Oryx Dish
Description
Object Label: Cosmetic Containers Like us, the ancient Egyptians used cosmetics, and often for the same purposes. Archaeologists use the term “cosmetic container” to describe a variety of Egyptian boxes that once held scented, oil-based ointments. The salves in these boxes were used by women and men to heighten sexual allure and to camouflage body odor. Orange or yellow stains seen on ancient representations of clothing and on actual surviving linen garments show how liberally such ointments were applied. Caption: Oryx Dish, ca. 1539–1292 B.C.E.. Faience, 2 13/16 × 4 13/16 × 13/16 in. (7.1 × 12.3 × 2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Ernest Erickson Foundation, Inc., 86.226.16. (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.
A faience artifact shaped like a hippopotamus.
The artifact is a small faience sculpture depicting a hippopotamus. It is predominantly turquoise, with visible wear indicating age. The style is characteristic of ancient Egyptian faience work, showing simple but recognizable features of a hippopotamus. The surface appears to have some encrustation and discoloration, likely due to age and burial conditions.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 86.226.16 tier-2
- BKM-Object 4260 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.