Vessel Handle in Form of Lion
Description
Object Label: The Persian conquest of Egypt in 525 B.C.E. led to a vogue for metalwork in the Persian style, such as these animal-shaped handles and fluted bowls with floral decorations on the base. All of these objects were discovered in Egypt; the silver pieces were discovered together with a large number of objects as an offering at a temple of a foreign goddess. Catalogue description: Culture Achaemenid Caption: Achaemenid. Vessel Handle in Form of Lion, ca. 410 B.C.E.. Silver, Length: 4 15/16 in. (12.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 54.50.42. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano
Machine-generated from the object's image on Jul 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
Metal vessel handle shaped as a lion’s head at one end and a lion-like form at the other, arched between the two terminals.
The image shows a curved, tubular silver-colored handle with two zoomorphic terminals. On the left end, a lion’s head is modeled in relief in the round: the face and mane are visible, with a protruding muzzle and stylized facial features. The right end is another modeled end in the form of an animal/possibly a lion’s head or paw-like termination, with recessed/raised detailing along the underside and outer edge. The handle is largely smooth and reflective, with tool marks or casting/polishing traces visible in highlights. No clear hieroglyphic, Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text is visible on the handle. No cartouche or royal name is apparent. The object is consistent with a “vessel handle in form of lion,” though the exact lion details on the right terminal cannot be fully confirmed as lion-specific from this angle.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 54.50.42 tier-2
- BKM-Object 67994 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.