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A bronze sculpture of a bird’s head at its side. It’s thin neck is curved up and has a long, narrow beak. It is mottled brown and green.

A bronze sculpture of a bird’s head at its side on a white background. The head faces the left of the image. It’s thin neck is curved up and has a small peg at the bottom. It’s eye is a small circle and it has a long, narrow beak that curves down. It is mottled brown and green throughout.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.1313
Title
Head of an Ibis (Thoth)
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
head, sculpture
Date
mid 7th-late 1st century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Africa, Egypt (Ancient)
Period
Late Period to Ptolemaic
Culture
Egyptian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/303935

Location

Location
Level 3, Room 3740, Ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Art, Ancient Egypt: Art for Eternity
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Leaded bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
14.5 x 3.2 x 16 cm (5 11/16 x 1 1/4 x 6 5/16 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Leaded Bronze:
Cu, 79.83; Sn, 16.14; Pb, 3.18; Zn, 0.008; Fe, 0.4; Ni, 0.04; Ag, 0.08; Sb, 0.09; As, 0.23; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, 0.01; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001

J. Riederer

Technical Observations: The surface is mineralized and pitted with small spots of red and green, but details in the eyes and beak are fairly well preserved. Diagonal dents at the back of the neck appear to be damage rather than decoration.

The ibis head is a solid cast. The surface between the mounting tang and the edge of the bottom of the neck is recessed so that the neck will meet the mounting surface evenly. Dark gray investment material (and some modern plaster) is present in this recess. The edges of the eye sockets are in very crisp relief and appear to have once held inlay, now completely lost. The fine lines accentuating the beak may have been reinforced with cold working.


Henry Lie (submitted 2001)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Grenville L. Winthrop, New York, NY, (by 1943), bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.1313
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
The standard details of this ibis head—ridged beak and facial marking—are rendered with sensitivity for the musculature of the animal, seen in the subtle indentation of the throat and the graceful curving of the neck. The blunted end of the beak may be the result of a casting flaw or a later blow. The hollowed sockets probably held inlays for the eyes.

The Sacred Ibis bird derives its modern name from its ancient associations with the cult of Thoth, the moon god. Thoth regulated time and embodied wisdom, hence his connection with scribes, who identified him as the inventor of writing. As a manifestation of Thoth, the ibis participated in the growing prevalence of animal cults in the Late and Ptolemaic periods. The main cultic centers of Thoth were located at Saqqara, Abydos, Kom Ombo, and Tuna el-Gebel (ancient Hermopolis) where extensive catacombs of mummified ibises developed. The cultic site at Saqqara has revealed over 1.5 million mummies, and over 4 million come from the Tuna-el-Gebel catacombs (1). The birds used in these rites may have been raised by the temples specifically for this purpose. Most were buried in jars, some in ibis-shaped coffins. The two Harvard examples represent only the head, and both display tangs for attachment to the body cavities of ibis coffins. In addition to the mummified specimens, sculptural representations served as votives, examples of which have been excavated at Saqqara, Abydos, and Tuna el-Gebel (2).

Still present in Egypt in relatively large numbers until the 19th century, the Sacred Ibis’ distinctive posture and coloring lent itself to representation in a variety of media. With their long curving beaks and graceful legs, ibises appear in painted scenes of papyrus marshes or are represented sculpturally in a seated pose with legs bent underneath their bodies. A dominant characteristic—the two-tone coloring that contrasts dark beak, head, neck, legs, and wing tips with white body—was translated by the ancient artists into mixed media, most often bronze head, legs and tail affixed to a white-painted wooden body. More elaborate versions included gold, silver, and semi-precious stone inlays (3).

NOTES:

1. P. F. Houlihan, The Birds of Ancient Egypt, The Natural History of Egypt 1 (Warminster, 1986) 28-30; and A. D. Wade et al., “Foodstuff Placement in Ibis Mummies and the Role of Viscera in Embalming,” Journal of Archaeological Science 39.5 (2012): 1642-47, esp. 1642.

2. G. T. Martin, The Sacred Animal Necropolis at North Saqqara: The Southern Dependencies of the Main Temple Complex (London, 1981); M. Saleh, The Egyptian Museum Cairo: Official Catalogue (Mainz, 1987) no. 256; G. Roeder, Ägyptische Bronzefiguren, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Mitteilungen aus der Ägyptischen Sammlung 6 (Berlin, 1956) 404; D. Kessler and M. Abd el-Halim Nur el-Din, “Tuna al-Gebel: Millions of Ibises and other Animals,” Divine Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt, ed. S. Ikram (Cairo, 2005) 120-63; and R. Bailleul-LeSuer, ed., Between Heaven and Earth: Birds in Ancient Egypt, exh. cat., Oriental Institute, University of Chicago (Chicago, 2012) 194-97.

3. For example, the silver and gold ibis-shaped coffin in the Brooklyn Museum (inv. no. 49.48); see R. A. Fazzini, R. S. Bianchi, J. F. Romano, and D. B. Spanel, Ancient Egyptian Art in the Brooklyn Museum (New York, 1989) no. 91; and Bailleul-LeSuer 2012 (supra 2) 189-91, no. 28.


Marian Feldman

Publication History

  • Jennifer Thum, "Taking the Nature of Things at Face Value, in Ancient Egypt and in Museums", Manual, Rhode Island School of Design Museum (Providence, Winter/Spring 2023), Issue 18, pp. 46-60, pp. 55-56, fig. 6
  • Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), p. 256 (checklist).

Exhibition History

  • 32Q: 3740 Egyptian, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes
  • Google Art Project

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu