Crocodile Stela
Description
Object Label: The Egyptians harnessed the powers of a ferocious animal to ward off danger. In marshy areas inhabited by crocodiles, people living nearby identified this animal with their town god. Here, the divine crocodile is on a shrine with an offering table in front of him. This fragment of a stela (commemorative stone slab) originally illustrated a prayer invoking the crocodile god Sobek, who provided all that the deceased needed in the next world. Caption: Crocodile Stela, ca. 1295–1070 B.C.E.. Limestone, 9 3/4 x 6 x 2 7/8 in. (24.8 x 15.2 x 7.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 67.174. (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 carved limestone stela depicting crocodiles and hieroglyphs.
This artifact is a half-circle limestone stela featuring three crocodiles in relief. The central crocodile is portrayed lying atop a shrine, flanked by two stylized palm fronds and other symbolic elements. Above and beneath these depictions are hieroglyphic inscriptions. The composition reflects skilled craftsmanship and symbolic representation, likely indicating religious significance related to Sobek, the crocodile deity.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 67.174 tier-2
- BKM-Object 3763 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.