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-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 tall, tapering, wooden object resembling a small obelisk, with painted vertical registers of dark ink hieroglyphs on its surfaces.
The object stands upright and narrows to a pointed top, forming an obelisk-like silhouette. Its exterior is predominantly brown/orange with extensive wear and flaking paint. Dark pigment hieroglyph-like signs run vertically along the front and sides, arranged in columns, including several wedge-and-line characters and at least one boxed/rectangular element. A darker, reddish-brown vertical band appears on the front area, contrasting with surrounding yellowish wood. The markings are painted rather than carved stone. No clear cartouche with an identifiable royal name is legible from the image; the hieroglyphs are present but too indistinct to confidently read specific royal or divine names. No Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text is visible.
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.