Description:
The animal is depicted squatting on its hind-quarters, with his hands resting on his knees and revealing his pronounced genitalia. His plain mantle is hanging down the front and back of the baboon. The animal rests on an integral base with a rounded back edge.
Baboons evoked various associations in the minds of the ancient Egyptians: the intelligence and assumed wisdom of the animals linked them to Thoth, the god of wisdom; the sound and gestures they made at dawn implied divine adoration and jubilation in a secret sacred language, relating them to the sun god; and their virility and prominent genitalia linked them to procreation, gaining eternal life and regeneration (Pio (2018), p.126-127).
In the eyes of the ancient Egyptians, baboons were more than just animals. They had noticed that baboons began to scream shortly before sunrise, when the eastern sky began to light up a little, signaling the new beginning of life. In ancient texts the animals are described as the ones "that announce Re when this great god is to be born again (...) They dance for him, they jump for him, they sing for him, they sing praises for him, they should out for him (...) They are those who announce Re in heaven and on earth" (Te Velde, p. 130; Assmann (1983), p. 30). In this capacity, they may be an early manifestation of the Hermopolito-Theban ogdoad (Zivie-Coche (2009), p. 173; Stadler (2012), p. 3).
However, apart from their natural animal sounds, baboons were believed to speak another, secret language, possibly because the sounds they made at daybreak sounded as if coming from another world. They were considered to possess hidden knowledge and to be able to converse with the creator god. The pharaoh knew the secret language of the baboons (Assmann (1970), p. 21; Te Velde, p. 133-134), and texts inform us that he also knew their secret form.
Baboons were called "ba's of the east" (Assmann (1983), p. 29; 68). The concept of the ba (often translated incorrectly as "soul") is rather complex, but we do know that the Egyptians also knew the "ba's of the north", that were seen incorporated in migratory birds; these too were creatures that had a second, secret form, and were able to make sounds in an unusual way.
In the cenotaph of Seti I at Abydos (the Osireion, with parallels on papyri and a block from a temple in Athribis) a scene shows the goddess of the sky, Nut, arching over the earth and supporting herself on her arms and legs. Behind her back lies an area that does not belong to the created, visible world. It is from this place of complete darkness that birds come into the created world, like migratory birds come into Egypt. The accompanying text explains that these animals "have faces like men, but their nature is that of birds. One of them speaks to the other in human speech (...) When they come in Egypt under the rays of heaven, their shapes become birdlike" (Frankfort, Volume I, p. 73; Volume II, pls. 75-76; 81; Von Lieven, p. 76; 408; § 73–75; Zago, p. 517). In other words, in the created world these animals had their usual appearance of birds and made the sounds of birds, but in yonder world their shape was that of a ba-bird, and they made different sounds. When they crossed the boundary between the two worlds, a transformation took place. A similar transformation has been suggested for the baboons, although it is unknown what their secret form was.
In any case, since baboons were considered the ideal adorers of the sun god, man hoped to become one of them (Te Velde, p. 129; Pio (2018), p. 2; Book of the Dead, spell 100: "I have joined the baboons and I am one of them").
Baboons were also worshipped in Egypt as a manifestation of the god Thoth, one of the oldest deities of the Egyptian pantheon, and best known as a god of writing and wisdom, a lunar deity, and vizier of the gods, a cosmic deity, creator god, and warrior. The Egyptians observed the intelligence of baboons and their habit of contemplative staring, associating them with the god of wisdom (Pio (2018), p. 18-19).
There are many representations of baboons which are clearly a theriomorphic transformation of Thoth, such as the statue of a baboon in the cult chamber of the baboons at Tuna el-Gebel, the necropolis near Hermopolis, the chief cult center of Thoth (Kessler (1998), p. 35, pl. 9), or the image on votive stelae, which is identified by inscriptions as the Lord of Hermopolis. The association is also clear from texts, such as spell 126 from the Book of the Dead: O ye baboons who sit at the prow of the bark of Re, who cause truth to ascend to the Lord of the Universe, who judge both the needy and the rich (...) who live on truth and sip of truth, who lie not and whose abomination is sin (Allen (1974), p. 102; Pio (2018), p. 19).
