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

Meskhetyu Instrument From Foundation Deposit C, Hatshepsut's Temple

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

Description

New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, Joint reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, ca. 1479–1458 B.C. Wood. L. 25.9 cm (10 3/16 in.); W. 2 cm (13/16 in.); H. 6.7 cm (2 5/8 in.). From: Temple of Hatshepsut, forecourt, Foundation Deposit 3 (C), Deir el-Bahri, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Egypt. Excavation: MMA excavations, 1923–24. Credit: Rogers Fund, 1925.

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.

The image shows a single carved wooden object with a curved, hook-like body and a rectangular hollow block at one end.

The artifact is photographed against a plain light background. It appears to be made of a single piece of wood with a smooth, sanded surface and visible grain. The form consists of a long, curved section that tapers slightly toward one end, culminating in a hooked/flanged tip. The opposite end has a rectangular, hollowed block (an open rectangular recess) formed by a squared opening through the wood. No painted decoration, inscriptions, or attached metal components are clearly visible. The image does not show legible hieroglyphs, cartouches, or any Greek/Coptic/Arabic text. No deities are depicted in the visible area.

unclear New Kingdom (catalogue ground truth); otherwise unclear from the image alone good
Materials wood (carved)

Connections

Found at Deir el-Bahri
Royals Hatshepsut
Materials Wood

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116247830 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 25.3.40 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 544458 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.