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Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art · other

Circular Cosmetic Container with Lid

Source of record: Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art — catalogued by the holding institution. View the original record →

Description

Object Label: Cosmetic Dishes Like spoons, cosmetic dishes may have been used for mixing ointments in the home, or for ritual purposes in a temple, or both. Many of the dishes have images that seem to refer to beliefs about life after death. Both the lotus and the fish, for example, were associated with rebirth. Other subjects, such as the oryx (a type of antelope), may allude to the desire to maintain universal order. Because the oryx lived in the mysterious desert—beyond the ordered realm of Egyptian civilization—a bound oryx represented victory over chaos. Caption: Circular Cosmetic Container with Lid, ca. 1539–1292 B.C.E.. Elephant ivory, wood, pigment, frit (?), and resin (?), 1 5/8 × 3 1/2 in. (4.1 × 8.9 cm) mount: 12 × 3 1/4 × 2 1/2 in. (30.5 × 8.3 × 6.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.597Ea-b. (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 spinning top with a radial pattern.

This artifact is a wooden spinning top featuring a detailed radial carving on its surface. The object is small, crafted with smooth edges, and includes a central pivot point for spinning. The design is symmetrical and geometric, typical of toys or simple mechanical designs. The wood appears well-preserved, indicating a level of craftsmanship and use of quality materials.

daily life unknown good
Materials wood

Connections

Found at Saqqara
Materials Wood

Cross-references (2)

  • BKM-Accession 37.597Ea-b tier-2
  • BKM-Object 4050 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.