisseuses' dans l'Égypte ancienne," Monuments et mémoires de la Fondation Eugène Piot, vol. 25, 1921, pp. 189-210, incl. the first publication of the statue of Djedhor: https://www.persee.fr/doc/piot_1148-6023_1921_num_25_1_1824). For another fragment from this type of block statue, see the head formerly in the Christos Bastis collection sold The Christos G. Bastis Collection; Sotheby’s, New York, December 9th, 1999, no. 23.