A pendant depicting a ba-bird with outstretched wings

A pendant depicting a ba-bird with outstretched wings

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ba-bird amulets, like this rare beautifully inlaid example, were placed on the chest of a mummy, presumably as protective substitute for an individual’s own ba. The ba-bird was the part of a human activated after death: it was commissioned to visit the world of living as well as oversee critical events during the deceased’s passage from this world to the next. The earliest, a gold foil example, was included in Tutankhamun’s mummy (ca. 1327 B.C.), but those of Dynasty 26 and later (664-332 B.C.), parallel the one here.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A pendant depicting a ba-bird with outstretched wingsA pendant depicting a ba-bird with outstretched wingsA pendant depicting a ba-bird with outstretched wingsA pendant depicting a ba-bird with outstretched wingsA pendant depicting a ba-bird with outstretched wings

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.