Mirror with Handle in Form of Girl
Description
Object Label: Mirrors Although commonplace objects to us, mirrors held great meaning to the ancient Egyptians. The Egyptians first used mirrors in the Old Kingdom (Third through Sixth Dynasties; circa 2675–2170 B.C.E.) if not earlier. The design—elliptical disks supported by handles shaped like papyrus plants—symbolized the moment when the creator-god emerged from the primordial swamp in the form of the sun. The Egyptians believed that all life began in this so-called First Moment. When they picked up their mirrors each morning they were thus reminded of creation. The shape of mirrors changed over time. In the Eighteenth Dynasty, the traditional oval disk was replaced by a circular form. Handles appeared in a wide variety of shapes, including images of animals, adolescent girls, and papyrus flowers. Caption: Egyptian. Mirror with Handle in Form of Girl, ca. 1400–1292 B.C.E.. Bronze, 8 3/4 x 4 13/16 in. (22.2 x 12.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 60.27.1. (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.
An ancient Egyptian bronze mirror with a handle shaped like a female deity.
The artifact is a bronze mirror featuring a polished circular reflective surface. The handle is intricately designed in the form of a female deity, which is characteristic of the New Kingdom style. The figure is adorned with a headdress and traditional attire, suggesting a connection to divinity. The craftsmanship indicates high-quality metalwork typical of royal or religious objects.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 60.27.1 tier-2
- BKM-Object 3682 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.