Ligula (Ear Pick)

PeriodPtolemaic Period - Roman Period

Date199 BCE - 500 CE

MediumBronze

Credit LineGift of the Georges Ricard Foundation

Dimensions10 1/16 x 3/8 x 3/8 in., 44 g (25.5 x 0.9 x 0.9 cm, 1 9/16 oz.)

Object number2018.010.090

Label TextThe practice of medicine in the Ptolemaic–Roman periods introduced many instruments. Probes with shafts mounting spatulas, spoons, and scoops were primarily pharmaceutical and used to measure, prepare, and apply medication. They were also utilized for exploring, cauterizing, cleaning, piercing, retracting, and scraping. Ear wax buildup was cleared with ligulas. Several of these instruments appear in relief on the north corner of the outer ambulatory in the twin temple of Horus-the-Elder and Sobek at Kom Ombo, Egypt, which dates to the Ptolemaic and Roman periods.
Exhibition HistoryLife and the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Art from the Senusret Collection, Michael C. Carlos Museum, February 4 - August 6, 2023
Published ReferencesMelinda K. Hartwig, ed. Life and the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Art from the Senusret Collection (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2023), catalogue entry 18.

ProvenancePurchased by Georges Ricard (1921-2012) from Hotel des Ventes, Marseille, France, November 29, 1974, lot 127. Ex coll. Musée de l'Égypte et le Monde Antique, Collection Sanousrit, Monaco, 1975-1982. Ex coll. Georges Ricard Foundation, Santa Barbara, California.

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