- Museum number
- EA49144
- Description
-
Hollow-cast, copper alloy votive box, also known as relic-box or animal coffin; rectangular case surmounted by an elongated eel; small horizontal incised lines visible on body, just behind head; two suspension loops on opposite corners of top of case; corroded; small end at the back open; residue of white, light grey material, possibly plaster, still visible inside; such case should contain a mummified eel (or parts of).
- Production date
- 500 BC - 300 BC (late 5th - early 4th century?)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 1 centimetres (case)
-
Height: 1.85 centimetres (whole)
-
Length: 7.75 centimetres
-
Width: 1.35 centimetres (whole)
- Curator's comments
- Several votive boxes for eels were discovered in Naukratis. According to Petrie, the cache of bronzes found in a building located in the southern part of the city provided thirteen of this category of votive boxes (Petrie 1886, 41-42). This specimen could originate from this cache that can be dated around the end of the 5th-beginning of the 4th century BC (Masson 2015). However, Griffith signalled in his notes from January 1885 several bronze reptile cases in a trench located outside the Great Temenos (Masson forthcoming b).
Eels were particularly associated to the solar god and demiurge Atum (Myśliwiec 1981; Weiss 2012, 267-268). They belong to the type T 5 in the typology of animal bronzes by K. Weiss (Weiss 2012, 720-721, Taf. 40e-g, Typ T 5, esp. Nr. 721-723 from Naukratis).
Masson, A. 2015, ‘Cult and Trade. A reflexion on Egyptian metal offerings from Naukratis’, in D. Robinson and F. Goddio (eds), Thonis Heracleion in Context, Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology Monograph 8, Oxford, 71-88.
Masson, A. forthcoming b, ‘Naukratis: Egyptian offerings in context’, in M. Bergeron and A. Masson (eds), Naukratis in Context: Cults, Sanctuaries and Offerings, Proceedings of the second Naukratis workshop, held at the British Museum 22nd – 23rd June 2013.
Myśliwiec, K., ‘Aal oder Schlange? – Atum oder Mereseger?’, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Abteilung Kairo 37, 1981, 377-382.
Petrie, W. M. F. 1886, Naukratis. Part I, 1884-5 (Third Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund), London, 41-42.
Weiss, K. 2012, Ägyptische Tier- und Götterbronzen aus Unterägypten : Untersuchungen zu Typus, Ikonographie und Funktion sowie der Bedeutung innerhalb der Kulturkontakte zu Griechenland, Ägypten und Altes Testament 81, 267-268, 720-721, Taf. 40, Typ T 5 (see Nr. 767 for this specimen, but wrongly attributed to the type 14).
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- fair (corroded)
- Acquisition date
- 1885
- Department
- Egypt and Sudan
- BM/Big number
- EA49144
- Registration number
- 1885,1101.579