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

Relief fragment, tomb of Mereri

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

Description

First Intermediate Period, Dynasty 9, ca. 2100–2030 B.C. Limestone. H. 14.5 × W. 35.5 × D. 7.7 cm (5 11/16 × 14 × 3 1/16 in.). From: Tomb of Mereri, Behind Temple of Hathor, Dendera, Northern Upper Egypt, Egypt. Excavation: Egypt Exploration Fund excavations, 1898. Subject: Birds. 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.

Stone relief fragment with carved figures and hieroglyph-like signs, likely from a tomb wall scene.

The object is a horizontally oriented fragment of carved limestone with damaged edges. The left portion preserves a curved, folded form (possibly part of a garment or offering element) and a recessed rectangular area containing incised linear details. On the right side, there is a vertically aligned group of incised lines resembling drapery or stacked strokes, beside additional rectangular block-like carving. No clear royal cartouche or readable full hieroglyph sequence can be confirmed from the surviving marks; the motifs appear to be part of a larger relief composition.

unclear First Intermediate Period (per catalogue; image does not provide decisive stylistic dating) fragmentary
Materials limestone

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.