<em>Model of Ceremonial Mace Head</em>, ca. 1938–1759 B.C.E. Faience, 2 1/4 x Diam. 1 15/16 in. (5.7 x 5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 59.199.2. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.59.199.2_erg456.jpg)

Model of Ceremonial Mace Head, ca. 1938–1759 B.C.E. Faience, 2 1/4 x Diam. 1 15/16 in. (5.7 x 5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 59.199.2. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.59.199.2_erg456.jpg)

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Model of Ceremonial Mace Head

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

Foundation Deposits

In addition to commissioning new buildings, Egyptian kings occasionally claimed existing structures such as temples or palaces as their own.

The most common way for a king to do this was to substitute his own name for that of the original builder in the inscriptions. When a king commissioned a new structure, he buried objects in the four corners of the foundation to be certain that the gods would remember the true builder and that later kings could not find and reinscribe them. These so-called foundation deposits usually included plaques with the king’s name, as well as models of objects used to erect the building, such as grinders, hoes, and rockers needed to move large stones.

MEDIUM Faience

Place Excavated: Lisht, Egypt

DATES ca. 1938–1759 B.C.E.

DYNASTY Dynasty 12

PERIOD Middle Kingdom

DIMENSIONS 2 1/4 x Diam. 1 15/16 in. (5.7 x 5 cm) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 59.199.2

CREDIT LINE Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund

CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Pear-shaped mace head in dark blue faience. Surface decorated in manganese with lotus petals; small circle in manganese at top center. Cylindrical opening for attachment on base. Condition: Intact. Scattered chips on upper body.

EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view

CAPTION Model of Ceremonial Mace Head, ca. 1938–1759 B.C.E. Faience, 2 1/4 x Diam. 1 15/16 in. (5.7 x 5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 59.199.2. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.59.199.2_erg456.jpg)

IMAGE overall, CUR.59.199.2_erg456.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 9/6/2007

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RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY

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