Segmented ball

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This small hollow ball features alternating blue and black segments, which are additionally separated by incised lines. Such faience balls have been found at several shrines dedicated to the goddess Hathor, as well as in funerary contexts. We thus do not know for sure if this particular ball is a donation to the goddess or if it might have had a funerary function.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art