Fragment of Sculpture

Fragment of Sculpture

A roughly amygdaloid (almond shaped) fragment of limestone, pale grey in colour and very friable. The largest of four fragments removed from the back of the head of the Sphinx by Pte JH Lowe in July 1918.

The Sphinx is carved directly into the limestone of the Giza Plataeu, with the head and neck being formed from the stratum known as Member III. It is unknown specifically where these fragments come from on the head of the Sphinx and it is possible they are from later periods of repair to the sculpture. In a letter dated 2 July 1918, JH Lowe records walking around the back of the sphinx, knocking pieces off it, and inscribing his name on its "bald spot" in blue pencil. These are the four pieces now in the Queensland Museum collection. Many Australian soldiers visited, and even climbed, the monuments of the Giza Plataeu between 1914 and 1919.

2558 BC – 2532 BC

Height: 33 mm

Width: 17 mm

Depth: 12 mm

Weight: 8 g

C.011.003

QM H2408

The Sphinx

© Queensland Museum, Peter Waddington.

Collected by Pte. JH Lowe, Giza, Egypt, July 1918.
Donated by Pte. JH Lowe, Wilston, to Queensland Museum, 24-27 April 1928.

Queensland Museum, Brisbane

Arnold, D. (1991). Building in Egypt: pharaonic stone masonry. Oxford University Press.

Isler, M. (2001). Sticks, Stones, and Shadows: Building the Egyptian Pyramids. University of Oklahoma Press.

Hawass, Z., & Lehner, M. (1994). The Sphinx: Who built it, And why? Archaeology, 47(5), 30-41. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41766473

Queensland Museum Donor Schedule #28/86 (1928).

Queensland Museum Miscellaneous Register, A1101-2.

Lowe Family Archive, Brisbane.

P.011

Mr James Donaldson