Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art · other
Ritual Knife
Description
Object Label: The ivory handle of this superbly crafted knife includes a thumb rest for a right-handed user. Carved rows of minuscule animals—including elephants, lions, a giraffe, and sheep—cover both surfaces of the handle. An artisan polished the flint blade on one side and delicately flaked the other to make a cutting edge. Caption: Ritual Knife, ca. 3300–3100 B.C.E.. Flint, elephant ivory, 2 1/16 x 9 3/16 in. (5.3 x 23.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 09.889.118. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum) Tags Brooklyn Icons
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 09.889.118 tier-2
- BKM-Object 3265 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.