Hi, Shulem.
I haven’t seen any examples from ancient Egypt where the snout of Anubis does not protrude straight out from the face. Yet, the part of the printing plate which you propose shows a remaining outline of what once constituted a snout, does not protrude straight out from the face. It is at a downward angle unseen in ancient Egyptian depictions of Anubis.
Would you agree that this is a discrepancy?
If so, do you propose a means by which to reconcile the discrepancy?
Personally, I believe the goddess Bast, rather than Anubis, was depicted in the vignette on the papyrus. Correspondingly, I don’t believe a snout was depicted on the figure in the original. After Egyptologists started saying that the figure should have a dog-like snout, I suspect someone made a sharp cut in order to try to see what such a snout might look like, and gutted into the metal in order to try to create the appearance of famgs, and so forth. I don’t believe they were operating with an image of Anubis in front of them. It seems more likely, based on the appearance of what they left behind, that they were creating a generic snout shape. It is definitely not an Anubis snout. But I’m open to hearing your thoughts, of course.
Your friend,
Ryan