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Cleveland Museum of Art (Egyptian) · jewelry

Pendant

Source of record: Cleveland Museum of Art (Egyptian) — catalogued by the holding institution. View the original record →

Description

[Sudan, Napatan; lion's head component: probably Egypt, Third Intermediate (1069–715 BCE), Dynasty 25] This pendant consists of two parts: a superbly carved lion’s head in amethyst that has been set into a D-shaped gold base consisting of a platform surrounded by eight seated baboons. The lion’s head is an heirloom from the New Kingdom, most likely a gaming piece that had been adapted in the Napatan period to serve as an pendant amulet. This procedure was fairly common in antiquity as a means of recycling precious stones. The importance of leonine deities in Nubian religion was obviously the motivating force behind the creation of this spectacular ornament.

Cross-references (2)

  • Wikidata Q60778157 tier-1
  • CMA-id 153417 tier-2
About this record's data
  • From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Cleveland Museum of Art (Egyptian).
  • 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.