Obelisk
Description
Object Label: An obelisk, a tapered shaft with a pyramidal top, symbolized the sun god. It was also an important symbol of eternity in ancient Egypt, where huge stone obelisks were erected in temples. This small example, made for a tomb, may have held a papyrus scroll. The text painted on the sides names the gods of the dead. Caption: Obelisk, 664–332 B.C.E.. Wood, pigment, Height: 10 3/4 in. (27.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.1723E. (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 small, inscribed obelisk with hieroglyphic text on its faces.
The artifact is a wooden obelisk featuring hieroglyphic inscriptions on its vertical surfaces. The style is simple but characteristic of ancient Egyptian writing with distinct columnar arrangements of hieroglyphs. The wood shows signs of aging and has a worn, weathered texture.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 37.1723E tier-2
- BKM-Object 118247 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.