Protective God
Description
Object Label: The Egyptians had a special class of deities, including Bes, Aha, and Hayet, that protected mothers and very young children. This piece shows one of these deities nursing an infant god. In antiquity metal rings were inserted into the holes at the top of the headdress and through the pierced ears. When shaken like a rattle, the piece produced a rustling sound intended to soothe a crying baby. Caption: Protective God, ca. 945–718 B.C.E.. Faience, 5 15/16 x 2 1/2 x 15/16 in. (15.1 x 6.4 x 2.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 58.171. (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 miniature statuette of a deity, adorned with intricate patterns and a feathered headdress.
The artifact is a carved statuette depicting a deity, characterized by a feathered headdress and adorned with various designs. The figure holds a distinct posture, with intricate patterns that may represent clothing or body markings. The craftsmanship suggests careful attention to detail and stylistic features typical of protective or symbolic figures.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 58.171 tier-2
- BKM-Object 3663 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.