Figure of baboon on a basket and with a pillar, the shebet offering

Late Period–Ptolemaic Period

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 130

The mummiform baboon squats on a basket with a pillar behind him. The nature of this object is still under discussion. The image of the baboon might allude to the god Thoth. Only rarely do we know the archeological context to which these objects belong, but a few of them are known to come from an area in Saqqara near one of the main ibis cemeteries. Another example arrives from Hermopolis, one of the main sites in which Thoth was celebrated. In imagery, however, it is mostly kings who are represented offering an object in this form and mostly to goddesses.

Figure of baboon on a basket and with a pillar, the shebet offering, Faience

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Figure of baboon on a basket and with a pillar, the shebet offering, Faience
Figure of baboon on a basket and with a pillar, the shebet offering, Faience
Figure of baboon on a basket and with a pillar, the shebet offering, Faience
Figure of baboon on a basket and with a pillar, the shebet offering, Faience
Figure of baboon on a basket and with a pillar, the shebet offering, Faience
Figure of baboon on a basket and with a pillar, the shebet offering, Faience

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