<em>Horus Falcon-Form Coffin</em>, 664–30 B.C.E. Bronze, gold, 11 3/4 x 2 3/4 x 11 1/2 in. (29.8 x 7 x 29.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 05.394. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum (Gavin Ashworth,er), 05.394_Gavin_Ashworth_photograph.jpg)

Horus Falcon-Form Coffin, 664–30 B.C.E. Bronze, gold, 11 3/4 x 2 3/4 x 11 1/2 in. (29.8 x 7 x 29.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 05.394. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum (Gavin Ashworth,er), 05.394_Gavin_Ashworth_photograph.jpg)

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Horus takes many different forms when he is depicted in Egyptian art: a falcon, a falcon-headed man or a sun. He symbolizes rule over disorder--something that Egyptian pharaohs wanted their subjects to understand and feel under their leadership.

Why did some animal shaped coffins have different animals inside?

There could be a couple reasons. Falcon-shaped coffins could have a shrew inside as a stand in for a mongoose or ichneumon, like a cat can stand for a lion. The representative of the mongoose was meant to protect the falcon from snakes.

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What does this headpiece represent?

That is the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, which was a common headdress for the pharaoh as the unifier of the two lands. The falcon was often associated with the king as the god of kingship, Horus. As a bird, he could be a symbol of the king as a link between the heavens and earth.

Horus Falcon-Form Coffin

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

The god Horus was the son of the first king and queen, Osiris and Isis. Thus, in human form, he is often worshipped as a child. But Horus was strongly associated with the falcon and, as a sky god, with the sun. Images of Horus as a child are often found in falcon mummy cemeteries mixed together with falcon-shaped mummy coffins, as if they have similar votive functions.

MEDIUM Bronze, gold

Place Made: Egypt

DATES 664–30 B.C.E.

DYNASTY Dynasty 26, or later

PERIOD Late Period to Ptolemaic Period

DIMENSIONS 11 3/4 x 2 3/4 x 11 1/2 in. (29.8 x 7 x 29.2 cm) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 05.394

CREDIT LINE Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund

PROVENANCE Archaeological provenance not yet documented; by 1905, acquired by Rollin and Feuardent, Paris, France; April 25, 1905, purchased from Rollin and Feuardent by the Brooklyn Museum.

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EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view

CAPTION Horus Falcon-Form Coffin, 664–30 B.C.E. Bronze, gold, 11 3/4 x 2 3/4 x 11 1/2 in. (29.8 x 7 x 29.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 05.394. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum (Gavin Ashworth,er), 05.394_Gavin_Ashworth_photograph.jpg)

IMAGE threequarter, 05.394_Gavin_Ashworth_photograph.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph (Gavin Ashworth, photographer), 2012

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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.

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Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

Why did some animal shaped coffins have different animals inside?

Thanks!

What does this headpiece represent?