Head from a Ba Statue in the Brooklyn Museum, May 2011

Culture: Nubian

Title: Head from a Ba-Bird Statue

Date: 1st century B.C.E.–2nd century C.E.

Period: Meroitic Period

Medium: Sandstone

Classification: Sculpture

Dimensions: 6 3/4 x 5 x 6 in. (17.1 x 12.7 x 15.2 cm)

Credit Line: Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund

Accession Number: 75.26

Object Label: The ancient Egyptians represented the ba (soul) as a human-headed bird, and the Nubians of the Meroitic Period (circa 270 b.c.e.–c.e. 350) took this idea to create their own type of ba-statues, with human bodies and bird’s wings. They also carved these sculptures, which were made for tombs, in a non-Egyptian style that approaches abstraction.

Caption: Nubian. Head from a Ba-Bird Statue, 1st century B.C.E.–2nd century C.E.. Sandstone, 6 3/4 x 5 x 6 in. (17.1 x 12.7 x 15.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 75.26. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)


Text from: www.brooklynmuseum.org/objects/101497