#ba bird

[dwellerinthelibrary]

I don’t know the name of the figure at left, who looks like a rather distorted jackal god, but he pops up on many papyri and coffins, waving his snakes. He’s one of many new deities (or demons) invented by the fertile imaginations of the 21st Dynasty, from which this coffin hails. It’s at the Michael C. Carlos Museum.

[On a yellow coffin, a human-headed bird with a green sun-disc on its head faces a jackal-headed god with a distorted body, his buttocks protruding and his legs seeming twisted. His naked body is blue, his head is green, his wig is red, and he holds three red snakes, a fourth one draped over his elbow.]

[fiercefauna]

Lil’ Do-Do Bug. Part of me suspects ancient Egyptians thought scarabs were cute. The little guy is a Ba bird.

[tredawakandan]

Some stuff.. 2nd Slide elaborates on how in different forms of media blacksmiths are usually the only black character in the show/movie/myth. As seen in the text the blacksmith character is known as the Founder of the race. The bottom text mentioned how surnames took the form of occupations & although I can't find the text I was looking for job titles also reflected the person doing specific crafts.

[theancientwayoflife]

~ Ba bird. Culture: Egyptian  Date: 3rd century B.C. Period: early Ptolemaic Medium: Gold, stone inlay

[dwellerinthelibrary]

Spells to keep you safe by Heidi  Kontkanen, who writes: “Detail from a papyrus at Cairo Museum.”

I don’t know the identity of this papyrus (yet), but to me it looks like a mythological papyrus, which presents “vignettes” or illustrations of chapters of the Book of the Dead. So it’s probably from the Third Intermediate Period.

ETA much later: It’s one of the two Amduat papyri of Tadimut!

[dwellerinthelibrary]

Cartonnage from a Twenty-First Dynasty mummy, on display at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco. This would have been part of an inner coffin. The winged goddess holding ma’at-feathers is Nut; her head is flanked by Wadjet and Nekhbet in the form of ureai. The deceased’s ba-bird is shown on both sides, arms raised in worship. At the top, two groups of baboons worship the rising sun, Khepri, in the form of a winged scarab.

[dwellerinthelibrary]

The 22nd Dynasty mummy-case of Tahai at the Antikenmuseum in Basel, Switzerland. This is great! You’ve got your obelisk with arms, you’ve got your tree goddess pouring out liquid into the hands of the deceased, you’ve got her ba-bird stooping to smell incense at the base of the tree.

[dwellerinthelibrary]

At the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam there’s a spectacular mummy, intact - even its amulets and beaded netting are in place - on display in an “exploded” view, the mummy itself hovering between the top and bottom of its case. Alas, I was unable to find a label, so I don’t know the mummy’s identity. Here are some of the figures on the bottom of the mummy case. Second from the right, Nekhbet in vulture form appears to perch atop the symbol of the West.

ETA: I found this coffin in the museum’s database. The mummy is a Theban priest who lived during the 21st Dynasty. How’s your Dutch? You can read more about this mummy in the Friends of the Museum’s newsletter. Hey -- there’s that bearded, snake-headed, mummiform god I keep seeing on these coffins! ETA: I’m calling him “the Gentleman” until I know his real name.