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

Snake

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

Description

Amulet, snake. Late Period–Ptolemaic Period, 664–30 B.C. Faience. h. 3.5 cm (1 3/8 in.). From: Egypt. Subject: Snakes. Credit: Gift of Lily S. Place, 1921.

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 turquoise faience figure in the form of a snake, shown in a seated/arched pose with an upturned head and an applied loop-like element on the torso.

The image shows a single small, light-blue/green faience object photographed against a neutral background. The snake is depicted in a stylized form with a raised head (left side of the figure) and a rounded eye indicated by a dark circular inset/aperture near the upper head. The body is arched forward with two open/oval voids carved through the form on the front of the torso. The lower end rests on a flat rectangular base. A reddish-brown painted or inked inscription is visible on the base; it includes legible numerals and possibly abbreviated marks, but the full text cannot be confidently read beyond what appears to be a registration-like number. No clear hieroglyphic cartouches, royal names, or identifying inscriptions are visible beyond this base marking. No distinct deities are identifiable from the form alone.

decorative Late Period–Ptolemaic Period (per catalogue ground truth); object style consistent with later Egyptian faience amuletic/figurine production, but exact sub-period unclear from the image alone. good
Materials faience (glazed ceramic)
Signs Numerals/registration mark on base (exact reading unclear)
Visible text "Reddish-brown ink/paint on the base; appears to include '21/5 63' or similar numerals, but exact characters are not fully legible in the image."

Inscriptions (1)

Inscription #1 AI reading of the photograph

Visible text (machine reading)

Reddish-brown ink/paint on the base; appears to include '21/5 63' or similar numerals, but exact characters are not fully legible in the image.

Connections

Materials Faience
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.