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. 14.6 cm (5 3/4 in.). From: Oxyrhynchus (Bahnasa), Middle Egypt, Egypt. Excavation: EEF excavations 1896–97. Credit: Gift of Egypt Exploration Fund, 1897.

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 single reed pen with a pointed nib at one end and a darker, banded section near the middle; photographed against a plain background.

The image shows a long, slender object that appears to be made of a hollow reed. One end is carved or naturally tapering into a sharp point, forming the writing tip. Near the middle of the object there is a darker annular band or segment, likely representing a natural node or a treated area. The rest of the reed is a light brown to reddish-brown color with minor surface wear. No figures, deities, cartouches, or organized hieroglyphic text are visible. No Greek/Coptic/Arabic script is legible on the image.

unclear Roman Period (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.