Portion of a Historical Text
Description
Object Label: When complete, the papyrus to which this fragment belonged measured almost seven feet long. The texts are written in a cursive form of hieroglyphs called hieratic. Differences in handwriting and in the historical events described demonstrate that different scribes added new inscriptions over several generations. The most important text recounts the efforts of a Thirteenth Dynasty Theban noblewoman named Senebtisi to establish legal ownership of ninety-five household servants, whose names indicate that forty-five were of Asiatic origin. The presence of so many foreigners in a single household suggests that the Asiatic population was increasing rapidly in Thirteenth Dynasty Egypt. As was customary, some of these foreigners no doubt married Egyptians, adopted Egyptian beliefs and cultural traditions, and were absorbed into the cultural mainstream. Others, especially prisoners of war or descendants of military captives, remained loyal to their Asian heritage. Some of these foreigners facilitated the collapse of the Middle Kingdom and the later conquest of Egypt by the Asiatic Hyksos in the Second Intermediate Period. Caption: Portion of a Historical Text, ca. 1809–1743 B.C.E.. Papyrus, ink, 35.1446a-e: 11 1/2 × 71 5/8 in. (29.2 × 182 cm) 35.1446a: 10 3/8 x 11 13/16 in. (26.3 x 30 cm) 35.1448b: 6 1/2 x 20 11/16 in. (16.5 x 52.5 cm) 35.1446c: 11 1/2 x 20 in. (29.2 x 50.8 cm) 35.1446d: 11 x 19 3/8 in. (28 x 49.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Theodora Wilbour, 35.1446a-e. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
The same text in other collections
Linked by shared inventory number
(BKM-Object 3369).
Each record below describes this same artifact or text from a different angle.
- P. Brooklyn 35.1446 PNM textThebes
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 fragmentary rectangular papyrus sheet covered with dense horizontal lines of dark ink that resemble hieroglyphic (or hieratic) script.
The image shows a papyrus fragment with torn edges and areas of surface loss, laid against a neutral background. The surviving portion is divided into multiple registers or line bands running left-to-right and across the sheet, with compact, dark strokes forming repeated signs consistent with Egyptian textual writing. No clearly preserved royal cartouche, deity figure, or scene is visible; the content appears to be continuous text rather than iconography. Ink is present in black/dark brown tones, while other traces of reddish-brown marks may be present in places but are not clear enough to identify as specific ink types or captions. No Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text is visible, and no legible excerpt can be confidently transcribed from the resolution.
Cross-references (3)
- BKM-Accession 35.1446a-e tier-2
- BKM-Object 3369 tier-2
- PNM-Object pnm:83897958 tier-2 (inventory-match)
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art.
- 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.