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Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access) · stela

Upper Portion of a Stela

Source of record: Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access) — catalogued by the holding institution. View the original record →

Description

New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, Amenhotep III, ca. 1390–1352 B.C. Limestone. H. 31 cm ( 12 3/16 in.), W. 28 cm (11 in.). From: Meidum, Fayum Entrance Area, Egypt. Excavation: Cardwell excavations, between 1885 and 1890. Credit: Gift of Mrs. G. W. Neville and Miss Cardwell, 1906.

The same text in other collections

Linked as the same object. Each record below describes this same artifact or text from a different angle.

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.

Oval/arched upper portion of a limestone stela fragment covered with densely carved hieroglyphs and figures, including a central seated god with outstretched arms and flanking attendants or deities.

The image shows the upper segment of a stone stela, broken along the lower edge. Within an arched frame, relief carving is arranged in registers. In the center is a seated, human-divine figure (likely a deity) with a tall headdress; behind/around it are vertical columns of hieroglyphs. On both sides stand multiple figures holding implements or with raised arms, posed in a symmetrical layout typical of devotional stela scenes. Several signs are clearly legible as hieroglyphic columns and transverse signs, though the full royal titulary/corresponding cartouches are not visible in this cropped upper portion. No Greek, Coptic, or Arabic script is visible. The material appears light gray-white and consistent with limestone. The catalogue’s identification as an “Upper Portion of a Stela” matches the visible form, and the overall New Kingdom-style iconography and hieroglyphic density are consistent with that attribution, though precise reign/king name cannot be confirmed from the fragment shown.

religious New Kingdom (consistent with catalogue; exact reign unclear) fragmentary
Deities unknown seated deity (central)
Materials limestone (light gray stone)
Signs hieroglyphic columns (upright linear and stacked signs) ×20 vertical wedjat/ankh-like or staff-like elements ×5 standing figure holding/raised arms (iconographic motif, not a single sign) ×3
Visible text "No complete readable royal name or continuous excerpt is visible in this image; only partial hieroglyphic columns can be made out without confident transcription."

Inscriptions (1)

Inscription #1 AI reading of the photograph

Visible text (machine reading)

No complete readable royal name or continuous excerpt is visible in this image; only partial hieroglyphic columns can be made out without confident transcription.

Connections

Deities Osiris

Cross-references (1)

  • PNM-Object pnm:83915526 tier-2 (inventory-match)
About this record's data
  • From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access).
  • 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.