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

Pen

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. Reed. L. 16 cm (6 5/16 in.). From: Oxyrhynchus (Bahnasa), Middle Egypt, Egypt. Excavation: EEF excavations 1902–03. Credit: Gift of Egypt Exploration Fund, 1903.

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.

The image shows a single reed-like writing implement shaped like a long pointed pen, photographed against a plain background.

A slender, straight object with a tapered point is depicted horizontally. The material appears light brown and fibrous/smooth like dried reed. One end has a clear pointed tip suitable for writing or drawing; the opposite end is blunted and rounded. No ink, inscriptions, carved markings, pigments, or legible hieroglyphs/Greek/Coptic/Arabic text are visible on the surface. No figures, deities, or cartouches are present because the object is only a simple implement.

daily life Roman Period (as per catalogue) good
Materials reed

Connections

Found at Oxyrhynchus
Materials Reed
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.