Lidded container in the shape of a Bes-image

In sharp contrast with earlier versions of such containers, which tend to depict longer and more graceful deities, this example takes the form of a squatting Bes-image. The vessel’s bottom-heavy shape was a new style, but the curly beard, rounded eyebrows, and presence of a leopard skin, now somewhat eroded, are known from other representations and point to the Late Period. The lid displays three straight feathers, moreover, another iconographic element that, based on other examples, argues that this container dates to after the Third Intermediate Period. However, his ears have holes, a style more commonly seen in earlier Bes-image rattles, and his clenched hands likewise have holes, suggesting, perhaps, that he once held a pair of sticks, snakes, knives, or water lilies, as other Bes-images did in slightly earlier times.

Although this type of container, in a complete state, is not a well-known object type, there are numerous small figurines and amulets of similar form. A fine example in the Cleveland Museum of Art (1995.13) is made of Egyptian blue and has the remains of red and yellow pigment on the figure’s tongue and the leopard skin. Scholar Kenneth J. Bohač has suggested that the squat form looks like a baboon, but there is no reason to link Bes-images to that animal; here the deity has simply retained his dwarflike characteristics. One wonders, in fact, if this version of a Bes-image isn’t just a redirection of the form found on the earlier rattles, taking their squat bodies, with rings in the ears and feathers, and transforming them with an eye to a new purpose.