Mould

Limestone figure-mould, square shaped and carved on one side in sunken relief with a benu-bird. Incised eye and wing details, and two long crest feathers flowing from the back of the head. The benu-bird was a symbol of creation and rebirth and for these reasons was associated with the gods Atum, Ra and Osiris. In spells of the Book of the Dead numbers 29B and 30B the benu-bird is called the 'soul of Ra’. Moulds like this may have been used in the manufacture of glass or faience amulets or decorative inlays. The benu-bird was a sacred avian deity believed to rise anew like the sun and was most probably the prototype for the Greek phoenix. While in the Old Kingdom it was represented as a yellow wagtail, motacilla flava, by the New Kingdom it was usually depicted as a grey heron, ardea cinera. For similar moulds see other items in the World Museum collection: M13556, M13557, M13558, M13559, 1973.2.517, 1973.2.518 and 1973.2.519. Charles Gatty, who curated the Museum antiquities collection in the 1870s described the bird as a plover or heron (possibly the young of the Nycticorax Griseus). Also on the catalogue card is a note that it is a Bennu bird. Previously in the collection of Joseph Sams (1784-1860), catalogue no. 176 "Moulds being the form very deeply carved or sunk in stone, of several of the sacred birds so that the same may be cast when made of bronze etc".