Hedgehog on box pendant

Hedgehog on box pendant

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This box pendant is topped with a tiny hedgehog whose round eyes and pointed snout have been indicated with wire tube whose projecting tongue is created with a granulated strip. The hedgehog was well-known and observed throughout both Egyptian and Greek antiquity. Egyptians had long worn amulets of the small animal - possibly connecting its ability to hibernate and reemerge with rebirth - and its ability to roll into a tiny ball was admired.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hedgehog on box pendantHedgehog on box pendantHedgehog on box pendantHedgehog on box pendantHedgehog on box pendant

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.