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

Figure of the God Bes

Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art, acc. 37.309E. Public domain (CC0). Copy archived by egyptianinscriptions.org with attribution; original at the holding institution.

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Accession: 37.309E
Find spot: Egypt, Egypt approx. site location
Period: Third Intermediate Period
Dynasty: Dynasty 22
Date: ca. 945–712 B.C.E., or later
Date range: 945 BCE – 712 BCE
Materials: ['Faience']
Height: 17.5 cm
Width: 9.2 cm
Repository: Brooklyn Museum
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Cite & export

Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art, Figure of the God Bes (37.309E). Egyptian Inscriptions Database. https://egyptianinscriptions.org/object/18918

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Description

Object Label: The unusual frontal attitude, extended tongue, and feathered headdress of the leonine god Bes offer a powerful image of protection. This terrifying deity was believed to guard worshippers during the most vulnerable moments of pregnancy and childbirth, and in the transition between life and death. Caption: Figure of the God Bes, ca. 945–712 B.C.E., or later. Faience, 6 7/8 x 3 5/8 x 7/8 in. (17.5 x 9.2 x 2.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.309E. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano

Machine-generated from the object's image on Jul 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.

A small faience figurine depicting the crowned, bearded dwarf god in a protective/ritual stance.

The object is a molded blue faience figurine showing a frontal figure with a broad crown/headdress and a prominent, heavy beard. The face has downturned eyes and a stylized mouth, and the arms appear raised or held forward, with the left arm bent near the chest. The surface includes incised or molded details in bands around the crown and torso, and the body’s lower portion has a dotted/raised pattern, likely representing garment/ornamentation. The figurine is intact and photographed against a neutral light background; no separate base is visible. No clear hieroglyphs or alphabetic scripts are visible on the image.

religious Third Intermediate Period (as catalogued) good

Deities Bes

Materials faience

Connections

Deities Bes

Materials Faience

Cross-references (2)

BKM-Accession 37.309E tier-2
BKM-Object 4012 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.