THIRD INTERMEDIATE TO LATE PERIOD, CIRCA 1069-332 B.C.

Possibly a fitting from the prow of a processional barque, this small bronze head of a goddess with cow’s horns and sun disk originally had inlaid eyes. The identity of the goddess is not certain but could either be Hathor or Amunet, the consort of Amun. Her circular modius is entirely ringed with uraei, and a larger uraeus at her brow has recessed areas to receive inlays. The surface finish implies that it was once gilded. Only the upper portion of the head is fully in the round with its rear portion hollowed out and open at the base, most likely for the insertion of a wooden element. A similarly sized example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art preserving inlays and gilding has been suggested by M. Hill to be a metal fitting for a processional barque, and it is likely that many small bronzes previously understood as votives in fact once adorned processional ritual equipment (see M. Hill, ed., Gifts for the Gods: Images from Egyptian Temples, no. 66).

D.A. Falk (pp. 159-160 in Ritual Processional Furniture: A Material and Religious Phenomenon in Egypt (PhD. diss., University of Liverpool)) has noted that “several figureheads from sacred barques are extant scattered among museums worldwide." Although these objects might seem small to have adorned the prow of processional barques, studies by K. Eaton have revealed that the actual width and length of wooden barques must have been limited in many cases by the narrow doorways and passages of barque sanctuaries in Egyptian temples (see p. 73 in The Ritual Functions of Processional Equipment in the Temple of Seti I at Abydos (PhD. diss., New York University)).