Description

This small pottery mould is used for the creation of amulets depicting the ancient Egyptian god Bes, who is shown here holding a tambourine and in the midst of dance.

It will be part of the upcoming Ashmolean Museum display "Fashioning Bodies in the Ancient World", curated by Kyle Lewis Jordan (Curating for Change Fellow, Ashmolean Museum and Pitt Rivers Museum), scheduled for launch in November 2023.

Bes was a household deity, tasked with the protection of new mothers and their infant children. He, like many Egyptian gods, has anthropomorphic qualities: he is part-man and part-lion. He also stands out among the gods for the fact that he is depicted with the embodiment of dwarfism. While he did not have large temples dedicated to him like some of the other gods, he was visually present in almost all aspects of daily life: on buildings, furniture, utensils, pottery, jewellery - even tattoos! Therefore, it's clear that he was a widely respected deity among the ancient Egyptians.

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Community curation: Bes' iconography is noteworthy in ancient Egyptian art for the fact that he presents this dualistic nature of being both playful, but also ferocious. He smiles and he dances, but he scowls and lashes out his tongue. In his depictions he is either naked or wearing elaborate and colourful dress, but neither detract from the very large musculature he possesses. His feline attributes - his ears, nose and tail - are both charming, but also provide him with the senses required to detect danger. The ancient Egyptians believed that the sudden laughter of babies was the result of Bes' dancing, while at the same time those same dances warded off rodents and illnesses - believed to be malevolent forces - which were a threat to the baby and mother's wellbeing. This may explain why, in the royal court of Pharaoh for most of ancient Egypt's history, we find dancers with dwarfism amongst their retinues.

- Kyle Lewis Jordan, Curating for Change Fellow, Ashmolean Museum and Pitt Rivers Museum