However, it should be noted that not all images of a baboon represent Thoth (Stadler (2012), p. 3). For example, iconographic analysis of the vignettes in the Book of the Dead as well as of depictions on tomb walls indicates that the baboon motif figures in four broad thematic catagories: a) baboons as adorers (of the sun when rising in the east and when setting in the west), b) baboons as assessors (at the weighing of the Heart), c) baboons as guardians and gate-keepers (at the Lake of Fire (Book of the Dead spell 126) or at the gates of the underworld), and d) baboons as genii (for example Hapi, one of the children of Horus) (Pio (2018), p. 45-104).
The evident virility and prominent genitalia of baboon males, and the sexual receptivity of the females did not go unnoticed; Egyptians associated baboons with potency, power and procreation. The Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts already mention the baboon Baby, whose phallus is equated with the bolt of the doors of the sky, and who is called "Lord of the night sky, the bull of baboons"; he was a deity with the power of protection and procreation, embodying a life-preserving and life-giving force (Pio (2018), p. 23).
Bibliography:
Thomas George Allen, The Book of the Dead or Going Forth by Day. Ideas of the Ancient Egyptians Concerning the Hereafter as Expressed in Their Own Terms (Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization, volume 37) (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1974);
Jan Assmann, Der König als Sonnenpriester. Ein kosmographischer Begleittext zur kultischen Sonnenhymnik in thebanischen Tempeln und Gräbern (Abhandlungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Kairo, Ägyptologische Reihe, Band 7) (Glückstadt, Augustin, 1970);
Jan Assmann, Re und Amun. Die Krise des polytheistischen Weltbilds im Ägypten der 18.-20. Dynastie (Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis, 51) (Freiburg, Switzerland, Universitätsverlag; Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1983);
Henri Frankfort, The Cenotaph of Seti I at Abydos. Volume I: Text. Volume II; Plates (The Egypt Exploration Society, Excavation Memoir 39) (London, Egypt Exploration Society, 1933);
Dieter Kessler, Tuna el-Gebel II: Die Pavianskultkammer G-C-C-2. Mit einem Beitrag zu den Funden von Hans-Ulrich Onasch (Hildesheimer ägyptologische Beiträge, 43) (Hildesheim, Gerstenberg Verlag, 1998);
Alexandra von Lieven, The Carlsberg Papyri, volume 8: Das sogenannte Nutbuch. Grundriss des Laufes der Sterne (Copenhagen, Museum Tusculanum Press, 2007);
Helena Pio, Baboons in Ancient Egyptian Art. The Significance of the Baboon Motif in the Funerary Art of the New Kingdom (Stellenbosch, University of Stellenbosch, Department of Ancient Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, 2018);
Martin A. Stadler, "Thoth", in Jacco Dieleman - Willeke Wendrich (eds.), UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology (Los Angeles, 2012);
Herman te Velde, "Some Remarks on the Mysterious Language of the Baboons" in J.H. Kamstra - H. Milde - K. Wagtendonk (eds.), Funerary Symbols and Religion. Essays Dedicated to Professor M.S.H.G. Heerma van Voss on the occasion of his retirement from the Chair of the History of Ancient Religions at the University of Amsterdam (Kampen, J.H. Kok, 1988);
Silvia Zago, "A Cosmography of the Unknown. The qbhw (ntrw) Region of the Outer Sky in the Book of Nut", Bulletin de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale 121 (2021), p. 511-529;
Christiane Zivie-Coche, "L'Ogdoade à Thèbes à l'époque ptolémaïque et ses antécédents", in Christophe Thiers (ed.), Documents de théologies thébaines tardives (D3T 1) (Montpellier: Université Paul Valéry (Montpellier III), 2009), p. 167 - 225.
Dating:
Late Period, 25th-31st dynasty, circa 746-332 B.C.
Size:
Height 10 cm.
Provenance:
Collection of Gustave Mustaki, Alexandria, Egypt; exported from Egypt to the UK circa 1950; Elsa MacLellan, UK, by descent from the above; private collection, London, UK, by descent from the above; private collection, Rome, Italy, acquired in 2012; most recently with Charles Ede Ltd., London.
Condition:
An ancient hole drilled in the underside; the snout has been reattached; some fissures to the wood, mainly affecting the right knee and base; some wear, else intact. Extremely rare in wood.
Price:
€ 16,000
Stock number:
E1358