Ostrakon with Demotic Inscription
Description
Object Label: Demotic script first appeared about 700 B.C.E. It is more cursive than hieratic, and many demotic signs do not correspond exactly with the hieroglyphs used to write the same word. The large number of surviving demotic documents, many of which are not the work of professional scribes, suggests that literacy in Egypt had become more widespread by the time this script appeared. This ostrakon (inscribed stone or pottery fragment) records a prayer to the god Amun to restore a blind man’s sight. It concludes with the words: “Return to me, my great Lord, Amun. I am defenseless; let me not perish; do not forget me.” Caption: Ostrakon with Demotic Inscription, 305–30 B.C.E.. Limestone, pigment, 10 3/16 x 9 5/16 x 1 3/16 in. (25.9 x 23.7 x 3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.1821E. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
AI image analysis GPT-4o-2024-08-06
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 stone stela with Arabic inscriptions.
The artifact is a rectangular stone stela featuring intricate Arabic script. The surface is inscribed with neat, flowing Arabic text possibly related to a historical or religious context. The edges show signs of wear, indicating its antiquity. The script covers most of the surface, suggesting it may hold significant historical or cultural information.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 37.1821E tier-2
- BKM-Object 4180 tier-2
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art.
- 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.