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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
  • Place Made: Egypt
  • DATES ca. 3800–3650 B.C.E.
    PERIOD Predynastic Period, early Naqada I Period
    DIMENSIONS 11/16 x 7 1/16 in. (1.8 x 17.9 cm)  (show scale)
    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.
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    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.
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in Pre-Dynastic, Egyptian Galleries, 3rd Floor
    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
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    RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
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