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

Scarab with Horned Animal and Uraei

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

Description

Second Intermediate Period, ca. 1640–1500 B.C. (late Middle Bronze Age IIB-IIC). Steatite. L. 2 × W. 1.4 × H. 0.8 cm (3/4 × 9/16 × 5/16 in.). From: Cemetery, debris, Lisht North, Memphite Region, Egypt. Excavation: MMA excavations, 1920–22. Subject: Scarabs. Credit: Rogers Fund and Edward S. Harkness Gift, 1922.

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.

Oval scarab-shaped amulet carved in low relief, showing a horned animal flanked by uraeus-like snakes on the sides.

The image depicts a small, oval scarab/bean-shaped seal with a rounded border. Within the central field, a horned animal (likely a bull or similar) is carved in profile, with distinct horns and raised head, facing toward the right. Beneath and around the animal are incised lines suggesting a textured ground or body/legs detail. On both left and right sides of the animal are upright, serpent-like forms with raised heads, consistent with uraei (coiled/crowned snakes) rendered in relief. No clear hieroglyphic text or royal cartouche is visible; the design appears purely iconographic. Surface wear and small losses are present, especially along the rim.

decorative Second Intermediate Period (per catalogue; image itself not sufficient to refine) fragmentary
Materials stonesteatite (catalogue)

Connections

Found at Lisht
Materials StoneSteatite

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116244744 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 22.1.329 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 545223 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.