Find Spot: Northern Temple Nubia, Egypt

Description: A trumpeter playing before a God or a King is seen on a clay impression from a seal, Figure 5b.7d. This was found in a house which adjoined a temple in Nubia shows what is generally described as. The dating of this is uncertain, one source mentioning two seals of which, one belongs to the XII, the other at the XVIII dynasty. These other scenes have not yet been located by me.

Hickmann, compares the seal impression to the image seen elsewhere but of much-later date, that of a trumpet player who he considers is standing before Osiris and suggests that this person is, like on the later image, a secular temple official as his clothes and hair do not appear to be those of a musician or military person. He suggests that the necklace and clothes ornaments shown give him a certain authority. Added to this, he must be someone with access to inner part of the temple as that is where this ritual scene is located. He suggests, therefore that the both images must depict characters of a high rank and not a simple musician who belonged to a lower social class. In all, he suggests, the scenes point to the trumpeters shown here having aristocratic dignity.

Citations: Hickmann 1946: No. 17, Figure 23

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