Mongoose Figure

Mongoose Figure

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

During the Late Period and Ptolemaic times mongooses were represented in bronze statuettes such as this one, standing, forepaws raised, atop small bronze boxes. The pose of raised paws signifies the animal's adoration of the sun god when he rises in the morning. Some scholars have identified these animals as otters rather than mongooses. In myth, mongooses were particularly attached to the goddess of Lower Egypt Wadjet, whose cult was centered in Buto, in the northern Delta.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.