Statuette of a Hippopotamus

In the Middle Kingdom such statuettes were popular funerary gifts: the hippopotamus was regarded as a symbol of rejuvenation in the afterlife. Although many museums all over the world house similar examples the one in Vienna is among the finest. The animal’s heavy body is decorated with black outline drawings. Its face features big eyes and bared teeth. Its large body and parts of its head are covered with lotus flowers. On the animal’s back is a small bird with outstretched wings. Together with the plants, it symbolizes the hippopotamus’ swampy habitat. For pre-historical man, hippopotami herds trampling his fields represented a genuine threat to his livelihood. In time, the animal’s habitat grew smaller and smaller until it was found only in the southern Nile Valley. Finds of objects made of hippopotamus-bone or -ivory dating from all periods of Ancient Egyptian history document that these large mammals were continually hunted. However, the king’s ritual hippopotamus hunts were of particular importance, symbolizing his triumph over chaos with which the hippopotamus had been identified early on.Most hippopotamus figures were made of faience. This material comprises ground quartz sand mixed with water and alkaloids. The figure was modelled, dried, fired in a kiln and then glazed. The glaze consists of the same basic materials as the faience core, with cuprite added to achieve the characteristic green colour. The black decorations are executed in manganese and ferrit. The final step was a second firing. © Regina Hölzl, Meisterwerke der Ägyptisch-Orientalischen Sammlung, Wien 2007.