Bes
Description
Object Label: The Egyptians worked with gold and semiprecious stones from earliest times. They mined both types of material in the desert east of the Nile and in present-day Sudan, called “Nubia” in ancient times after the ancient Egyptian word for gold (nub). Clearly, objects made from these high-value materials were available only to the highest ranks of society. Caption: Bes, 664–30 B.C.E.. Gold, 1 1/2 x 9/16 x 1/16 in. (3.8 x 1.4 x 0.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 08.480.208. (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.
Small gold amuletic figure of Bes, shown standing and facing forward with detailed facial features and arms raised.
The image shows a cast gold object on a dark background. The figure is symmetrical and upright, with a prominent open crown/hat-like top and an elongated torso. The face has incised features suggesting a bearded or grimacing demon/god mask; a belt or collar-like band wraps the upper body. Both arms are held forward/raised near the chest/abdomen area. The lower body is rendered with muscular legs and a split at the center suggesting two legs with an open gap. The surface includes punched/engraved dots on the head area and incised lines for musculature and clothing/ornament. No legible hieroglyphs, cartouches, or alphabetic text are visible on the figure. The object visually aligns with an amulet depiction of Bes (grotesque dwarf god often shown with a plumed crown and raised arms), and the catalogue identification as “Bes” does not appear contradicted. Condition appears good; details are crisp with no obvious major loss.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 08.480.208 tier-2
- BKM-Object 3250 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.