Model tambourine with rosette border, Bastet on one side, her boat with naos on the other

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Faience model tambourines such as this one were festival offerings to Bastet, who, like the other great goddesses, is associated with the myth in which a daughter or quasi-daughter of the god Re had to be lured back to Egypt from self-imposed exile in Nubia. At festivals in Bubastis celebrating Bastet's return, the goddess sailed upon her Isheru, or temple lake, which is the event being illustrated on the model tambourine.

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