Group of Three Monkeys
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
The British archaeologist and Egyptologist Sir Flinders Petrie found at least twenty-three crudely modeled figures of monkeys in a dump at Amarna in 1891–92. Some of the figures play harps, lyres, or flutes. Others hold their young, eat or drink, and even drive chariots. These figures have been interpreted as popular caricatures of the royal family. If this was their true purpose, then acceptance of royal dogma, including respect for the king and the god Aten, was not nearly as complete as Akhenaten imagined.
Caption
Group of Three Monkeys, ca. 1352–1336 B.C.E.. Limestone, pigment, 3 15/16 × 1 5/8 × 1/2 in. (10 × 4.2 × 1.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield, Theodora Wilbour, and Victor Wilbour honoring the wishes of their mother, Charlotte Beebe Wilbour, as a memorial to their father, Charles Edwin Wilbour, 16.81. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
Gallery
Not on view
Gallery
Not on view
Title
Group of Three Monkeys
Date
ca. 1352–1336 B.C.E.
Dynasty
late Dynasty 18
Period
New Kingdom, Amarna Period
Geography
Possible place made: Tell el-Amarna, Egypt
Medium
Limestone, pigment
Classification
Dimensions
3 15/16 × 1 5/8 × 1/2 in. (10 × 4.2 × 1.3 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield, Theodora Wilbour, and Victor Wilbour honoring the wishes of their mother, Charlotte Beebe Wilbour, as a memorial to their father, Charles Edwin Wilbour
Accession Number
16.81
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