Saturday, January 2, 2016
"Ptolemy I built a temple to the goddess Hathor at Kom Abu Billo (Tarrana), in the western Nile Delta. When the site was discovered in 1887, the temple had vanished, but a few decorated blocks still survived, re-used in the buildings of a nearby village. Carved in exquisite low relief, they rank among the finest examples of early Ptolemaic art. Here, with a graceful gesture, the king offers the goddess a bowl of flaming incense." (From info card) The British museum has one of the blocks from this temple at Kom Ombo Billo. There are many similarities between the two scenes. Ptolemy I wears a bag wig in both, and Hathor has her papyrus scepter in each. But there are also differences. In the British Museum panel, the beginning of Hathor's horns are clearly visible. Ptolemy offers unusually stylized representations of the heraldic plants of Upper and Lower Egypt. The British Museum's panel is also much less damaged, and thereby easily amenable to tracing.
I assembled a composite of various museum photos, and using it and other photos created a trace of it:
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