Shell pendant or bead
Description
Pendant, shell. Predynastic Period, ca. 3850–2960 B.C. Shell. From: Egypt. Credit: Gift of Bashford Dean, 1916.
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.
Photograph of a small, rounded shell object with a perforated center, resembling a shell pendant/bead.
The artifact is shown against a light background. It appears as a natural shell fragment shaped into an oval form, with a hollow perforation running through the center (an internal cavity visible from the front). A darkened area suggests oxidation or staining around the cavity. The outer surface shows mottled tan to yellow-brown coloration with light scuffs and small pits; the edges look worn/abraded consistent with an aged shell. No painted decoration, carved relief, or hieroglyphic signs are visible on the exterior. There are no cartouches or royal inscriptions, and no Greek/Coptic/Arabic text is present.
Connections
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.