Cylindrical Bead
Description
Object Label: One of the most powerful protective deities was Bes, a bandy-legged, potbellied god with a fiercely grinning leonine face and a lion’s feet and tail. Another was Taweret, a pregnant hippopotamus standing upright on lion’s feet with a very schematic representation of a crocodile on her back. This cylindrical bead includes a Bes image, two Taweret figures, and a snake, another protective symbol. Caption: Cylindrical Bead, ca. 1938–1759 B.C.E.. Steatite, glaze, 1 1/4 x 1/4 in. (3.1 x 0.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 44.123.34.
AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano
Machine-generated from the object's image on Jul 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
The image shows a museum display case with small carved/ornamented objects on a shelf and, to the upper right, a larger decorated element on a stand. One central small item appears cylindrical and is consistent with the catalogue’s “Cylindrical Bead,” though details are limited by distance and blur.
Within the glass display case, several small, vertically oriented objects are visible on a metal support. The middle object is a narrow cylinder with a dark core and light/greenish decorative surface, matching the general expectation for a small bead. Two other small figurative/ornamental pieces flank it but their exact type is unclear due to blur. At the upper left, a photo of a multicolored ring/necklace-like object is printed on the display backing. In the upper right, a larger dark green/bronze-toned shaped object with a stand (possibly a cosmetic or amuletic element) is visible, but it does not appear to be the same artifact as the central cylindrical item. No legible hieroglyphic text, cartouches, or Greek/Coptic/Arabic inscriptions are clearly readable in this image. The catalogue states steatite and glaze and Middle Kingdom date; visually the bead’s surface color could be consistent with glazed steatite, but the image quality prevents confirmation of glaze and precise material identification.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 44.123.34 tier-2
- BKM-Object 3466 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.