Roman collecting and the biographies of Egyptian Late Period statues

What is it about?

This essay argues that the Romans collected statues from the city of Sais in the Nile Delta, home of the Saite 26th Dynasty. The statues dedicated in Memphis during the 27th Dynasty -- the period of Persian rule in Egypt -- were not brought to Italy in the same quantity, and thus were left to suffer the ravages of time. As a result we see an artificial disparity between the number of statues dating to the 26th Dynasty and those dating to the 27th.

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Why is it important?

Statues are used as a means of drawing conclusions about the nature of Persian rule in Egypt. Lack of statues is taken to indicate difficult social and economic conditions. However, if that lack was caused in part by Roman collecting practices, it ceases to be evidence for conditions in Persian period Egypt.