Terracotta, 80 grams; 78.53 mm. Circa 1st Century BC-2nd Century AD. The almost complete figure of a baboon with human like limbs and phallus, each snapped halfway so it could be thrown and offered to the gods. All over it's body is ring and dot decoration. Very fine condition.

In ancient Egypt, baboons and monkeys often play a significant and mysterious role in religion and elsewhere. This somehow seems strange, as there are certainly no native monkeys or baboons to Egypt, nor have there been for some time stretching back to antiquity. However, it is clear that prehistoric Egyptians of the fourth millennium BC were familiar with monkeys, including the imposing and dangerous baboons and the African long-tailed monkey. Since that time, they have held a permanent place in ancient Egyptian religion as one of the more important animal forms into which the gods might be transformed. Also the very word "baboon" may be derived from ancient Egypt, perhaps from a linguistic root that characterized its sexual activities.