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Statuette of a Baboon
View through Harvard Museums
As the hieroglyphic writing around all four sides of its base tells us, this statuette was dedicated to the god Thoth and inscribed for a man named Paser. It may have stood in a temple to the god (perhaps at Hermopolis or Karnak). It depicts a baboon squatting with its hands resting on its knees. The monkey’s long tail curves around its proper right side. As is usual for Egyptian baboon sculptures, the genitalia project between the animal’s feet, emphasizing his sexual potency and prowess.
The baboon could represent Thoth, a moon god and god of writing and science. Since the inscription reveals that Paser was a scribe, he would have viewed Thoth as his patron. The inscription emphasizes Paser’s silence and good character, giving us a sense of the ideal temperament for scribes in the Egyptian world.
The monkey’s fur is not indicated by carving, but may have been rendered in paint. Traces of a reddish brown pigment, likely hematite, an iron ocher, survive in some of the areas where the figure joins the base, as well as in some of the hieroglyphs. Red is also attested for other baboon images.
There is no hole in the statuette’s head for an attachment such as the lunar disk atop a crescent moon familiar from other images of Thoth. The statue is a little lop-sided, and its base is rough below. Its surface is pitted and chipped, and the inscription is quite worn in parts. An Arab number is written on the chest.
Department of Ancient and Byzantine Art & Numismatics
[C. Dikran Kelekian Ancient Arts New York (by 1976)] sold; to Robert and Sally Huxley New York (1976-2020) gift; to the Harvard Art Museums.
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum Gift of Robert and Sally Huxley in memory of the Kelekian Family
Title: Statuette of a Baboon
Description:
As the hieroglyphic writing around all four sides of its base tells us, this statuette was dedicated to the god Thoth and inscribed for a man named Paser.
It may have stood in a temple to the god (perhaps at Hermopolis or Karnak).
It depicts a baboon squatting with its hands resting on its knees.
The monkey’s long tail curves around its proper right side.
As is usual for Egyptian baboon sculptures, the genitalia project between the animal’s feet, emphasizing his sexual potency and prowess.
The baboon could represent Thoth, a moon god and god of writing and science.
Since the inscription reveals that Paser was a scribe, he would have viewed Thoth as his patron.
The inscription emphasizes Paser’s silence and good character, giving us a sense of the ideal temperament for scribes in the Egyptian world.
The monkey’s fur is not indicated by carving, but may have been rendered in paint.
Traces of a reddish brown pigment, likely hematite, an iron ocher, survive in some of the areas where the figure joins the base, as well as in some of the hieroglyphs.
Red is also attested for other baboon images.
There is no hole in the statuette’s head for an attachment such as the lunar disk atop a crescent moon familiar from other images of Thoth.
The statue is a little lop-sided, and its base is rough below.
Its surface is pitted and chipped, and the inscription is quite worn in parts.
An Arab number is written on the chest.
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