Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access) · other

Wall tiles from the funerary apartments of king Djoser

Source of record: Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access) — catalogued by the holding institution. View the original record →

Description

faience

AI image analysis claude-haiku-4-5

Machine-generated from the object's image on May 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.

A collection of small cylindrical faience tiles arranged in a grid pattern, displaying various shades of blue, green, and turquoise characteristic of Old Kingdom decorative elements.

This is a systematic photographic documentation of wall tiles from the funerary apartments of King Djoser at Saqqara. The tiles are small cylindrical elements arranged in neat rows and columns, displaying the characteristic glazed faience technology of the Old Kingdom. The palette consists primarily of turquoise, blue, green, and mottled tones typical of early Egyptian faience production. The tiles show natural variation in color saturation and glaze application, some exhibiting darker concentrations or weathering patterns. The white horizontal and vertical lines separating the tiles appear to be mounting or spacing elements used for the photographic documentation. The cylindrical form and compact arrangement suggest these were part of decorative wall revetment in a royal funerary complex, a practice well-established in Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom architecture.

photographic documentation Old Kingdom (likely Dynasty III, reign of Djoser, circa 2670-2650 BCE) good
Royals Djoser
Materials faience

Connections

Found at Saqqara
Royals Djoser

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116252293 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 48.160.1 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 543904 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
About this record's data
  • From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access).
  • AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
  • Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
  • Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.