Categories
Egyptian Artifacts

Monkey Statue from Amarna

How cute is this blue 𓇋𓁹𓏏𓄿𓏸π“₯ faience π“‹£π“ˆ–π“π“Έπ“Ό statue 𓏏𓅱𓏏𓀾 of a monkey π“ŽΌπ“„Ώπ“†‘π“ƒΈ?

Monkey Statue
A blue faience monkey statue from Amarna on display at the Brooklyn Museum

This statue 𓏏𓅱𓏏𓀾 is from Amarna π“ˆŒπ“π“‰π“‡‹π“π“ˆ–π“Š– and is dated to Akhenaten’s π“‡‹π“π“ˆ–π“‡³π“…œπ“π“ˆ– reign π“‹Ύπ“ˆŽπ“ in the 18th Dynasty. This piece strikes me as interesting for an Amarna-era piece because it doesn’t look like the β€œtypical” Amarna-era art style! It’s more realistic looking instead of having exaggerated features!Β 

One really cool feature about this monkey π“ŽΌπ“„Ώπ“†‘π“ƒΈ statue 𓏏𓅱𓏏𓀾 is that his ears are pierced! It’s possible that in antiquity the statue 𓏏𓅱𓏏𓀾 had earrings – how cool is that? The Brooklyn Museum has speculated that the presence of an earring would be an indication that this statue 𓏏𓅱𓏏𓀾 represented a household pet. If a person had a monkey π“ŽΌπ“„Ώπ“†‘π“„› as a household pet in ancient Egypt π“†Žπ“…“π“π“Š–, that meant that the person was extremely wealthy because monkeys had to be imported into Egypt π“†Žπ“…“π“π“Š– from far away and were extremely expensive! 

The monkey π“Ž‘π“‡Œπ“ƒΈ also seems to be holding something round in his hands – my guess is that it’s some type of fruit! 

There are a lot of different ways to write the word for β€œmonkey” in hieroglyphs π“ŠΉπ“Œƒπ“ͺ, however, a lot of these variants are similar except for the determinative used at the end! Here’s a list of some of the variants here (there are actually too many to list): 

π“ŽΌπ“„Ώπ“†‘π“ƒ»

π“ŽΌπ“„Ώπ“†‘π“ƒΈ

π“ŽΌπ“„Ώπ“†‘π“„›

π“ŽΌπ“„Ώπ“†‘π“„œ

π“Ž‘π“‡Œπ“ƒΈ

π“†“π“Ž›π“†“π“Ž›π“ƒ»

Thank you to my sister π“Œ’π“ˆ–π“π“ for taking this wonderful picture 𓏏𓅱𓏏!

This is my personal photograph and original text. DO NOT repost. 

Follow me @ancientegyptblogΒ onΒ InstagramΒ andΒ TikTokΒ to learn all about ancient Egypt, hieroglyphs, mythology, culture and more!Β