Statuette of a Baboon

Culture: Egyptian Material: Limestone Dims: H 19.5 Accession No: MG 005 Current Location: The Hunt Museum, Limerick. A baboon carved from limestone, squats with forearms resting on its knees. A hole in the crown indicates a headdress, a gilded wood sun disc or moon. The smooth face and shoulders indicates the Later Period rather than a New Kingdom hamadryas. The baboon was a manifestation of the god Thoth, a moon deity, who personified divine speech and was a god of writing, mathematics, astronomy and healing. Baboons were common at the animal necropolis in North Saqqara.