Furniture Element in Form of a Lion Seated on a Base Inscribed for King Aspelta

Wooden furniture element or part of a temple ornament carved in the form of a lion seated on a base. An inscription running down the front of the mane contains the titles and name Aspelta, King of Kush, (Nubia), at the time of the campaign of the Egyptian King Psamtik II against the Kushites. It was perhaps then brought to Egypt. The lion is coarsely carved and the body is elongated with the tail curved around the left haunch. The mane is represented by; a protruding disk shaped area around the face with hair indicated by zig-zag lines, a bib-like front mane reaching past the knees and scored horizontally and another portion covering the back of the head from top to shoulders with an overlapping zig-zag pattern. The piece seems to have been covered with plaster perhaps and then possibly painted.Condition: Good. A crack on the left side of base running with the grain, a chip on the corner, back right side.