Hedgehog on box pendant

Late Period–Ptolemaic Period

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 134

This box pendant is topped with a tiny hedgehog whose round eyes and pointed snout have been indicated with wire tube whose projecting tongue is created with a granulated strip.

The hedgehog was well-known and observed throughout both Egyptian and Greek antiquity. Egyptians had long worn amulets of the small animal - possibly connecting its ability to hibernate and reemerge with rebirth - and its ability to roll into a tiny ball was admired.

Hedgehog on box pendant, Gold

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