Knife handle made from bone. The head of handle is carved in a shape of royal woman with the vulture cap, the cow horns, a solar-disk and a uraei-kalathos. The tripartite wig like this is usually associated with goddess Hathor or Isis.
We cannot be sure is it the ancient artefact or maybe handle of paper knife made during the 19th or the beginning of the 20th century under the influence of Egyptomania. It is possible that the artefact was brought to Sesvete in Požega valley by some Roman legionnaire from Palestine, Nubia or Egypt.
Catalogue entry
Knife bone handle with Hathor or Isis image Gradski muzej Požega inv. no. GMP 21.628 Sesvete-Grabarje, May, 1979 Ancient Egypt or modern replica 332 B.C.-395 A.D. or 19th-20th c. bone 10.6 x 2.6 x 0.3 cm Mirko Plešić, 1979
Resources
Sokač-Štimac, Dubravka. "Izložba arheološkog blaga Požeške kotline". Vijesti muzealaca i konzervatora Hrvatske XXIX/1 (1980).
Tomorad, Mladen. „The Ancient Egyptian Antiquities in Institutional and Private Collections in Croatia“. U: Tomorad, Mladen (ur.). A History of Research into Ancient Egyptian Culture conducted in Southeast Europe. Oxford, 2015: 31-58. 53.
Tomorad, Mladen. „The Ancient Egyptian Collections in Croatia and the Project Croato-Aegyptica Electronica“. U: Derriks, Claire (ur.). Collections at risk: New Challenges in a New Environment - Proceedings of the 29th CIPEG Annual Meeting in Brussels, September 25-28, 2012, Royal Museums of Art and History Brussels, Belgium. Atlanta, 2017: 237-268. 261.
Tomorad, Mladen. „The Egyptian antiquities in Croatia“. PalArch 2, 1 (2005): 1-33. 23.
Tomorad, Mladen. Egipat u Hrvatskoj: egipatske starine u hrvatskoj znanosti i kulturi. Zagreb, 2003. 138, fn. 26.
Tomorad, Mladen. Model računalne obrade i prezentacije staroegipatskih predmeta u muzejskim zbirkama u Hrvatskoj. [Doktorska disertacije, Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu Sveučilišta u Zagrebu]. Zagreb, 2006. 36.
Tomorad, Mladen. Staroegipatska civilizacija, sv. II: Uvod u egiptološke studije. Zagreb, 2017. 87.
