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

Jar with the name of Xerxes the Great in four languages

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

Description

Jar, quadrilingual inscription. Late Period, Dynasty 27, reign of Xerxes I, 485–465 BC. Travertine (Egyptian alabaster). H. 25.3 × Diam. 22.4 cm, 6.3 kg (9 15/16 × 8 13/16 in., 13.8 lb.). From: Egypt. Credit: Rogers Fund, 1914.

AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano

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

A pale stone jar (amphora/jar) with a small raised rim and a narrow banded decorative/inscription area on the body. Faint vertical incised markings are visible on one side near the center, consistent with an inscription but not fully legible at this image resolution.

The object is a rounded, bulbous jar with a short neck and a slightly flared/raised rim. Two small projecting handles/lugs are visible on opposite sides of the upper shoulder/neck area. The surface appears light beige/cream and shows stone veining consistent with travertine/‘Egyptian alabaster.’ On the upper body there is a faint horizontal band and, within/near it on the front-left area, vertical incised signs arranged in a column. The inscription is too low-resolution to accurately read specific royal names or to confirm the presence of multiple scripts (e.g., hieroglyphs, Greek, Coptic, Arabic). No clear deity figures are visible.

decorative Late Period (as catalogued) good
Royals Xerxes the Great (name expected per catalogue; not legible/confirmable from this image)
Materials travertine (egyptian alabaster)
Signs incised inscription signs (exact forms unclear) ×10

Connections

Materials Travertine

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116413397 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 14.2.8 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 543949 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.