Ostracon with drawing of a bull
Description
Late Period, Dynasty 26, 664–525 B.C. Limestone, ink. H. 11.2 × W. 15.5 × D. 2.5 cm (4 7/16 × 6 1/8 × 1 in.) (with mount): H. 13.2 × W. 16.5 × D. 6.4 cm (5 3/16 × 6 1/2 × 2 1/2 in.). From: Egypt. Subject: Bulls. Credit: Museum Accession.
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 limestone ostracon fragment with a black-ink drawing of a bull and a short cluster of ink marks near the top right that resemble a small hieroglyphic sign or decorative notation.
The object is a broken, irregular ostracon with a flaked white/light-gray surface. In the center is a stylized bull drawn in dark ink: the outline of the head and neck is shown with short lines for the muzzle and horns, and the body is indicated by a curved contour with legs suggested by straight strokes. Several short, straight and angular strokes beneath the bull likely indicate the tail/haunch or ground line, but no clear full inscription is preserved. Near the upper right area there is a small isolated ink mark that could be a single hieroglyphic sign; it is too small/partial to confidently identify. No royal names/cartouches are visible. No Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text is present.
Inscriptions (1)
Visible text (machine reading)
Cross-references (4)
- Wikidata-Q Q116419775 tier-1
- Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
- Inventory-Number X.384 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
- MET-Object 552891 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
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.