Mold for Bes-image Amulet

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This mold was used to make an amulet in the form of the Bes-image, either to be worn or for decoration in one of the palaces of Amenhotep III at his festival city of Malqata. Remnants of paste used to make the faience amulet can be seen in its crevices. The Bes-image represented a number of deities, in particular Bes and Aha, whose responsibilities generally centered on the guarding of children and their mothers during childbirth. In later times, he assisted in protecting the eternal survival of Egypt as recorded in a well-known myth of the Far Away Goddess. From the New Kingdom on, Bes has a close tie to music and is often depicted playing a different instruments. Either the protective nature of this deity or his musical ability could speak to a role at Malqata.

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