Ear
Description
Object Label: Although the hieroglyph for “hearing, to hear” resembles the ear of an ox, sculpted model ears such as this one, as well as ear stelae, portray human ears. Model ears were dedicated to various gods and goddesses, including Hathor, Ptah, and Thoth, who held the epithet “One Who Hears Prayers.” Of these deities, Hathor most often received small votive offerings like this. According to inscriptions on ear stelae, both the stelae and model ears likely represented the ear of the deity and encouraged the god to heed people’s appeals. An act of such private dedication is an intimate manifestation of individual contact with a deity, a new phenomenon in Egyptian religion of the New Kingdom. Caption: Ear, ca. 1539–1075 B.C.E.. Wood, 1 x 1/2 x 2 1/5 in. (2.5 x 1.2 x 5.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.2041.4E. (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 wooden artifact shaped like a human ear.
The artifact is a wooden piece carved in the shape of a human ear, likely used for ritual purposes or as part of a larger assemblage. It shows smooth, curved surfaces and is finished to highlight the natural wood grain. The style suggests simple, functional craftsmanship.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 37.2041.4E tier-2
- BKM-Object 185794 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.