Miniature Bust, ca. 1336–1327 B.C.E., ca. 1327–1323 B.C.E., or ca. 1323–1295 B.C.E. Wood, 3 1/16 x 2 1/16 in. (7.8 x 5.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 53.246. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 53.246_SL3.jpg)
Miniature Bust, ca. 1336–1327 B.C.E., ca. 1327–1323 B.C.E., or ca. 1323–1295 B.C.E. Wood, 3 1/16 x 2 1/16 in. (7.8 x 5.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 53.246. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.53.246_wwg8.jpg)
Miniature Bust, ca. 1336–1327 B.C.E., ca. 1327–1323 B.C.E., or ca. 1323–1295 B.C.E. Wood, 3 1/16 x 2 1/16 in. (7.8 x 5.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 53.246. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.53.246_emagic.jpg)
Miniature Bust
Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art
On View: 19th Dynasty to Roman Period, Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Gallery, 3rd Floor
Found in both houses and funerary chapels, busts such as this one were a focus for ancestor worship during the New Kingdom. Just as unhappy ghosts represented a threat to the living, one's relatives among the glorified dead who had been transformed into beings known as akhs could help with earthly problems and act as intermediaries to the powers on the "other side." Indeed, people even wrote messages to deceased relatives requesting aid in connection with a multitude of problems in their daily lives.
