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LiveScience
LiveScience
Jennifer Nalewicki

'William the Hippo': The ancient Egyptian statuette deliberately crippled to prevent it wreaking havoc in the afterlife

A glossy, blue statuette of a blue hippo. .

Name: Hippopotamus ("William")

What it is: A cerulean statuette of a hippopotamus molded in faience, a glazed ceramic material made partly out of ground quartz. The artifact is decorated with drawings of lotus flowers, which grow in marshes and symbolize regeneration and rebirth.

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