Some Remarks on the Identity of the Ram-Headed Bronze Statuette from Persepolis

It has been nearly 86 years since the Egyptian bronze ram-headed statuette, known as Harsaphes, was found outside the Treasury in the Garrison Street of Persepolis during the archaeological excavations by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. The iconographic features of this little-known statuette is associated it with an Egyptian deity, which makes its genre unique in the heartland of the Persian Empire. It should be noted that the four ram-headed deities: Heryshef, Khnum, Amun, and Banebdjedet, sometimes bear a striking resemblance in the formal Egyptian art. This paper re-opens the discussion on the statuette’s identity, and offers a detailed comparison between this statuette and other Egyptian ram-headed deities. The results from a comparative analysis are critical to the supposed attribution of Harsaphes to the statuette, and examine the likelihood of being all four ram-headed gods.