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

Part of a stela of Bebi

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

Description

Stela, Bebi. Middle Kingdom, Dynasty 11 (?), ca. 2030–1640 B.C. Limestone. H. 24.1 × W. 41 × D. 11.3 cm (9 1/2 × 16 1/8 × 4 7/16 in.). From: Tomb 490, Dendera, Northern Upper Egypt, Egypt. Credit: Gift of Egypt Exploration Fund, 1898.

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 broken limestone fragment from an Egyptian stela with incised hieroglyphs and a central figure of a seated deity.

The object is a roughly rectangular, broken fragment of light-colored limestone. One face is densely covered with carved/engraved hieroglyphic signs arranged in horizontal registers and lines, with a central carved figure (likely a deity) seated within a bordered composition. Above and around the figure are additional signs, including what appear to be stylized determinatives and framing elements. The left and upper edges are damaged, and the lower right portion is partially missing, but the overall layout suggests a stela text and iconography rather than a purely decorative slab. No modern labels or mounting hardware are visible in the image; the background is a neutral studio backdrop.

religious Middle Kingdom (consistent with catalogue; exact dynasty/regnal context unclear from fragment) fragmentary
Deities unknown seated deity (iconography unclear)
Materials limestone
Signs incised hieroglyphic signs in horizontal lines (exact signs unclear) ×30

Connections

Found at Dendera
Materials Limestone
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.