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

Sealing with Scarab Impressions from Heqanakht's Letters

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

Description

Sealing, from Heqanakht papyrus. Middle Kingdom, early Dynasty 12, reign of Senwosret I, ca. 1956–1953 B.C. Mud, string. L 2.2 × W. 1.3 cm (7/8 × 1/2 in.). From: Tomb of Ipy (TT 315, MMA 516B), Deir el-Bahri, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Egypt. Credit: Bequest of Winifred Kate Purches, 2018.

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 mud sealing fragment hangs on a looped string, showing a damaged male face and surrounding decorative marks resembling molded hieroglyphic-like text or seal impressions.

The object is a vertically oriented, oval/teardrop-shaped mud sealing with a suspension hole at the top. A light-colored string passes through the hole; frayed fibers extend downward. The surface preserves a molded/pressed motif in low relief: a stylized bearded man’s face (left-facing or frontal in profile) with incised features, and additional small curving/rectilinear lines below and around the head that could be part of an inscription or patterned seal decoration. No clearly formed scarab figure is visible in this image; the central relief appears to be a human head/figure rather than an obvious scarab. The lower portion is worn and cracked, and fine details are difficult to make out.

funerary Middle Kingdom (consistent with catalogue; specific dynastic assignment unclear from image) fragmentary
Deities unknown
Materials mud/clay (seal)string (suspension)
Signs Incised/relief lines forming an inscription-like field (not legible)

Connections

Found at Deir el-Bahri
Materials String

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116442610 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 2018.595.2 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 572490 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
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.