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

Ostracon with hieratic inscription

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

Description

New Kingdom, Ramesside–Late Period, Dynasty 19–26, ca. 1295–525 B.C. Limestone, ink. H. 9.2 × W. 12.7 × D. 2.5 cm (3 5/8 × 5 × 1 in.). From: East of Pabasa, Radim, Asasif, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Egypt. Excavation: MMA excavations, 1918–19. Credit: Rogers Fund, 1919.

The same text in other collections

Linked as the same object. Each record below describes this same artifact or text from a different angle.

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.

Fragment of a limestone ostracon bearing multiple lines of dark ink hieratic signs across the surface.

The object is a broken, irregular limestone fragment with one main face covered in dense, horizontally oriented ink writing in hieratic. The ink forms several rows of cursive/non-figural characters; individual sign shapes are visible but too incomplete for secure identification of specific words, royal names, or number/date formulas. No figurative scenes, figures, or deities are depicted—only writing. The background limestone is light beige/gray, with slight surface irregularities from breakage and weathering. The catalogue’s description of an inked hieratic inscription is consistent with what is visible.

hieroglyphic only New Kingdom, Ramesside–Late Period (as catalogued) fragmentary
Materials limestoneink
Signs hieratic cursive signs (individual characters not securely assignable) ×50
Visible text "Inscription in hieratic script (exact transcription not reliably legible from the image)."

Inscriptions (1)

Inscription #1 AI reading of the photograph

Visible text (machine reading)

Inscription in hieratic script (exact transcription not reliably legible from the image).

Connections

Found at Asasif
Materials LimestoneInk

Cross-references (1)

  • PNM-Object pnm:83914459 tier-2 (inventory-match)
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.