{"id":"NAF-001","label":"Fayum Ptolemaic figure","people_or_site":"Ptolemaic Greco-Egyptian cult attendant","country_current":"Egypt","historic_region":"Fayum","macroregion":"Africa / North Africa","local_name":"","source_term":"incense diffuser or bullroarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"Terracotta figure shows cult attendant swinging reel-shaped object on thong","function_summary":"Swung on a thong in a procession of Amun-Min (Pan) — an incense-diffuser, or a bullroarer.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"BM_EA37580","source_type":"british_museum_object","source_url":"https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA37580","page_or_plate":"British Museum object record","map_confidence":"low","plot_status":"candidate_only","coordinate_basis":"Fayum findspot not British Museum location","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"From the Fayum of Ptolemaic Egypt comes a small hollow terracotta figure of a naked, grotesque cult-attendant who walks in procession bearing a statue of Amun-Min, the ithyphallic harvest god the Greeks called Pan. In his raised right hand he swings a reel-shaped object on a thong over his head, and here the figure turns enigmatic: is it a censer trailing smoke through the procession, or a bullroarer? If the latter, it ties this Greco-Egyptian rite to the rhombos of the Greek mysteries, the whirring instrument whose roar was likened to thunder and the voice of a god.","pull_quote":"the bearer is naked but wears a knobbed conical hat, and swings a reel-shaped object on a thong in his right hand, an incense-diffuser or a bull-roarer.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"British Museum collection record for the Fayum cult-attendant figure (description and curator's comments)","term_gloss":"","cls":"sacred","class_label":"Sacred / spirit","color":"#8A5A2B","is_candidate":true,"flags":["agriculture"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"British Museum, EA37580 (Fayum)","url":"https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA37580"}],"source_citations":"British Museum, EA37580 (Fayum)","source_display":"British Museum, EA37580 (Fayum)","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Terracotta figure shows cult attendant swinging reel-shaped object on thong","function_display":"Swung on a thong in a procession of Amun-Min (Pan) — an incense-diffuser, or a bullroarer.","confidence_display":"low","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"ptolemaic greco","display_name":"Fayum Ptolemaic figure","image":{"full":"assets/objects/prm/prm_213920.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/prm/thumbs/prm_213920_thumb.jpg","alt":"Arab Saharan bullroarer SAYID, Pitt Rivers Museum 2005.61.1: a rectangular wooden board bearing handwritten notes, with cord looped around it.","credit":"© Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford (acc. 2005.61.1)","license":"© Pitt Rivers Museum — non-commercial/educational reuse with attribution","source_page":"https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-213920","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"A Saharan Arab bullroarer, Algeria","pool_id":"sahara-sayid"},"slug":"naf-001-ptolemaic-greco-egyptian-cult-attendant"}