Mirror
Description
Object Label: Early Dynasty 18 metalworkers continued the Middle Kingdom tradition of making mirrors with handles in the form of papyrus plants capped by heads of Hathor, a cow-eared goddess associated with love and music. The slender proportions of the drooping papyrus and the goddess's delicate facial features identify this example as an early Eighteenth Dynasty work. Caption: Mirror, ca. 1539–1478 B.C.E.. Bronze, 10 15/16 x 5 7/16 x 7/8 in. (27.8 x 13.8 x 2.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.638E. (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 hand mirror with a handle featuring a Hathor-headed design.
This artifact is a hand mirror, characterized by a reflective disc likely made of polished bronze, and an intricately designed handle. The handle features a depiction of Hathor, an Egyptian goddess known for her role in love, music, and motherhood, identifiable by the headdress with cow horns and a sun disk. This item represents the skillful metalwork and aesthetic values of ancient Egyptian craftsmanship, used for personal grooming and possibly ritualistic purposes.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 37.638E tier-2
- BKM-Object 4069 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.