The Boston Green Head is a
greywacke
Greywacke or graywacke ( ) is a variety of sandstone generally characterized by its hardness (6–7 on Mohs scale), dark color, and Sorting (sediment), poorly sorted angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments or sand-size Lith ...
sculptured head of an Egyptian priest from the
Late Period of ancient Egypt
The Late Period of ancient Egypt refers to the last flowering of native Egyptian rulers after the Third Intermediate Period in the 26th Saite Dynasty founded by Psamtik I, but includes the time of Achaemenid Persian rule over Egypt after the ...
. The head is dated to 380–332 BC
and is housed in the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...
, United States.
Provenance
The head is believed to have been found in 1858 at the
Serapeum of Saqqara
The Serapeum of Saqqara was the ancient Egyptian burial place for sacred bulls of the Apis cult at Memphis. It was believed that the bulls were incarnations of the god Ptah, which would become immortal after death as ''Osiris-Apis'', a name w ...
.
Later,
Muhammed Said Pasha, a pro-French
viceroy of Egypt
The Ottoman Empire's governors of Egypt from 1517 to 1805 were at various times known by different but synonymous titles, among them ''beylerbey'', viceroy, governor, governor-general, or, more generally, ''wāli''. Furthermore, the Ottoman sult ...
, gave it to Prince
Napoleon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte.
In 1904, the head was purchased by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts from
Edward Perry Warren.
See also
*
Berlin Green Head
References
Further reading
*
*
*{{cite book, last=von Bothmer, first=Bernard, title=Egyptian Sculpture of the Late Period, 700 B.C. to A.D. 100, editor-first=Elizabeth, editor-last=Riefstahl, editor-link=Elizabeth Titzel Riefstahl, year=1960, publisher=The brooklyn Museum (reprinted by Arno Press, INC., 1969), location=Brooklyn, New York, pages=138–140; pls. 100–101
1858 archaeological discoveries
4th-century BC artifacts
Sculptures of ancient Egypt
Sculptures in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Archaeological discoveries in Egypt
4th-century BC sculptures
Sculptures of men in Massachusetts