Rare Antique Ancient Egyptian Silver Statue God Amun Father Gods 1750 - 1640BC
Item History & Price
Reference Number: Avaluer:2998 | Material: Silver |
Provenance: Luxor |
Gold was considered to be the skin of the ancient Egyptian gods, but their bones were thought to be of silver. When silver was introduced at Ancient Egypt, it probably was more valuable than gold. It continued to be rare, and on lists of valuables, items of silver were listed above those of gold during the Old Kingdom. Jewelry made of silver was almost always thinner than gold pieces, as indicated by the bracelets of the 4th Dynasty queen Hetephere I, in marked contras...t to the extravagance of her gold jewelry. A silver treasure excavated at the site ofTod comprised vessels probably made in Crete, or perhaps somewhere in Asia but under Cretan influence. This cache dates to the reign of Amenemhat II who ruled during the 12th Dynasty, and is roughly contemporaneous with the finds of fine silver jewelry at el-Lahun and Dahshur. However, by the Middle Kingdom at Ancient Egypt, silver may probably have been considered less valuable than gold. By this time, there was perhaps a much better supply of the metal. According the Papyrus, which was written in the Second Intermediate Period but perhaps composed originally during the 12th Dynasty, silver had acquired a value approximately half that of gold. By the 18th dynasty silver and copper had been established as a mostly abstract means of exchange, with silver continuing to be worth about half its weight in gold. It was imported into Egypt from western Asia and the Mediterranean. In fact, by the New Kingdom onwards, there was a readily available supply of silver. Nevertheless, studies of metal prices between the 12th and 19th Dynasties seem to indicate that its price remained relatively constant at about half the value of gold. Copper was valued at about one-hundredth the value of silver. Interestingly, demand seems to have not always played a major role in the price of silver. For example, there was little silver found in the tomb of Tutankhamun, perhaps because there was an abundance of the material, though perhaps it may have had something to do with personal, religious or artistic preferences at that specific point in time. The rulers of the 21st and 22nd Dynasty, who were buried at Tanis used considerably more silver in their burials. Sheshonq II had a solid silver coffin with gilded details in the form of the hawk-god, Sokar. Silver, generally treated much like gold and electrum, could also be stained black using sulphur. This niello was occasionally applied as decoration. Beaten into sheets, silver was used to plate copper and other materials, especially mirror surfaces. Interestingly, silver also acted as a valuation for exchange. Perhaps as early as the Middle Kingdom, the values of commodities such as bread, beer, clothing and just about every other item available for trade had their values expressed in comparable units based on the weight of precious metals. The shat (seniu, Sna or shena) was originally a flat silver disk. It came to denote about 7.5 or 7.6g of silver. A deben, or kit, was a weight of 90 to 91g. It should be noted that the shat was always used as a unit of value and not as a weight for other purposes, while the deben was used in such a manner. This does not imply that coinage was in use, but these weights were used to express abstract values in contracts, trade and bookkeeping. At the end of the 18th dynasty a goat, for example, cost one half of a shat of silver, a cow was eight shat and a typical house cost ten shat of silver. A male slave could bring seven deben of silver, while a female slave might bring four deben. However, items could and frequently were also be expressed in the form of copper, and sometimes gold.
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