Box for a Mummified Animal with Cobra Figure
Late Period–Ptolemaic Period (664–30 BCE)
Ancient Egyptian
Copper alloy; 8.4 × 4.1 × 8.7 cm (3 5/16 × 1 5/8 × 3 7/16 in.)
The Art Institute of Chicago, purchased with funds provided by Henry H. Getty and Charles L. Hutchinson, 1893.19
In addition to copper alloy statuettes depicting the gods, Egyptian worshippers also presented exquisite sculptures that doubled as containers for mummified animals. These coffins were crafted from wood, cartonnage, or metal, like this rectangular copper alloy box with a figure of a rearing hooded cobra centered on top.[1] The cobra sculpture here is remarkably detailed, with incised lines forming the intricate pattern on the front of its chest and hood, and stippling along the length of its serpentine body to evoke the texture of its scales. The serpent’s body twists into an elegant figure eight, with the tip of its tail melding into the top of the box (fig. 1). A support in the form of a maat feather (the Egyptian symbol for truth and justice) connects the body with the back of the erect hood.1
Fig. 1
Top of cat. 32, showing the figure-eight arrangement of the cobra’s body.
Copper alloy snake coffins were produced in several styles. Some represent the snake’s body extended over the length of the box; others show the serpent coiled into a compact figure eight with its head resting on its body (figs. 2a–b); still others (like this example) depict a rearing cobra. In most examples, the god represented and invoked in the inscription (when present) is Atum, one of Egyptian mythology’s great creator gods.[2] According to the cosmogony (creation myth) from the city of Heliopolis (Egyptian Iunu), Atum created himself out of the primeval waters and then proceeded to populate the cosmos, starting with the god Shu (air) and his complement Tefnut (moisture), from whom the rest of creation developed.2
Fig. 2a
Box for a Mummified Animal with Snake Figure, Late Period–Ptolemaic Period (664–30 BCE). Ancient Egyptian. Copper alloy; 4.1 × 5 × 8.1 cm (1 5/8 × 2 × 3 3/16 in.). The Art Institute of Chicago, purchased with funds provided by Charles L. Hutchinson and Henry H. Getty, 1892.159.
Fig. 2b
This box for a mummified animal, also in the Art Institute’s collection, features a snake’s body coiled flat against the object.
Atum most commonly takes a fully anthropomorphic form, but, as in the Chicago example, he can also be shown as a snake in reference to his role as a primeval deity who swam in the watery chaos of Nun that existed before creation. According to Chapter 175 of the Book of the Dead, Atum will reclaim the form of a snake after the world has come to an end.3
Mummified Animals
Ancient Egyptians mummified animals for many purposes, including to provide food for the deceased in the afterlife and to honor beloved pets. By far the most common, however, were the so-called votive animal mummies that worshippers presented in temples as part of a transaction with the deity to curry his or her favor, or in thanks for answered prayers. An elite dedicator might choose to place the animal mummy in a costly container that could be personalized with an inscription.[3] The front of this box has two lines of hieroglyphic inscription that read: “May Atum give life to Hor, the son of Per[…]wadj” (fig. 3).4
Fig. 3
Video loop replicating the process of exploring the inscribed front of cat. 32 using Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) software. RTI makes the shallow inscription on the front of the box easier to read.
Millions of mummified animals have been discovered in specialized animal cemeteries throughout Egypt.[4] The type of animal was tailored to the deity that was being addressed: cats were presented to the motherly goddess Bastet; ibises and baboons to the god of writing Thoth; and crocodiles to the river god Sobek. The imagery on this coffin, which is now empty, suggests that it was designed to hold a snake, making it an appropriate gift for the god, Atum, named in the inscription. Great quantities of copper alloy containers depicting Atum in the guise of the primeval serpent have been discovered at sites that celebrated his cult, including Naukratis, Sais, and Saqqara.[5]5
Additional Views of Cat. 32
Side of cat. 32.
Front of cat. 32.
Side of cat. 32.
Back of cat. 32.
Bottom of cat. 32.
Top of cat. 32.
For more on copper alloy statuettes, see About Copper Alloy Statuettes.6
Provenance
Émile Brugsch (1842–1930), Bulaq Museum and Egyptian Antiquities Service, Cairo; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1893.7
Publication History
Thomas George Allen, A Handbook of The Egyptian Collection (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1923), 108.
8
- The back panel of the box is no longer extant. See also a large wooden coffin in the form of a cat (Art Institute of Chicago, 1922.4800; published in Thomas George Allen, A Handbook of The Egyptian Collection [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1923], 59–60). Mummified animals—some with quite elaborate wrappings and fixtures—could also be given without a container.
- In Upper Egypt some examples instead represent the goddess Meretseger. See Katja Weiß, Ägyptische Tier- und Götterbronzen aus Unterägypten: Untersuchungen zu Typus, Ikonographie und Funktion sowie der Bedeutung innerhalb der Kulturkontakte zu Griechenland (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2012), 1:277. The Chicago box fits into Weiß’s Type T 13. Ibid., 1:276–77; 2:725–27, pl. 42, no. 744.
- Edward Bleiberg estimates that even a small copper alloy animal coffin would have exceeded the equivalent of two month’s salary for a part-time agricultural worker. Edward Bleiberg, “Animal Mummies: The Souls of the Gods,” in Soulful Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt, ed. Edward Bleiberg, Yekaterina Barbash, and Lisa Bruno, exh. cat. (Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum; London: D. Giles Ltd., 2013), 100–104.
- For a list of some of these cemeteries and the animals they catered to, see Salima Ikram, ed., Divine Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2005), xvii–xx.
- Weiß, Ägyptische Tier- und Götterbronzen aus Unterägypten, 1:277.
Ashley F. Arico, “Cat. 32 Box for a Mummified Animal with Cobra Figure,” in Ancient Egyptian Art at the Art Institute of Chicago by Emily Teeter and Ashley F. Arico, ed. Ashley F. Arico (Art Institute of Chicago, 2025), https://doi.org/10.53269/9780865593213/47.
© 2025 by The Art Institute of Chicago. This work is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
