Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Faience Hedgehog
Middle Kingdom
Not on view
This object is not part of The Met collection. It was in the Museum for a special exhibition and has been returned to the lender.
Already in the Early Dynastic Period, Egyptians deposited faience figurines of wild animals in temple precincts. These figurines were reintroduced in the Twelfth Dynasty, but as a component of burial equipment and with new species added to the repertoire. The controlled representation of desert animals may have assured the Egyptians of eternal safety, though they also likely had symbolic meanings.
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