Leonine Goddess

This statue (or rather, mummy case) isn't normally on display at the Brooklyn Museum but when we visited in 2015 it was part of an exhibition about divine felines.

It's an odd piece, because the head has the iconography of the goddesses associated with the Eye of Re - if you think about statues of Sekhmet, they have a uraeus and a sun disc (which is very damaged on this piece but still visible). But the way the figure is crouching is much more like the way that a Netherworld entity or guardian demon would be represented.

It's made of wood, which was once gilded so it would've looked like a solid gold statue. However it's hollow and inside it was the mummy of a cat, presumably it was a rather spectacular votive offering.

Jigsaw puzzles:
easier: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=32eac5ac9f16
harder: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=35233e372c0d

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Third Intermediate Period - Late Period, Dynasties 22-27, c. 770-412 BCE.

Acc No.: 37.1379E