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. 7.6 × W. 8.4 × D. 2.8 cm (3 × 3 5/16 × 1 1/8 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.

A limestone ostracon fragment with multiple lines of dark ink in hieratic script on one face.

The image shows a roughly rectangular/irregular limestone ostracon fragment with the left side slightly more intact than the right. Several horizontal lines of dark pigment/ink are preserved across the surface. The text is written in a cursive script consistent with hieratic (stacked/clustered strokes rather than incised squares typical of epigraphic hieroglyphs). No clear cartouche boundaries, royal titulary, or identifiable deity determinatives are confidently visible from this resolution. A few brighter/red specks or stains appear on the right-lower area, which may be modern staining or pigment loss rather than deliberate writing. No other scripts (Greek/Coptic/Arabic) are visible.

hieroglyphic only New Kingdom, Ramesside–Late Period (per catalogue) fragmentary
Materials limestoneink/pigment
Signs multiple cursive hieratic characters (unidentified) ×30

Connections

Found at Asasif
Materials Limestone

Cross-references (1)

  • PNM-Object pnm:83914464 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.