Falcon-Headed God in Pose of "Soul of Pe"

In ancient Egypt, the gods who attended the pharaoh, especially at rituals associated with coronations and periodic ceremonies of royal renewal, included supernatural spirits from much earlier, prehistoric times. Among these very ancient spiritual beings were the souls of Pe and Dep, falcon- and jackal-headed male figures represented as balancing on one knee with one fist clenched on the chest and the other raised. This bronze statuette of a soul of Pe was once part of a group of such figures made for an altar in a temple sanctuary. Its eyes and the recessed strips of its divine wig were formerly inlaid with colored stones or glass. The surface of the body has been deliberately roughened, perhaps to help secure an overlay of sheet gold.