Group of Large and Small Monkeys
Description
Object Label: The British archaeologist and Egyptologist Sir Flinders Petrie found at least twenty-three crudely modeled figures of monkeys in a dump at Amarna in 1891–92. Some of the figures play harps, lyres, or flutes. Others hold their young, eat or drink, and even drive chariots. These figures have been interpreted as popular caricatures of the royal family. If this was their true purpose, then acceptance of royal dogma, including respect for the king and the god Aten, was not nearly as complete as Akhenaten imagined. Caption: Group of Large and Small Monkeys, ca. 1352–1336 B.C.E.. Limestone, pigment, 3 1/8 x 2 1/4 in. (8 x 5.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield, Theodora Wilbour, and Victor Wilbour honoring the wishes of their mother, Charlotte Beebe Wilbour, as a memorial to their father, Charles Edwin Wilbour, 16.68. (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.
Limestone sculptural fragment showing a seated monkey-like figure (with a smaller figure/animal beneath or clutched at the lap) in a crouched posture.
The object appears as a small carved group in the round: a larger monkey sits/crouches on a base, with its head turned slightly to the left and a broad muzzle/face; one arm is bent toward the body while the other figure or limb is held close at the front. A smaller form—possibly another monkey or a subsidiary animal—can be seen near the lower center. The surface is lightly worn; no clear painted pigment is visible in this image. The background is a neutral museum mount with no readable labels. No hieroglyphic, Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text is visible on the object or in the photograph.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 16.68 tier-2
- BKM-Object 3139 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.