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

Enigmatic Relief

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Accession: 70.2
Find spot: Egypt, Egypt approx. site location
Period: Late Period to Ptolemaic Period (possibly)
Date: ca. 664–30 B.C.E.
Date range: 664 BCE – 30 BCE
Materials: ['Limestone']
Repository: Brooklyn Museum
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Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art, Enigmatic Relief (70.2). Egyptian Inscriptions Database. https://egyptianinscriptions.org/object/18616

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Description

Object Label: The subject of this relief is uncertain. The image of a pregnant hippopotamus with a lion’s mane is similar to the goddess Taweret. This goddess, with the addition of a crocodile on her back and another nipping her paw, is often found in Egyptian astronomical texts in connection with the northern constellations. However, the inscription at the left names Hapi, the god of the Nile’s inundation, who has nothing to do with the stars. Perhaps the strong denotations of fertility of both Taweret and Hapi hold a clue to the meaning of the scene. Caption: Enigmatic Relief, ca. 664–30 B.C.E.. Limestone, 14 5/16 x 13 1/2 x 2 3/4 in., 23 lb. (36.4 x 34.3 x 7 cm, 23 lb.). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 70.2. (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 carved limestone relief depicting a figure with a lion's head and human body alongside hieroglyphic inscriptions.

This relief features a prominent figure with the head of a lion and a humanoid body, possibly representing a deity or mythological creature. Surrounding the figure are various hieroglyphic inscriptions. The carving is detailed, highlighting the musculature and facial features of the lion-headed figure. The background is relatively plain with a few additional symbols and vertical text columns.

religious New Kingdom good

Deities Sekhmet

Materials limestone

Signs ankh was sceptre djed pillar

Visible text "null"

Connections

Found at Egypt

Deities Taweret Sekhmet

Materials Limestone

Cross-references (2)

BKM-Accession 70.2 tier-2
BKM-Object 3789 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.