Hippopotamus ("William")

What you see

What you see

A figurine of a hippopotamus, 20 cm long, 7.5 cm wide and 11.2 cm high. According to the museum's description, the statuette was molded in faience, a ceramic material made of ground quartz, and beneath the blue glaze the body was painted with lotuses. These river plants, the museum writes, depict the marshes in which the animal lived, but at the same time their flowers symbolize regeneration and rebirth, as they close every night and open again in the morning. This page has no photograph: according to the museum's data its photograph of the figurine is in the public domain, but it is not included here in this round. Source 1.

What the record says

The record dates the figurine "ca. 1961-1878 B.C.", to the Middle Kingdom, Dynasty 12, from Senwosret I to Senwosret II. The culture field is empty. Findspot: "From Egypt, Middle Egypt, Meir, Tomb B3 of the nomarch Senbi II, pit 1 (steward Senbi), Khashaba excavations, 1910". The museum's description says the hippo was one of a pair found in a shaft associated with the tomb chapel of the steward Senbi II at Meir, "an Upper Egyptian site about thirty miles south of modern Asyut". The record thus calls Senbi II once a nomarch and once a steward, and places Meir once in Middle Egypt and once in Upper Egypt; this page keeps both wordings. According to the provenance summary on the page, the figurine was excavated by Sayyid Pasha Khashaba (Said Bey) in May 1910 and acquired by him in the division of finds, was in Cairo with Maurice Nahman in November 1910, was purchased by Dikran G. Kelekian in 1911, and was purchased from Kelekian in 1917. Source 1.

A dangerous animal in a tomb

According to the museum's description, the figurine's seemingly benign appearance is deceptive: to the ancient Egyptians the hippopotamus was one of the most dangerous animals in their world, a hazard for small fishing boats and other rivercraft, and it might also be encountered on the waterways in the journey to the afterlife; it was a force of nature to be propitiated and controlled, in this life and the next. Three of its legs have been restored because they were "probably purposely broken" to prevent the creature from harming the deceased. The hippo was part of Senbi's burial equipment, which included a canopic box (also in the Met), a coffin and numerous models of boats and food production. The record thus presents it as burial equipment, not as a toy. The explanation of the broken legs is the museum's ("probably"), and the burial context alone does not recover the full religious meaning or the rite in which the figurine took part. Source 1.

Why "William"

The nickname is modern. According to the museum, it first appeared in 1931 in a story published in the British humour magazine Punch, about a family that consults a colour print of the Met's hippo, which it calls "William", as an oracle. The museum republished the story the same year in its Bulletin, and the name caught on. Source 1.

Placement on the timeline

The record names the period, "Middle Kingdom", and Dynasty 12. The site follows the Met's timeline for Egypt, in which the Middle Kingdom runs about 2030-1640 BCE; the figurine is therefore placed in the Middle Kingdom by the period name in the record, and its range, 1961-1878, lies entirely within it. The date is the catalogue's date for the figurine; the record gives no separate date for its placing in the tomb. On this site, the model bakery and brewery from the tomb of Meketre is also a model of food production from the tomb of an official of the same period. Sources 1, 2, 3.

Where it is now

Held by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, record 17.9.1, "Gift of Edward S. Harkness, 1917". On 24 October 2026 the record stated "On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 111". Source 1.