Large Tag for Mummy
Description
Object Label: Among the most common so-called daily-life scenes found in Old Kingdom tombs are ones in which servants parade livestock or food as their master sits watching. Where this was meant to take place is a matter of debate. Did these scenes occur in the hereafter, did they depict actual events in the lifetime of the tomb owner, or were they symbolic in nature? This block shows a number of motifs drawn from such scenes. Their asymmetrical arrangement and the size of the object itself raise questions about the original purpose of the block. It may be an artist's model or a fragment of a stela. Caption: Large Tag for Mummy, 664–332 B.C.E.. Wood, pigment, 5 1/2 x 3 3/4 x 9/16 in. (14 x 9.5 x 1.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.1394E. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
The same text in other collections
Linked by shared inventory number
(ORAEC-id oraec3820).
Each record below describes this same artifact or text from a different angle.
- Die Lehre des Hordjedef / 〈05. 〉tBrooklyn 37.1394 E ORAEC text(unbestimmt)
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.
Rectangular wooden funerary tag or panel fragment painted with dark hieroglyphic signs arranged in horizontal lines across its surface.
The image shows a flat, rectangular object with a thicker, slightly projecting section on the right edge and a chipped/broken surface along the right and lower parts. The object is painted overall in a light base with visible dark pigment forming multiple rows of hieroglyphic signs. The hieroglyphs appear to be arranged in horizontal bands; some signs are elongated or stacked, while others are separated by gaps, suggesting line-based writing rather than a continuous scene. No human figures, animals, or clear deities are depicted—only text/signs are visible. There is no clearly legible cartouche or royal titulary visible at this resolution; the top row includes several groupings of signs, but their identities cannot be confirmed reliably. No Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text is visible. The craftsmanship and style are consistent with Late Period mummy-related textual artifacts (e.g., tags), but specific wording is not reliably readable from the image.
Cross-references (3)
- BKM-Accession 37.1394E tier-2
- BKM-Object 117942 tier-2
- ORAEC-id oraec3820 tier-2 (inventory-match)
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.