© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University. Photo by Peter Harholdt.

ClassificationsAncient Egyptian Art

Ba-Bird Statuette

Place CreatedEgypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodThird Intermediate Period

Date1076-723 BCE

MediumWood, pigment

Credit LineCharlotte Lichirie Collection of Egyptian Art

Dimensions4 3/4 x 1 3/8 in. (12.1 x 3.5 cm)

Object number1999.001.139

Label TextThe ba, represented as a human-headed bird, was a spirit form of the deceased that was believed to be able to depart the mummy and tomb by day, assume any form of existence it pleased in the outside world, and return again at sunset. Such figures were often used to decorate wooden stelae or other funerary furniture and were brightly painted. This one has lost most of its paint except for some traces around the face.
Exhibition HistoryMonsters, Demons & Winged Beasts: Composite Creatures in the Ancient World, Michael C. Carlos Museum, February 5 - June 19, 2011
MCCM Permanent Collection Galleries, March 11, 2024 - Present
Published ReferencesPeter Lacovara and Betsy Teasley Trope, The Realm of Osiris (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2001), 17.
Rune Nyord, Seeing Perfection: Ancient Egyptian Images beyond Representation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020), 23, Figure 6.

ProvenanceEx coll. Niagara Falls Museum, Niagara Falls, Canada. Purchased by MCCM from William Jamieson (1954-2011) [Golden Chariot Productions], Toronto, Canada.

Status

On view

Collections