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Identification and Creation

Object Number
2003.243
Title
Selket
Other Titles
Former Title: Selket, as Scorpion
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture
Date
6th century BCE-2nd century CE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Africa, Egypt (Ancient)
Period
Late Period to Roman
Culture
Egyptian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/72349

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Leaded bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
8 x 7.1 x 3.6 cm (3 1/8 x 2 13/16 x 1 7/16 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: XRF data from Tracer
Alloy: Leaded Bronze
Alloying Elements: copper, tin, lead
Other Elements: iron, antimony
K. Eremin, January 2014

Technical Observations: The patina is dark green with spots of lighter green, red, and brown. A red clay-like material is present in many crevices. The tail, which has a different in texture and surface preservation from the rest of the figure, is glued on and does not appear to be related to the body. The object shows significant corrosion, and the surface has been crudely and aggressively cleaned, leaving scrape marks and deep gouges in many areas. Some investment material may be present on the underside of the body.

Although the surface condition makes it difficult to be sure, the body and legs give the impression of having been modeled directly in wax. The torso and head are solid casts and were probably also modeled directly. A pattern of inscribed lines over the body section appears to have been made directly in the wax model.


Henry Lie (submitted 2005)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Carol Hebb and Alan Feldbaum
Accession Year
2003
Object Number
2003.243
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This statuette represents Selket, who has the head and torso of a woman and the body of a scorpion (1). She wears a cow-horns crown, which consists of a sun disc held between two cow horns (the tips are broken), with the remains of a uraeus on the brow (2). She wears a long tri-part wig, with one section over each shoulder, and the third and largest falling down her back. The torso ends just below the breasts. The first and largest pair of arms is the most humanoid (3); they connect to her shoulders, which emerge from her wig, and no neck is depicted. All eight limbs are bent at right angles, and the upper and lower limbs are approximately the same length. The hindmost limbs are joined by a long, thin metal bar. The body is relatively flat and convex on the exterior. The form of the body is slightly undulating, perhaps to mimic the segmentation of the body of a scorpion, and the surface is covered with an incised crosshatch pattern. The curving tail, which was not originally part of this statuette, consists of eight beads that decrease incrementally in size (4). Other known examples of human-scorpion copper alloy figurines were used as finials on standards (5).

NOTES:

1. Compare similar statuettes, without this headdress but with a complete scorpion tail, at the Michael C. Carlos Museum, Atlanta, inv. no. 2005.5.5; the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, inv. no. 54.546; and published in G. Roeder, Ägyptische Bronzefiguren, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Mitteilungen aus der Ägyptischen Sammlung 6 (Berlin, 1956) 456-57, pl. 62.

2. This crown is more typical of Isis or Hathor and later becomes part of Selket’s iconography as she is syncretized to Isis; see J.-C. Goyon, “Isis-scorpion et Isis au scorpion,” Bulletin de l’Insitut Français d’Archéologie Orientale 78 (1978): 439-57; and F. von Känel, “Scorpions,” Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt (Oxford, 2001) 186-87.

3. A scorpion typically has eight walking legs in addition to a much larger pair of pedipalps with pincers. It is unclear on this statuette whether the pedipalps have been omitted, or if the initial arms are meant to represent a type of pedipalps, in which case one of the pairs of walking legs has been omitted.

4. While the statuette may originally have had a scorpion tail, this one does not belong to the body.

5. See the example in the Walters Art Museum and in Roeder 1956 (supra 1) 456-57.


Lisa M. Anderson

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu