Skip Navigation

Appliqué of Bound Prisoner

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

On View: Egyptian Orientation Gallery, 3rd Floor
Egyptian Metalwork

Egyptian artisans used both local and imported metals to make jewelry, vessels, tools, and other objects like the ones displayed here.


Gold existed as a pure metal in the desert east of Luxor and farther south in Nubia, whose name means “Gold Land,” but silver had to be imported from Crete, Cyprus, and Mesopotamia. Most electrum (a natural alloy of gold and silver) was brought from Nubia, but some was made in Egypt. Copper was the most commonly used metal in ancient Egypt.

Beginning in the late Middle Kingdom or shortly thereafter, workers learned how to produce bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, from metalsmiths in western Asia. By the New Kingdom, metalworkers had mastered techniques that are still practiced today, including hammering, soldering, burnishing, engraving, repoussé (creating a raised image on a metal sheet), sheetworking, and casting. In sheetworking—used to make bowls, basins, and some thin jewelry— rough metal slabs called ingots were hammered into thin sheets and shaped into the desired form. Individual sheets could be joined with rivets or by soldering. Workers made tools, statues, and thick jewelry such as rings by pouring molten metal into molds. While many Middle Kingdom objects were solid cast, by the end of the period artisans had learned the lost-wax method of casting, producing hollow metal pieces around a clay core.
MEDIUM Bronze
  • Place Made: Egypt
  • DATES ca. 1539–1190 B.C.E.
    DYNASTY Dynasty 18 to Dynasty 19
    PERIOD New Kingdom
    DIMENSIONS 1 3/4 x 3/8 x 2 1/2 in. (4.5 x 1 x 6.3 cm)  (show scale)
    ACCESSION NUMBER 75.52.2
    CREDIT LINE Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in Egyptian Orientation Gallery, 3rd Floor
    CAPTION Appliqué of Bound Prisoner, ca. 1539–1190 B.C.E. Bronze, 1 3/4 x 3/8 x 2 1/2 in. (4.5 x 1 x 6.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 75.52.2. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.75.52.2_NegC_print_bw.jpg)
    IMAGE overall, CUR.75.52.2_NegC_print_bw.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2013
    "CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
    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.
    RECORD COMPLETENESS
    Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.
     <em>Appliqué of Bound Prisoner</em>, ca. 1539–1190 B.C.E. Bronze, 1 3/4 x 3/8 x 2 1/2 in. (4.5 x 1 x 6.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 75.52.2. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.75.52.2_NegC_print_bw.jpg)