Baboon
Description
Object Label: Many small ivory and faience baboons have been found in Middle Kingdom tombs. Some scholars believe they functioned as gaming pieces. Others argue that because images of baboons often appear on other protective objects, the figures served as eternal guardians of the deceased. Caption: Baboon, ca. 1938–1700 B.C.E.. Ivory, 1 3/4 x 2 7/8 in. (4.4 x 7.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 36.121. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
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.
A small ivory figurine carved in the form of a standing baboon, seated low with the body turned slightly and the head raised.
The image shows a light-colored carved object photographed in a gallery setting on a beige surface. The figure is a baboon-like animal: compact torso, upright posture, and a detailed head with rounded ears and a prominent muzzle. The baboon is depicted wearing or posed with a patterned garment or collar across the chest and upper torso, rendered with carved linear/feather-like strokes. One foreleg appears placed forward while the other is bent, and the tail is not strongly emphasized in this view. No clearly readable hieroglyphs or other text are visible on the object or in the frame. The style appears consistent with a small Middle Kingdom–period animal/figure carving, though exact dating is not fully confirmable from the single photograph.
Connections
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 36.121 tier-2
- BKM-Object 3389 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.