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

One of the Four Sons of Horus

Source of record: Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art — catalogued by the holding institution. View the original record →

Description

Object Label: Living persons wore only one or a few amulets at a time, but mummies usually bear many amulets. The Ma’at amulet (no. 2) and heart scarabs (nos. 1, 3, 11), which occurred in many forms, guaranteed a successful judgment of the dead. The amulets of a hand (no. 8), lungs and a windpipe (no. 12), and wadjet-eyes (i.e., “healthy” eyes; no. 4) protected those parts of the body and also had connotations of resurrection and the unity or integrity of the mummy. The enigmatic aper amulet (no. 13) takes the form of the hieroglyph meaning “to be equipped,” perhaps in reference to the mummy’s preparation. The two crowns (nos. 5, 6) were symbols of power. The Heh insignia (no. 7), like the popular ankh-sign, denoted eternal life. Among the living, the frog (no. 9) and possibly also the hare (no. 10) suggested fertility. The amulets of the Four Sons of Horus (no. 15) perhaps served, as they did with canopic jars, to protect various organs of the body. Caption: One of the Four Sons of Horus, ca. 664–after 30 B.C.E.. Faience, 4 1/2 × 1 5/8 × 1/2 in. (11.5 × 4.2 × 1.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 51.223.2. (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 blue faience amulet shaped like a seated jackal.

The artifact is a finely crafted blue faience amulet depicting a stylized seated jackal. The piece features smooth contours and visible perforations, likely for suspension. The color and material suggest it might be related to protective or religious functions.

religious New Kingdom excellent
Deities Anubis
Materials faience

Connections

Found at Egypt
Materials Faience

Cross-references (2)

  • BKM-Accession 51.223.2 tier-2
  • BKM-Object 3563 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.