Burial and Mortuary Practices in Late Period and Graeco-Roman Egypt (Budapest, Hungary, 2014)

Burial and Mortuary Practices in Late Period and Graeco-Roman Egypt International Conference organised by the Egyptian Department of the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, and held on 17–19 July 2014 The aim of the Conference was to present and discuss recent research and current themes on (human and animal) Egyptian burial and mortuary practices from the Late Period onwards. Presented paper: Ptah-Sokar-Osiris figures: evolving tradition through space and time Wooden funerary figures representing the deceased with the features of the triune god Ptah-Sokar-Osiris became a distinctive element in the funerary furniture of elite burials dating from the Third Intermediate Period onwards.

Such artefacts, usually placed next to the coffin and inscribed with specific invocations, were considered an element of deep connection with the deceased, granting her/him resurrection and life everlasting beyond death. The custom of placing Ptah-Sokar-Osiris figures inside the tombs reaches a climax during the Late and Ptolemaic periods during which they were often mass-produced, falling eventually into disuse with the approaching of the Roman era.