Fragment Of Metal From Support Crab Of The N.Y. Obelisk "Cleopatra's Needle"
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1881
label: Collection Date
content: 1879
name: label: Collector
content: U S Navy Henry H. Gorringe
label: Donor Name
content: U S Navy Henry H. Gorringe
notes: label: Notes
content: Anthropology catalogue ledger book identifies as: "A piece of the lead that held the dowels of the copper crabs in place".
label: Notes
content: The real object A45659 had been misnumbered 45656, and A45658 had been misnumbered as 45659.
label: Notes
content: A45645 - 45660 were either part of, or associated with, Cleopatra's Needle. Cleopatra's Needle is one of a pair of obelisks originally made during the reign of 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Thutmose III, who ruled from 1479-1425 B.C., to celebrate his third jubilee (30th year of reign), and erected in Heliopolis, Egypt. Both monuments were moved around 12 or 10 B.C. to front Alexandria's Caesareum. Isma'il Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt, gifted it to the United States. U.S. naval commander Henry W. Gorringe was in charge of transporting it from Alexandria, Egypt to New York City in 1879 - 1880, where it was then erected in Central Park in 1881. In Alexandria, the Romans had placed the obelisk on the pedestal/base with 4 bronze supports cast in the form of sea-crabs, placed at the four corners of the obelisk and secured to the obelisk by metal bars/dowels and the use of molten lead for filling in the interspaces. Only two of the four crabs survived in damaged form at the time the obelisk was moved to New York City. The two remaining original crabs were put in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. See D'Alton, Martina (1993). The New York obelisk, or, How Cleopatra's Needle came to New York and what happened when it got here. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 23 Aug 2017
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Alexandria, Lower Egypt, Egypt, Africa
topic: label: Topic
content: Archaeology
culture: label: Culture
content: Roman Period
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 81A00023
label: USNM Number
content: A45659-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Metal