Goose Head Finial of Cosmetics Box or Spoon

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Goose Head Finial of Cosmetics Box or Spoon

Place of OriginEgypt, Akhetaten (modern Amarna)

DateLate 18th Dynasty (about 1350–1300 BCE)

DimensionsH: 1 15/16 in. (4.9 cm)

MediumIvory.

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LineGift of the Egyptian Exploration Society

Object number

1925.674

Not on View

DescriptionCarved in ivory, this is the head of a goose with detailed modeling of the beak and crest. It was originally part of a cosmetic container shaped like a bird, likely functioning as the terminal peg or lid for a hinged-winged box or spoon. These elite objects were hollowed to hold scented oils, with the wings acting as lids and the bird’s body forming a bowl. Goose heads were carved separately and pegged in. This example likely once topped such a ritualized toilet object.

Label TextThis ivory goose head once formed part of an elite cosmetic spoon or box, shaped like a waterfowl and likely used to hold perfumed oils. Beyond its role in personal grooming, such an object carried profound symbolic meaning. The goose (smn) became associated with the Egyptian creator god Amun during the Middle Kingdom, first appearing in personal names such as Semenet-Amon ("the smn goose of Amun") in the 13th Dynasty. By the New Kingdom, this connection had deepened. Goose imagery appears in funerary and votive contexts, symbolizing rebirth and divine creation. The association was powerful enough that during the reign of Akhenaten (c. 1353–1336 BCE), depictions of geese were deliberately mutilated as part of his campaign against Amun’s cult. The survival of this object—excavated at El-Amarna, Akhenaten’s own capital—is therefore significant. It may reflect continued private devotion to Amun and the enduring symbolism of the goose even under theological suppression.This finial is part of a matching pair excavated in 1922 in a residential house (P.46.11) in Amarna.Published ReferencesPeet, Thomas Eric, and C. Leonard Woolley, The City of Akhenaten, Part I: Excavations of 1921 and 1922 at El-'Amarneh, London, Egypt Exploration Society, 1923, p. 32, Pl. X, fig. 2.

Comparative Referencescf. Greet, Ben, “Waterfowl Imagery in the Material Culture of the Late Second Millennium BC Southern Levant,” in Fierce Lions, Angry Mice and Fat-Tailed Sheep: Animal Encounters in the Ancient Near East, edited by Laerke Recht and Christina Tsouparopoulou, Cambridge, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, 2021, pp. 207–221.