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

Ax

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

Description

Neolithic Period, Buto–Merimda–Maadi, ca. 4500–4000 B.C. Flint. L. 11.1 × W. 4.5 × Th. 0.3 cm, Wt. 118g (4 3/8 × 1 3/4 × 1/8 in., 4.162oz.). From: Merimda Beni Salama, Western Delta, Egypt. Excavation: Vienna Academy of Science excavations, 1927–29. Credit: Gift of Albert Rothbart, 1929.

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 small, conical stone implement with a worked edge; the object appears to be a hand-held cutting tool or axe-like blade made from dark and light stone.

The image shows a single artifact photographed against a plain light background. The object has an overall irregular, wedge-like/conical form with a pointed working end and rough tool-made surfaces. A darker internal core or cavity is visible near one side, suggesting knapped flint or similar hard stone. There are no visible painted or incised markings, and no hieroglyphic text, cartouches, or Greek/Coptic/Arabic inscriptions are apparent. No iconography of deities or royal figures can be identified from the photograph.

daily life Neolithic Period (Buto–Merimda–Maadi), as in catalogue fragmentary
Materials flint (or dark knapped stone core)

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.