Votive (?) Hippo
Description
Object Label: These coarse figures stand on low bases representing sleds or sledges, possibly alluding to a ritual called The Feast of the White Hippopotamus in which a hippo was dragged on a sledge before the king. Worshippers at the festival probably either left these objects as votive offerings or acquired them as keepsakes. Caption: Votive (?) Hippo, ca. 2081–1700 B.C.E.. Clay, pigment, 3 3/4 x 5 1/2 x 2 15/16 in. (9.6 x 14 x 7.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 70.93.3. (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.
Small clay figurine of a hippopotamus.
The artifact is a small clay figurine, depicting a hippopotamus in a stylized form. The composition is simplistic, with rough detailing that suggests use either as a toy or symbolic object. It is made from clay with a reddish tint, common in simple, functional artifacts.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 70.93.3 tier-2
- BKM-Object 3795 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.