ca. 945–600 BCE · Third Intermediate Period–Late Period · Dynasty 22–early Dynasty 26
Ptah, the craftsman god of Memphis, holds a was-scepter in a tight mummy-form body: creation as skilled work.
Mercury 91 is not affiliated with The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Images and object data shown here are public-domain Open Access (CC0) records from The Met collection. Citations are given so you can visit each work on the museum site.
Ptah creates by thinking and speaking, like a master who already sees the finished object. Memphis was a city of workshops. This cult image is that civic theology in a compact, wrapped body.
If Thoth is the scribe, Ptah is the shop. Mercury 91’s creative tools are not named here because this page is not a feature lander. The honest link is older: making is sacred when it is exact.
The skullcap and straight beard are Ptah’s uniform. You recognize him the way you recognize a planet by color. Iconography is a sky of costumes.
Late cult bronzes and stone images kept Memphis present even when political capitals moved. Ptah in this gallery is a reminder that Egyptian cosmos had factories as well as night boats.
Citation
Cult Image of the God Ptah. ca. 945–600 BCE. Lapis lazuli. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 2007.24. Anne and John V. Hansen Egyptian Purchase Fund, 2007
Public-domain Open Access (CC0) photograph. Dimensions: Figure: H. 5.2 × W. 1.8 cm × D. 1.1 cm (2 1/16 × 11/16 × 7/16 in.); Dais: H. 0.4 × W. 1.0 cm × D. 1.6 cm (3/16 × 3/8 × 5/8 in)
