Male Statuette
Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art
On View: Pre-Dynastic, Egyptian Galleries, 3rd Floor
This flat, extremely elongated figure wears only a penis sheath. The arms, now mostly lost, originally extended down along the figure’s body. Inlays of another material once filled the vacant eyeholes.
MEDIUM
Ivory
DATES
ca. 3800–3650 B.C.E.
PERIOD
Predynastic Period, early Naqada I Period
ACCESSION NUMBER
35.1268
CREDIT LINE
Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
PROVENANCE
Archaeological provenance not yet documented; by 1910, acquired by Friedrich Wilhelm von Bissing; before 1934, acquired from von Bissing by the Scheurleer Museum, the Hauge, the Netherlands; 1935, purchased from the Scheurleer Museum by the Fondation Egyptologique Reine Elisabeth; 1935, purchased from the Fondation Egyptologique Reine Elisabeth by the Brooklyn Museum.
Provenance FAQ
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION
Free-standing elongated ivory figure of a man wearing a so-called Libyan sheath. Eyes circular and originally inlaid. Prominent ears, elongated face. Legs entirely in the round. Few details indicated on body. Arms, now missing, were very elongated, extending down well onto thighs.
Condition: Arms missing. Inlay of eyes missing. Back of head missing.
CAPTION
Male Statuette, ca. 3800–3650 B.C.E. Ivory, 11/16 x 7 1/16 in. (1.8 x 17.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 35.1268. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 35.1268_front_PS6.jpg)
IMAGE
front, 35.1268_front_PS6.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2011
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
RIGHTS STATEMENT
Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a
Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply.
Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online
application form (charges apply).
For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the
United States Library of Congress,
Cornell University,
Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and
Copyright Watch.
For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our
blog posts on copyright.
If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact
copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
RECORD COMPLETENESS
Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and
we welcome any additional information you might have.
Why's this guy so long?!
We're not sure. This figure dates to the earliest part of Egyptian civilization referred to as the "Predynastic Period;" it predates writing and many of the iconographic or spiritual beliefs we know of Egyptian civilization. It may be because of the material itself. The shape and size may have been restricted by the shape and size of the tusk it was made from.
Tell me more.
Not many people ask about this statuette from very early in ancient Egyptian history. The inlaid eyes were likely made from lapis lazuli, a brilliant blue stone that had to be imported from Afghanistan.
It's possible that this statuette was related to the cult of the god Min, a fertility god represented as a nude male. Min was very popular in certain regions of early Egypt and remained important for thousands of years.
