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

Ointment jar

Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access), acc. 04.18.47a, b. Public domain (CC0). Copy archived by egyptianinscriptions.org with attribution; original at the holding institution.

Accession: 04.18.47a, b
Find spot: Abydos, Northern Upper Egypt, Egypt approx. site location
Period: Middle Kingdom
Dynasty: late Dynasty 12–early 13
Date: ca. 1850–1775 B.C.
Date range: 1850 BCE – 1775 BCE
Materials: ['travertine (egyptian alabaster)']
Repository: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
At source: View original →

Cite & export

Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access), Ointment jar (04.18.47a, b). Egyptian Inscriptions Database. https://egyptianinscriptions.org/object/175

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Description

Middle Kingdom, late Dynasty 12–early 13, ca. 1850–1775 B.C. Travertine (Egyptian alabaster). H. 7 cm (2 3/4 in.). From: Cemetery V, Tomb V21, Abydos, Northern Upper Egypt, Egypt. Excavation: Egypt Exploration Fund excavations, 1904. Credit: Gift of Egypt Exploration Fund, 1904.

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 small, cylindrical alabaster (travertine) jar with a rounded rim and a flat base, photographed against a plain white background.

The image shows a single, light-colored stone vessel shaped like an ointment jar. It has a wide, rounded lip at the top, a tapering cylindrical body with slight surface veining/stratification, and a flat circular base. No painted decoration, metal fittings, or attached labels are visible. The sides appear smooth with faint tool marks and natural stone banding/vein-like variations. A small red or brown handwritten marking is visible near the bottom right of the base area, but it is not clearly legible. No hieroglyphs, cartouches, or other inscriptions are visible on the vessel, and no Greek/Coptic/Arabic text can be confirmed from the image. The object’s overall form is consistent with a small storage/container vessel typically used for cosmetics or ointments, aligning with the catalogue title.

daily life Middle Kingdom (per catalogue; image itself does not provide clear chronological markers) good

Materials light-colored stone (travertine/egyptian alabaster per catalogue)

Signs red handwritten inventory/registration mark (illegible)

Connections

Found at Abydos

Cross-references (4)

Wikidata-Q Q116726725 tier-1
Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
Inventory-Number 04.18.47a, b tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
MET-Object 543966 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.