no image
WALTERS-EG
Walters Art Museum (Egyptian) · jewelry
Cylinder Seal with the Names of King Sahure and Titles
Description
<p>This silver cylinder seal features the royal titulary of King Sahure, the second king of the Fifth Dynasty (ca. 2487-2475 BCE). The inscription includes four serekhs with his Horus name (Nebkhau), his Nebti name (Nebkhau), his Golden Horus name (Bikwy-Nebu), and one cartouche encircling his birth name (Sahure). The seal is also inscribed with the titles of a high official, including “overseer of the leather workers.” This cylinder might have come from Abusir where the king built his pyramid and most likely his unexcavated sun temple.</p><p>For the latest information about this object, <cite><a href='https://purl.thewalters.org/art/57.1748' rel='external'>Cylinder Seal with the Names of King Sahure and Titles</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.
Photograph of a rectangular silver cylinder seal/inscribed seal face densely carved with an Egyptian hieroglyphic inscription panel and border elements.
The object appears as a small, flat, rectangular piece with a polished metallic surface, consistent with a silver seal face. The central area is filled with incised hieroglyphs arranged in vertical columns, separated by ornamental framing lines. Several glyphs have wedge-shaped strokes and stylized signs typical of Old Kingdom/Old Egyptian script, though the specific signs are not fully legible at this resolution. Narrow border bands run along the sides with additional incised motifs resembling registers or vertical lines, suggesting the seal was meant to be rolled/impressed with a hieroglyphic design. No legible Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text is visible. No deities are clearly identifiable from the visible glyph fragments. The image does not show a clearly readable cartouche or royal name.
decorative
Old Kingdom (5th Dynasty), c. 24th–25th century BCE (tentative, based on the catalogue attribution to Sahure)
good
Royals
unknown (Sahure mentioned in catalogue, but cartouche/name not clearly readable in image)
Materials
silver/metallic silver
Signs
incised hieroglyphic signs (unreadable fragments) ×20
Inscriptions (3)
Inscription #1
English description
[Inscription, Egyptian; Transliteration] 1. Hr nb-xaw (Hr-stX nswt-zmA-tAwy) 2. Xkr-HA.t-nb-xaw-sxmtj nbti wAD.t 3. Hr nb-xaw nTr-aA (nsw.t-spH-ngA) 4. irr-wD.t bkwy-nbw xrp-gs.w mDH-wr.t jmi-ra-gs.w Xr.t-a-nsw.t 5. Hr nb-xaw nTr-aA 6. Xnm-nb-xaw-nbtj m anx wAs ra-nb mr-nTr ra-nb 7. Hr nb-xaw nTr
Inscription #2
English description
[aA] (nswt-tj-xAsw.t ?) 8. sHtp-jb nsw.t-bjtj sAHw-ra
Inscription #3
English description
[Translation] 1. Horus: Nebkhau (crowned by Horus and Seth) 2. Adorner of the brow of the double crown, the Two Ladies, Wadjet: Nebkhau 3. Horus: Nebkhau, great god (lassoing the cattle) 4. One who does what the Golden Horus, Bek-wi Nebu, commands; director of the leather-workers; fashioner/overseers of the wrt-crown(?); overseer of the leather-workers; royal assistant 5. Horus: Nebkhau, great god 6. Wearer of the crown of the Two Ladies(?), Nebkhau, through life, power, everyday; beloved of the god, everyday 7. Horus: Nebkhau, great god (who slays the enemy) 8. One who satisfies the heart, lord of the two lands: Sahure
Cross-references (2)
- Walters-AccNum 57.1748 tier-2
- Walters-id 12274 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.