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

Relief fragment with king Khufu's cattle

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

Description

Relief, king Khufu's cattle. Old Kingdom, Dynasty 4, reign of Khufu, ca. 2551–2528 B.C. Limestone. H. 46 cm (18 1/8 in.); W. 137.5 cm (54 1/8 in.); Estimated weight: 290 lbs. (131.5 kg.). From: Pyramid Complex of Amenemhat I, re-used as foundation of French mastaba, southwest corner of pyramid, Lisht North, Memphite Region, Egypt. Excavation: MMA excavations, 1920–22. Subject: Animals. 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.

A limestone relief fragment showing part of a large scene with a walking bull/ox and surrounding incised hieroglyphic signs along the upper register.

The object is a rectangular limestone relief fragment with a damaged left side and worn surfaces. Across the main field, an ox-like animal in profile is carved in low relief: visible are the head with muzzle, the shoulder/hump area, the foreleg(s), and the tail. Above and around the animal are multiple incised lines of hieroglyphic signs (some appear to be vertical strokes and other conventional forms), distributed along the top register and near the animal’s body. A few signs are also visible on the right portion of the fragment. No clear cartouche or royal name is preserved in a legible form, and the specific identification with “king Khufu” cannot be confirmed from the visible text or iconography.

royal Old Kingdom (ground-truth: Old Kingdom; exact reign not confirmable from this fragment) fragmentary
Materials limestone
Signs incised hieroglyphic signs (multiple; exact forms unclear) ×10

Connections

Found at Lisht
Royals Khufu
Materials Limestone

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116252355 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 22.1.3a, b tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 543890 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.