Ptah-Sokar-Osiris was a funerary god, "born" out of the association of three originally separate gods. The god Ptah of Memphis and the funerary god Sokar of Saqqara (the necropolis of Memphis) were already linked in the Old Kingdom. A third god, Osiris, was later added because he also was a funerary god. This resulted in the god Ptah-Sokar-Osiris.
In many tombs of the Late Period statuettes of this god were found, showing the god in the shape of a mummy, with a human head or the head of a falcon, wearing a crown with horns, standing on a base and sometimes with a small crouching falcon in front of him on the base, facing him.
In the statuette or in its base a funerary papyrus was sometimes hidden, often a copy of the Book of the Dead but also other texts, such as the Amduat or – surprisingly – discarded administrative documents; the latter were apparently sold to the owner as funerary manuscripts; since only a small percentage of the Egyptians could read, this deceit usually was not detected. It may seem strange that someone illiterate bought a funerary papyrus, but the texts on these were believed to be magically working anyway, just by being there.