Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access) · jewelry
Scarab
Description
Glazed steatite
AI image analysis GPT-4o-2024-08-06
Machine-generated from the object's image on May 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
An ancient Egyptian scarab seal with hieroglyphic inscriptions.
The artifact is a faience scarab seal, featuring inscribed hieroglyphs on its flat surface. The craftsmanship suggests a decorative yet functional item, likely used for sealing documents or goods. The blue-green glaze is typical of faience objects, a hallmark of Egyptian artistry. The inscriptions show clear hieroglyphic signs, possibly indicating the name of an individual or a symbolic phrase.
hieroglyphic only
Middle Kingdom
good
Materials
faience
Signs
ankh
was
Visible text
"ankh was"
Cross-references (4)
- Wikidata-Q Q116245056 tier-1
- Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
- Inventory-Number 36.3.33 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
- MET-Object 545173 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.