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

Cylinder seal

Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access), acc. 10.130.1604. Public domain (CC0). Copy archived by egyptianinscriptions.org with attribution; original at the holding institution.

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Accession: 10.130.1604
Period: Early Dynastic Period
Dynasty: Dynasty 1
Date: ca. 2960–2649 B.C.
Date range: 2960 BCE – 2649 BCE
Materials: ['stone']
Repository: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
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Cite & export

Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access), Cylinder seal (10.130.1604). Egyptian Inscriptions Database. https://egyptianinscriptions.org/object/215840

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Description

Early Dynastic Period, Dynasty 1, ca. 2960–2649 B.C. Stone. H. 1.8 × Diam. 1.6 cm (11/16 × 5/8 in.). From: Egypt. Credit: Gift of Helen Miller Gould, 1910.

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 cylindrical stone seal with engraved/painted geometric and hieroglyph-like motifs around its surface.

The image shows a short, cylindrical object with a mottled gray/black stone body and a slightly lighter rim. The exterior is decorated with repeated incised or impressed signs in dark pigment or engraving traces, arranged in panels around the circumference. The visible motifs include triangular shapes and multiple recurring figures that resemble simplified hieroglyphic forms, but the specific signs and their Gardiner identifications cannot be confirmed from the resolution provided. No cartouches, royal names, or clearly attributable deities are legible. No Greek/Coptic/Arabic text is visible.

decorative Early Dynastic Period (consistent with the catalogue); exact sign-reading unclear. good

Materials stone

Signs unknown hieroglyph-like motifs (geometric/figurative signs in panels) ×6

Visible text "No readable inscription excerpt; only non-specific hieroglyph-like/abstract signs visible."

Inscriptions (1)

Inscription #1 AI reading of the photograph

Visible text (machine reading)

No readable inscription excerpt; only non-specific hieroglyph-like/abstract signs visible.

Connections

Materials Stone

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.