No photographText frame in place of a photograph
Ivory figurine of a man from Beersheba (Safadi)
- Material
- Hippopotamus ivory, carved ("ivoire d'hippopotame"; "sculpté")
- Dimensions
- Height 24.8 cm; length 4.7 cm; thickness 4.2 cm
- Date as given by the source
- 5th millennium BCE or 3500-3000 BCE (record conflicts)
- Record number
- AO 21406
- Held by
- Musée du Louvre
The source states no licence for its image, so it is not reproduced here
Museum recordDocumented object
Ivory figurine of a man from Beersheba (Safadi)
A figurine of a nude man carved in hippopotamus ivory, found in 1958 in a cache in room 721 at Beersheba. The Louvre's record gives it two dates that do not agree, the 5th millennium BCE and 3500-3000 BCE, so it is not placed on the timeline.
Date as given by the source5th millennium BCE or 3500-3000 BCE (record conflicts)As worded by the source: "Ve mill av. J.-C. (3500-3000 av. J. - C.) (-5000 - -4000)": 5th millennium BCE, with 3500-3000 BCE in one bracket and the numeric range -5000 to -4000 in the other; no period or culture field
What you see
What you see
According to the record, this is a figurine of a nude man, a "Personnage masculin portant un étui phallique" (a male figure wearing a phallic sheath), carved in hippopotamus ivory. It is 24.8 cm high, 4.7 cm long and 4.2 cm thick. This page has no photograph: the record states no photo credit and no terms for using an image, so no licence is stated. Source 1.
What the record says
Inventory number AO 21406, in the Département des Antiquités orientales. Place of discovery: "Beersheba Beer Safad = Beersheba Safadi (cache chambre 721)", that is, Beersheba, Safadi, a cache in room 721. Excavator: Jean Perrot, 1958. Mode of acquisition: gift, from the donor "Etat d'Israël" (the State of Israel), with decision dates in 1964. The record has no period or culture field. Source 1.
Placement on the timeline
The record's date field reads "Ve mill av. J.-C. (3500-3000 av. J. - C.) (-5000 - -4000)": the 5th millennium BCE, with 3500-3000 BCE in one bracket and the numeric range -5000 to -4000, that is 5000-4000 BCE, in the other. The 5th millennium lies entirely within the site's Levant Chalcolithic page (about 5500-3300 BCE); the range 3500-3000 crosses its end, 3300 BCE, into the Bronze Age. The record does not explain the discrepancy and names no period. The figurine is therefore not assigned to a period and appears in the list of Levant objects without a period assignment. Source 1.
What the record cannot tell us
The record names the material, hippopotamus ivory, but does not say where the ivory came from or where the figurine was carved; a findspot is not necessarily a place of manufacture. Its bibliography lists, among others, a 2024 article by Rosenberg and Chasan on ivories in the Late Chalcolithic period and contacts between Egypt and the southern Levant. That is the title of a study not read here, not a date field of the record, and the site does not place the figurine by it. Source 1.
Where it is now
Held by the Musée du Louvre, inventory number AO 21406. On 24 October 2026 the record stated "Currently on display at the Musée du Louvre": Sully wing, Room 303 ("Levant - Palestine et Transjordanie, des origines à l'âge du fer"), Case 6 (Ivories). The same page warns that, owing to a complete redesign of the collection management tools, some of the information displayed may not be up to date. Source 1.
The object's connections
The object's connections
Culture, period, place, type and holder: every connection comes from the record or a cited source.
Object
Ivory figurine of a man from Beersheba (Safadi)
Region
Holder
Displayed at
- Musée du Louvre Sully wing, Room 303, Case 6 (Ivories)
Source
Sources and further reading
The research and references behind this page. Rights to external content remain with their owners.
- 1
Figurine, collection record AO 21406
Musée du Louvre · Checked
