Box with Sliding Cover
Description
Object Label: Beginning in the late Predynastic Period (circa 3300–3100 B.C.), Egyptians stored small precious objects in decorated wooden boxes. Early Dynasty 18 woodworkers frequently embellished these boxes, such as the ones displayed here, with ivory bands featuring rows of concentric circles. This design disappeared around the reign of Thutmose III. Caption: Box with Sliding Cover, ca. 1938–1478 B.C.E.. Wood, ivory, 3 3/4 x 4 7/8 x 6 5/8 in. (9.5 x 12.4 x 16.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 60.1.1a-b. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
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 small rectangular Egyptian box with a hinged/sliding lid and wooden legs, decorated with extensive incised/painted ring and border motifs resembling repeating hieroglyphic patterns.
The object appears as a low, rectangular chest/box with a flat top lid set into a surrounding frame. Four short legs elevate the box slightly above the surface; the legs and edges are decorated with alternating light and dark paint and/or incised circular motifs. The main panels of the sides and front are filled with dense, repeating band patterns: concentric ring-like motifs arranged in rows and framed by thicker border lines. The top surface also carries similar patterned decoration. No clear human/animal figures, deity iconography, or legible cartouches are visible in the provided image. No Greek/Coptic/Arabic text is visible. The catalogue description (“Box with Sliding Cover”; materials wood and ivory) is broadly consistent with the visible wooden construction and the light-toned ornamental inlays/decoration, though the image resolution does not allow confirmation of ivory specifically.
Connections
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 60.1.1a-b tier-2
- BKM-Object 3680 tier-2
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art.
- 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.