Scene from a Magical Papyrus
Description
Object Label: The standing winged creature seen here is known as the nineheaded Bes figure, a divine protector of the birth of the king and of the sun. This form of Bes was closely associated with the evening and the night part of the solar cycle. He thus also played an important role as guardian of sleeping women and children, particularly against the dangers of the night, represented here by the noxious creatures contained in the oval upon which he stands. The firebrands that surround him represent destructive forces directed at anyone who approaches. Caption: Scene from a Magical Papyrus, 664–525 B.C.E.. Papyrus, ink, c: Object: 29 15/16 × 4 7/8 in. (76.1 × 12.4 cm) c: Frame: 8 7/8 × 34 1/16 in. (22.6 × 86.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Bequest of Theodora Wilbour from the collection of her father, Charles Edwin Wilbour, 47.218.156a-d. (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 fragment of an ancient Egyptian papyrus with hieroglyphic text and a painted scene.
This is a papyrus fragment showing a painted scene on the left, possibly depicting a deity or an important character in ancient Egyptian art, as well as multiple vertical columns of hieroglyphic text on the right. The style suggests the New Kingdom or later, with detailed writing and artwork that contains symbolic characters. The papyrus shows signs of age, with frayed edges and missing sections, yet remains remarkably intact considering its fragility.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 47.218.156a-d tier-2
- BKM-Object 60794 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.