New Year Gift: Incense Spoon

Norman de Garis Davies

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The New Year festival celebrated the birth of the sun god and was associated with the rebirth of the king, as well as with renewal in general. Different traditions have been recorded as being part of this celebration. In New Kingdom tombs, scenes depict presentations of New Year gifts to the king. Among them was temple equipment, such as this golden incense spoon with a long handle. Gold was a popular material that was associated with the sun, and in the context of the new year, might additionally refer to the newborn sun god.

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