Object Image

Upper part of a naos sistrum

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...

750-525 BC
Faience
7.5in
26.7.986
Image and text © Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2020

Where you'll find this

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Permanent collection