Amulet in the Form of a Ba as Human-Headed Bird Ptolemaic Period (possibly)Saqqara
Description
Object Label: Ba is the Egyptian concept closest to what is meant by the English word "soul." Its composite human-and-bird form symbolizes its ability to travel to different realms. This extremely fine amulet may date to the Ptolemaic Period, but various types of gold amulets inlaid with colored stones are known from burials of Dynasties XXVI through XXX (orca 664–342 B.C.) Caption: Amulet in the Form of a Ba as Human-Headed Bird, 305–30 B.C.E.. Gold, lapis lazuli, turquoise, steatite, 1 1/4 × 2 3/4 × 1/2 in. (3.2 × 7 × 1.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.804E. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano
A machine reading of the photograph made Jul 2026: deities, names, signs and a description as the model saw them. Not curatorial; treat it as the model's best reading, not authority.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 37.804E tier-2
- BKM-Object 4101 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.