Upper part of a naos sistrum

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This upper part of a naos sistrum preserves the head and volutes derived from the Bat fetish and the naos frame with uraeus at the lower end. The Hathor emblem wears the straight wig that seems most common in the Late Period, rather than the curled wig seen on some sistra. The goddess’s face is always broad at the cheeks and flattened at the chin, but the quadrangular form here is emphasized by the lines of the hair drawn down across her forehead and behind her ears and by the emphatically squared chin. The angularity and the bright blue color make it possible this example dates somewhat earlier than some of the others exhibited here; the angularity is certainly seen, for example, in images of the god Bes from the Third Intermediate Period. Three holes on either side are provided for wires to hold rattle disks. Although faience is a relatively breakable material compared to wood or metal, there is no reason that faience sistra would not be suitable for single use or festival use, and traces of wear around the holes might suggest the wires were actually inserted in this example and the instrument used.

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