An Egyptian Hippopotamus Figure Author(s): Albert M. Lythgoe Reviewed work(s): Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Vol.

12, No. 4 (Apr., 1917), pp. 77-78 Published by: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3253616 . Accessed: 15/09/2012 14:35
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BULLETIN

OF THE METROPOLITAN

MUSEUM

OF ART

AN EGYPTIAN HIPPOPOTAMUS FIGURE

T HE Museumhas just receivedas a gift from Edward S. Harkness a blue-glazed which is a parfigure of a hippopotamus ticularlyfine exampleof a type found, in commonwith variousother animal forms, among the funeraryfurnishingsof tombs of the MiddleKingdom. The figurerepresents the animalas standingand measures 20 cm. in lengthand i icm. in height. It is of the materialwhich is generallybut inexactlytermedEgyptianfaience-a pottery base consistingof a fine white frit, covered with a thick vitreous glaze. The glaze is here a brilliant blue in color, which has becomea greenishblue in places from the action of the heat in the firing. With the the animal in his natidea of representing ural surroundings among the lowlands of the Nile, the figure is covered with a decorationin black line of lotus flowers, buds,and leaves. On a similar figurein the Cairo Museumthe thought is carriedstill further and butterfliesand birds are depicted flying among the reeds and flowers of the marshes. like the crocodile,is The hippopotamus, no longerto be found in Egypt proper,but has now retiredto the upperwaters of the Nile in the Sudan and tropicalAfrica. In ancient times, however,they were present in the lower reachesof the river in considerable numbers,and amongthe favorite scenesof sport depictedon the walls of the tomb-chambersof the nobles and high hunt figures dignitaries,the hippopotamus in the time of the particularly prominently, Old Kingdom. It is in the tombsof the MiddleKingdom that thesescenes,covering manysidesof the daily life and religiousbelief of the Egyptians, were supplementedby groups and series of figures, in the provisionfor the dead. By some powerof magic they were to ensurein the futurelife the continuation of his earthly activities and pleasures. Many of these groups are sculptured in wood and painted, and representa great variety of occupations. Excellent examplesof these are to be seen in our Sixth EgyptianRoom.

Less commonly in tombs of the same period are found figures of various types made of faience, among them the representations of various animals, including hippopotamisuch as the present example, crocodiles,foxes, apes, and dogs. In the excavations conducted by the Museum's Egyptian Expeditionon the cemeteriesof at Lishta considerable the MiddleKingdom numberof these glazedanimalfigureshave been found which are now on exhibitionin the Eighth Egyptian Room. The figurewhich has now been acquired by the Museumthroughthe generosityof Mr. Harkness,was found, together with a similarfigureof somewhatsmallersize, in Senbi," at Meir, Upper Egypt, in excavations conducted by Said Bey Khashaba under the supervision of the Egyptian Government.' Amongotherobjectsfound in the tomb at the same time, the Museum
acquired in
I911

May, 1910io,in the tomb of "The Steward,

a wooden

portrait

both statuette of Senbi and a Canopic-box, inscribed with his name and titles, now exhibitedin our Sixth EgyptianRoom.2 An inscribed alabaster head-rest,3which belongedto a "StewardSenbi,"was acquired the followingyear and is now shownin the same room. It may have come from this tomb also. From evidence yielded by the excavations at Meir, we know that the son of a contemporaryof Senbi lived during the We may conclude, therefore,that Senbi lived about the middleof that century and that all the materialfromhis tomb, including our newly acquiredhippopotamusfigure,may be dated very closelyto 1950B. C. A. M. L. RHYMING LEGENDS ON A BAVARIAN "FOOD BOTTLE" THE "food-bottle," per se, is one of the and interestingformsof most "intriguing" pewter. Its very name one writes with
'See Report by Ahmed Bey Kama!,in the Annalesdu Servicedes Antiquites,XI, p. 17. 2AccessionNos. 11.150.27 and 11.150.17A respectively.
3Accession No. 12.182.19.

reign of Amenemhet II (1938-1903 B. C.).

78

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BULLETIN THE

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METROPOLITAN MUSEUM
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NUMBER4

XII VOLUME

NEW YORK, APRIL, 1917

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HIPPOPOTAMUS XII

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