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Walters Art Museum (Egyptian) · statue

Stele with King and Ptah

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

Description

<p>This stele is carved in low relief and depicts a King and Ptah facing each other across an offering table. There are inscriptions on the top, bottom, and edges. The corners are broken. The authenticity of this piece is questioned.</p><p>For the latest information about this object, <cite><a href='https://purl.thewalters.org/art/22.319' rel='external'>Stele with King and Ptah</a></cite>, visit the Online Collection of the Walters Art Museum.</p>

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 arched Egyptian stele shows a frontal king flanked by two standing figures, with a central hieroglyphic panel and winged/architectural elements above.

The image depicts an arched, upright stele in profile view facing the viewer. In the upper register a winged, hawk-like form spans across the top above a central recessed panel that contains hieroglyphic-style signs and a small seated/standing figure or emblem. Below, three main figures stand in a symmetrical arrangement: the central royal figure (king) holds a long staff/ceremonial object; to either side stand two attendants or priests, each holding staffs and wearing traditional patterned garments. Behind/around the central panel are architectural motifs resembling columns. At the base there is a horizontal band with additional markings that may be inscription or decorative text. The stone surface is worn in places, but the overall iconography is consistent with a dedication stele involving the king and a creator god. No readable Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text is visible. Some Egyptian hieroglyphic signs appear but are too worn/low-resolution to transcribe reliably.

religious unknown (likely Late Period/Early Ptolemaic based on style, but unclear) good
Deities Ptah (catalogue association; not clearly readable in image)unknown deity/attribute in central panel (unreadable)
Royals unknown
Materials white steatite (catalogue)traces of blue glaze (catalogue)
Signs cartouche-like or royal-name enclosure (unreadable) winged/solar or hawk-like emblem multiple Egyptian hieroglyphic signs in central panel ×8 horizontal band of inscription/decorative signs at base ×6

Inscriptions (1)

Inscription #1

English description

[Inscriptions] Top, bottom, and edges

Connections

Deities Ptah
Materials White Steatite

Cross-references (2)

  • Walters-AccNum 22.319 tier-2
  • Walters-id 23856 tier-2

Similar inscriptions · by content embedding

About this record's data
  • From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Walters Art Museum (Egyptian).
  • 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.