Late Period
664–332 B.C.E.
Gold
7/8 x 1 5/8 x 1/4 in. (2.2 x 4.2 x 0.6 cm)
Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
Brooklyn Museum
The Ba-Bird
The ba-bird is a familiar symbol to many who study ancient Egypt. Composite deities—those which combine animals and humans—became part of the Egyptian pantheon as early as the second Dynasty, and lasted through the long centuries of the Egyptian civilization.
Most early composite Egyptian deities are made of a human body with an animal head—Anubis, with his jackal's head, Hathor with a cow's head, Horus with the head of a falcon. The Old Kingdom examples of human headed animal bodies are limited to the Sphinx (with its lion's body and human head) and the ba-bird, illustrated above.
The ba is the energetic part of life that, according to Egyptian mythology, lived on after a human being died. The concept is probably closer to modern notions of a "spirit" rather than a "soul", an aspect of a human being which is freed at death to move out from the tomb and take whatever form it chose. The ba is illustrated on tomb walls and, by the New Kingdom carved into amulets and statues in the shape of a bird.
Sources and Further Information
Dunand, Françoise, Christiane Zivie-Coche, and David Lorton. 2004. Gods and Men in Egypt: 3000 BCE to 395 CE. Cornell University Press, Ithaca.
Evans, Elaine A. 1993. Ancient Egyptian Ba-Bird. Research Notes (of the McClung Museum) 14. Free to read online.
From February 12 through May 2, 2010, the Brooklyn Museum will present an exhibition of Egyptian artifacts, called To Live Forever. The exhibition features part of the Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund collection, which were taken from tombs dated between the Old Kingdom through the Roman period. This photo essay is built from photos provided by Brooklyn Museum.
