An Osiris-Shaped Papyrus Sheath in the Náprstek Museum

This article revisits and expands upon Břetislav Vachala’s 1981 study of a wooden Osiris-shaped papyrus sheath from the collections of the Náprstek Museum. It incorporates newly discovered information regarding the object’s provenance and provenience. The object has been dated to the Twenty-first to Twenty-second Dynasties (ca. 11th–10th centuries BCE) and classified as Subtype II-D according to Raven’s typology. A particularly exceptional feature of the sheath is the sagittal division of the Osiris figure, intended to facilitate the insertion of the scroll into the statue. Typically, such statues were sawn transversely

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Biology · Osiris · Papyrus · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology · Ancient Near East History · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History