Arched Sistrum (380–343 BCE): Art, History and Details

Arched Sistrum (380–343 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

A sistrum is a musical rattle. Metal disks strung on wires along the arched upper end of the sistrum produced a rustling sound that was supposed to have a calming effect on the nerves of various deities, especially the goddesses Hathor and Bastet. Appropriately, this example is decorated with a Hathor head (a woman with cow’s ears) and a cat (the image of Bastet). These instruments are particularly associated with women, who played them as members of a temple choir.

Object facts

• Title: Arched Sistrum
• Date: 380–343 BCE
• Culture: Egypt, Late period (715–332 BCE), Dynasty 30
• Type: Tools and Equipment
• Technique: bronze, hollow cast
• Dimensions: Overall: 21.4 x 5.3 cm (8 7/16 x 2 1/16 in.)
• Collection: Egypt - Late Period
• Department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
• Accession number: 1920.1990

Collection credit

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust

Further reading listed by the museum

• University of Wisconsin--Madison. The Book and the Spade: April 13 to May 4, 1975 : the Wisconsin Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin. 1975, 23.
• Berman, Lawrence M., and Kenneth J. Bohač. Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.