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

Mummy label

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

Description

Roman Period, 30 B.C.–A.D. 364. Wood, ink. 10.9 × 7.3 × 1 cm (4 5/16 × 2 7/8 × 3/8 in.). From: Oxyrhynchus (Bahnasa), Middle Egypt, Egypt. Excavation: EEF excavations 1904–05. Credit: Gift of Egypt Exploration Fund, 1905.

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.

Rectangular, worn wooden mummy label fragment with a small drilled hole and a vertical band of red ink at the right edge.

The image shows a thin, rectangular strip of darkened wood with rounded edges and significant surface abrasion. A small circular hole is present near the left side, suggesting it was previously tied or attached to a bundle or mummy wrappings. On the right edge there is a vertical line or band of red pigment/ink containing several small marks that resemble brief painted characters or numbers, but the individual signs are too unclear to read reliably. No illustrated figures, cartouches, or clearly identifiable deity iconography are visible. The overall appearance is consistent with an inscribed label fragment, though the legible content cannot be confidently transcribed from the provided resolution. No Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text is visible.

funerary Roman Period (per catalogue) fragmentary
Materials woodred ink (ink pigment)
Signs unreadable red ink marks (possible short hieroglyphic-like strokes) ×6
Visible text "Vertical red-ink column on the right edge; individual characters are not legible at this resolution."

Connections

Found at Oxyrhynchus
Materials Wood
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.