Cow rattle

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This rattle has the form of a cow with stumps indicating the protruding knees of its legs folded beneath its body and the tail lying along its back. The animal raises and turns its head, seemingly agitated. The confined form of the body is, on the one hand, necessitated by the need to hold and shake the object. On the other hand, the composition of the figure recalls very much Egyptian representations of agitated cattle bound and awaiting sacrifice, which raises the possibility the rattle accompanied a temple or funeral ceremony where such animals were offered. Rattles are known already in the Predynastic Period, those preserved having simple shapes. With the Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom some animal forms appear, generally rather compressed. The Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom see more elaborate forms. Several rattles were found at the late eighteenth dynasty city of Amarna; two in particular were well-preserved, one with the form of a bound antelope and the other a gourd shaped rattle with a gazelle’s head.

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