Nile Oxyrhynchus - Late Period

Oxyrhynchus (Medjed) Fish Figurine - Late Period / Ptolemaic tradition; 1st century BC.

Cast bronze figurine representing an oxyrhynchus fish (a fish associated with the cult of Per-medjed/Oxyrhynchos), depicted with a tapered snout and a dorsal crest. The fish wears a solar disk flanked by cow horns, a type of divine headdress closely associated with Hathor and also used in Isiac iconography. It has tin-inlaid eyes set in silver, with surviving traces of a gold mount beneath the solar disk.
The patina is green with concretions. The caudal fin is broken.
The sculpture is mounted on a wooden base (see dimensions below).

The oxyrhynchus fish appears in Egyptian material culture both as a cult image and as a votive motif. Research and museum archives associate this type of figurine with the cult context of Oxyrhynchos (Per-medjed), where venerated fish are attested by texts and bronze representations.

Dimensions: length 14 cm; height 7.5 cm (without base) and 9.5 cm (with base)
Provenance: former private collection of Dr. Hans Halter (Switzerland), acquired before 1966; present in the EU since 2006

Museums

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art — inv. 04.2.660 — Oxyrhynchus fish — https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/570228
• British Museum — EA65682 — figure (Oxyrhynchus fish, disc and horn headdress) — https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA65682
• Musée du Louvre — E 18547 — figurine (oxyrhynchus; with bail) — https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010004845
• Musée du Louvre — N 4014 A — pendant; figurine (mormyrus; oxyrhynchus; with bail) — https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010010469
• Musée du Louvre — N 4014 A — pendant; figurine (mormyra; oxyrhynchus; with bail) — https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010010469
• The Walters Art Museum — 54.2125 — Oxyrhynchus Fish — https://art.thewalters.org/object/54.2125/
• Virginia Museum of Fine Arts — (Pope Object Number 2001.247) — Sacred Fish with a Crown of Isis — https://vmfa.museum/artworks/sacred-fish-with-a-crown-of-isis-57638

Bibliographic sources

• Van Neer, W. & Gonzalez, J. (2019) — A Late Period fish deposit at Oxyrhynchus (el-Bahnasa, Egypt) (PDF) — https://library.naturalsciences.be/pdfs-open-access/2019/van_neer_gonzalez_2019_oxyrhynchus.pdf
• Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride (Moralia) — PDF (English translation, from the Loeb edition) — https://robscholtemuseum.nl/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Plutarch-Isis-and-Osiris.pdf