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

Ibis Mummy

+ 3 more images

Accession: X1179.4
Find spot: Egypt, Egypt approx. site location
Period: Late Period to Ptolemaic Period
Dynasty: Dynasty 27, or later
Date: 400–110 B.C.E.
Date range: 400 BCE – 110 BCE
Materials: ['Animal remains (Glossy Ibis - Plegadis falcinellus or an African Sacred Ibis - Threskiornis aethiopicus)', 'linen', 'pigment']
Height: 12.1 cm
Width: 7.0 cm
Repository: Brooklyn Museum
At source: View original →

Cite & export

Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art, Ibis Mummy (X1179.4). Egyptian Inscriptions Database. https://egyptianinscriptions.org/object/18255

JSON →

Description

Object Label: The ideal votive animal mummy, as shown in the X-ray here, contains one animal wrapped in the linen package. Yet without an X-ray or CT scan, it is impossible to know whether an additional animal, or no animal at all, was included in the wrappings. Egyptians of the first millennium b.c.e. believed that they could appeal to the god Thoth to intercede in human affairs. Ibis mummies allowed such a petitioner to send a message to the god. Catalogue description: Culture Egyptian Caption: Egyptian. Ibis Mummy, 400–110 B.C.E.. Animal remains (Glossy Ibis - Plegadis falcinellus or an African Sacred Ibis - Threskiornis aethiopicus), linen, pigment, 4 3/4 × 2 3/4 × 11 1/4 in. (12.1 × 7 × 28.6 cm) mount (display dims on support board): 4 1/2 × 8 1/2 × 15 in. (11.4 × 21.6 × 38.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum Collection, X1179.4. (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.

A wrapped ancient Egyptian artifact resembling a mummy, likely an animal mummy.

The artifact is a well-preserved example of ancient Egyptian wrapping techniques, featuring a tightly wrapped exterior with intersecting geometric patterns. The coloration suggests the use of dyed linen, and the form indicates it might be an animal mummy, possibly a cat, due to its elongated shape. The artifact shows mastery of textile wrapping common in mummification practices.

funerary Late Period good

Materials linen

Connections

Found at Egypt

Deities Thoth

Materials Linen

Cross-references (2)

BKM-Accession X1179.4 tier-2
BKM-Object 184724 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.