Figure of baboon on a basket and with a pillar, the shebet offering

Figure of baboon on a basket and with a pillar, the shebet offering

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The mummiform baboon squats on a basket with a pillar behind him. The nature of this object is still under discussion. The image of the baboon might allude to the god Thoth. Only rarely do we know the archeological context to which these objects belong, but a few of them are known to come from an area in Saqqara near one of the main ibis cemeteries. Another example arrives from Hermopolis, one of the main sites in which Thoth was celebrated. In imagery, however, it is mostly kings who are represented offering an object in this form and mostly to goddesses.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Figure of baboon on a basket and with a pillar, the shebet offeringFigure of baboon on a basket and with a pillar, the shebet offeringFigure of baboon on a basket and with a pillar, the shebet offeringFigure of baboon on a basket and with a pillar, the shebet offeringFigure of baboon on a basket and with a pillar, the shebet offering

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.