Statue of a seated baboon

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Sacred Animal Necropolis at North Saqqara comprised catacombs and temples for several sacred species, among them the baboons who during their lifetimes were kept in the precinct of the Temple of Ptah-under-his-moringa-tree at Memphis. The temples and other surface structures all stood on a large connecting terrace built up against the cliff into which the catacombs were cut. This statue along with another of similar size but somewhat different appearance was found by the Egypt Exploration Society during its excavations at the Sacred Animal Necropolis. The statues had been anciently thrown down a stairway in the baboon catacombs, so that their original positions are not known. A position at the entrance to an internal gate within the catacombs or at the entrance to the catacombs themselves is possible, but one of the statues could also have stood in the Baboon Chapel adjacent to the entrance to the baboon complex. While the hamadryas baboon with its projecting facial whiskers, thick shoulder mane, and horizontal snout was characteristic of the New Kingdom and before, the smooth treatment of the head and shoulder mane seen in this sculpture reflects both the stylistic tendencies of the Late Period and also the introduction of other baboon species like the cynocephalus into Egypt. The snout, which is restored, has been adapted from other late representations.

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