Talking Pyramids

This weeks feature photo comes from the Brooklyn Museum’s Egypt collection:

Beginning in the New Kingdom, when the solar cycle became a major theme in art, small pyramid-shaped objects called pyramidions (which, like the pyramids themselves, were solar symbols) were made as separate funerary stelae or to cap the pyramids now built atop private tombs. On this pyramidion, its owner adores both the god Osiris and a solar deity, is protected by funerary deities, and receives libations from the gods Horus and Thoth. On the top, the goddess Isis spreads her wings protectively.

Pyramidion of a Woman, ca. 1185-718 B.C.E. Brooklyn Museum, Creative Commons-BY-NC

Pyramidion of a Woman, ca. 1185-718 B.C.E. Brooklyn Museum, Creative Commons-BY-NC

Medium: Limestone
Place Made: Egypt
Dates: ca. 1185-718 B.C.E.
Dynasty: XX Dynasty-XXII Dynasty
Period: New Kingdom-Third Intermediate Period
Dimensions: 8 9/16 x 8 1/16 x 5 1/8 in. (21.8 x 20.5 x 13 cm)
Collections: Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art
Museum Location: This item is not on view
Accession Number: 05.336
Credit Line: Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
Rights Statement: Creative Commons-BY-NC

Pyramidion of a Woman, ca. 1185-718 B.C.E. Limestone, 8 9/16 x 8 1/16 x 5 1/8 in. (21.8 x 20.5 x 13 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 05.336. Creative Commons-BY-NC

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