Furniture element with a monkey

Unknown

ca. 18th century BCE · Ivory (hippopotamus) · Ancient Near Eastern Art

This fragment belongs to a group of carved ivories, mostly furniture elements, probably found at the site of a palace at Acemhöyük in central Anatolia. Like most of the ivories from Acemhöyük, this object depicts imagery borrowed and transformed from Egyptian sources. A curved leg for a small piece of furniture is decorated with a seated monkey carved nearly in the round. The monkey’s posture is compact, with bent knees pulled up to the chest and hands on the head. Its mouth is slightly open, showing a row of teeth. Monkeys were beloved by the ancient Egyptians, and their representations in Egyptian art show them both as mischievous pets, and as symbols of fecundity and magical sexual powers in the afterlife when depicted on scarabs and amulets.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 18th century BCE

Medium

Ivory (hippopotamus)

Culture

Old Assyrian Trading Colony

Department

Ancient Near Eastern Art

Credit line

Gift of Mrs. George D. Pratt, in memory of George D. Pratt, 1936