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Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art · statue

An Eternal Bouquet for the Dead

Source of record: Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art — catalogued by the holding institution. View the original record →

Description

Object Label: This relief of an elaborate floral bouquet, to which ducks are bound below a broad-collar necklace, was the left end of a tomb door lintel. At first glance a decorative floral piece, the bouquet is actually a symbol of life. All its elements are symbols of fertility and regeneration. The necklace symbolizes protection, and the bound ducks the control of malign forces that might threaten the dead. Related Late Period reliefs come from northern Egypt and often show, as does this relief, the influence of works from much earlier periods. Caption: An Eternal Bouquet for the Dead, 4th century B.C.E.. Limestone, pigment, 11 15/16 × 6 11/16 in. (30.3 × 17 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 57.165.1. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

AI image analysis GPT-4o-2024-08-06

Machine-generated from the object's image on May 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.

An ancient Egyptian carved stone displaying a symmetrical pattern with floral motifs and decorative elements.

The artifact is a stone carving featuring a central papyrus-like motif flanked by symmetrical floral and geometric designs. The composition includes two stylized birds, possibly representing fertility or creation themes. The carving is bordered with a decorative band, showcasing typical Egyptian artistic balance and repetition, likely serving a decorative or symbolic function.

decorative Ptolemaic good
Materials limestone

Connections

Found at Egypt
Materials Limestone

Cross-references (2)

  • BKM-Accession 57.165.1 tier-2
  • BKM-Object 3637 tier-2
About this record's data
  • From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art.
  • AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
  • Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
  • Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.