Royal Head
Description
Object Label: In Egyptian art, one symbol could represent both a trait and its opposite. The hippopotamus could represent great danger and chaos or, alternatively, fertility and protection in childbirth. The statuette of a male hippopotamus could represent the god Seth, who embodied danger, chaos, and disorder in the world. Yet the rare limestone statuette of hippopotami mating perhaps served as a symbol that preserved the fertility of the earth. And a necklace consisting of images of the female hippopotamus goddess Taweret could protect a woman in labor. Caption: Royal Head, ca. 1352–1332 B.C.E.. Limestone, pigment, 1 3/4 × 2 1/16 × 2 7/16 in. (4.5 × 5.2 × 6.2 cm) mount: 9 × 3 × 3 in. (22.9 × 7.6 × 7.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Ernest Erickson Foundation, Inc., 86.226.20. (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.
Fragmentary face of a sculpture with no visible inscriptions.
The image depicts a fragmented limestone face, likely part of a larger statue. The style is simplistic with eroded features such as eyes and lips. The surface shows signs of wear, indicative of its age. There are no visible inscriptions or notable symbols on the fragment.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 86.226.20 tier-2
- BKM-Object 4261 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.