Arm-Shaped Censer Bronze, 2 1/4 x 21 7/16 in. (5.7 x 54.5 cm) Egypt, Late Period, ca. 712-404 B.C.E. Brooklyn #72.8, Gift of Michael DeBry (The other piece is a New Kingdom Faience Ritual Vessel from Thebes) Photo © Joan Lansberry, May 2008-2016

This piece is actually in the shape of a hieroglyph, which Richard Wilkinson shows us: From _Reading Egyptian Art_, page 53 "The hieroglyph was used to signify the presentation of a libation offering to the gods and represents a stylized forearm with the hand holding an offering bowl."(Ibid) "Another use of the offering arm is found in the design of censers which were frequently made in this same form. The objects consisted of a handle - usually about the length of the human forearm - with a hand at one end which held a bowl in which incense was burned. A small box was often attached to the upper surface of the 'arm' to hold the pellets of incense burned in the bowl. Various elaborations were made upon this basic design, and here, as is frequently the case in other examples, the 'elbow' of the censer has been shaped as the head of a falcon-like deity and the 'wrist' area is expanded into a decorative papyrus umbel - both elements symbolic of solar and offering concepts."(Ibid) He gives a image of Seti I censing at his temple in Abydos:

From _Reading Egyptian Art_, page 53

Photo © Brooklyn Museum, Creative Commons