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Finial of Tefnut as a Cobra
© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University

48-Finial of Tefnut as a Cobra

Title Finial of Tefnut as a Cobra
Era Egyptian, Late Period–Ptolemaic Period, 760–30 BCE
Medium Bronze
Credit Gift of the Georges Ricard Foundation. 2018.10.52

Ceremonial wooden staffs were topped with bronze finials of cobras, falcons, and other animals. This finial depicts a rearing cobra on top of a papyrus. Similar cobra finials were found in the falcon catacombs in North Saqqara.1 Other papyriform cobra finials were discovered at the Greek settlement of Naukratis.2

MH

  1. . ↩︎

  2. Cf. MFA 86.258. ↩︎

Bibliography

Davies and Smith 2005
Davies, Sue and H.S. Smith. 2005. The Sacred Animal Necropolis at North Saqqara: The Falcon Complex and Catacomb, The Archaeological Report. EES Excavation Memoir 73. London: Egypt Exploration Society, 2005.
Finial of Tefnut as a Cobra
© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University