Shrew Coffin with Mummy
Description
Object Label: Shrews and ichneumons both prey on snakes and therefore won the Egyptians’ admiration and worship. Though snakes could turn their powers to protecting kings and queens, serpents also threatened the sun god Re on his journey through the next world. Egyptian religion made room for both the positive and negative aspects of certain animals. The shrew mummy bundle shows that more than one animal was sometimes included in one package. Caption: Shrew Coffin with Mummy, 664–332 B.C.E.. Wood, pigment, animal remains, linen, 37.1362Ea Coffin: 3 1/4 × 2 5/8 × 6 3/4 in. (8.3 × 6.7 × 17.1 cm) 37.136Eb Panel: 1 3/8 × 1/4 × 6 1/8 in. (3.5 × 0.6 × 15.5 cm) 37.1362Ec (Mummy): 1 × 1 × 4 13/16 in. (2.6 × 2.6 × 12.3 cm) mount (display dims with door closed): 3 1/4 × 3 × 6 7/8 in. (8.3 × 7.6 × 17.5 cm) mount (display dims with door open): 3 1/4 × 3 × 8 1/2 in. (8.3 × 7.6 × 21. Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.1362Ea-c. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum (Gavin Ashworth, photographer))
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 painted wooden box with a figure of a long-tailed animal on top.
The artifact is a small painted wooden box with a sculpted figure of an animal, resembling a rat or mouse, perched on the lid. The box displays geometric patterns and circular motifs in faded red and ochre hues. The craftsmanship suggests attention to detail in both the animal figure and the painted decorations.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 37.1362Ea-c tier-2
- BKM-Object 117914 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.