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

Fragment of a 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, pigment. 9.8 × 1.8 cm (3 7/8 × 11/16 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.

A rectangular fragment of a painted mummy label with sections of background color and partially preserved vertical hieroglyphic-style bands; most text is too fragmentary to read.

The image shows a horizontal, rectangular fragment with worn edges and a mottled, brownish wooden support implied by the texture and flaking. Several painted vertical bands are visible: two dark bands (near the left and right-middle) flank a lighter central field with faded traces of additional paint, suggesting a painted layout typical of mummy label inscriptions. On the far right edge there are a few red paint marks, possibly part of lettering or decorative accents. While the overall surface appears to include arranged marks resembling hieroglyphic strokes/bands, no specific sign can be confidently identified due to heavy abrasion and incomplete preservation. A small red handwritten number/mark appears near the right side (likely a modern inventory/photography marking), but no clear ancient Greek/Coptic/Arabic text is visible.

funerary Roman Period (as catalogued); fragment too damaged to refine further fragmentary
Materials woodpigment (faded dark/black and light areas; red paint accents)
Signs unknown hieroglyphic/painted strokes (unreadable)

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.