Home › Browse › MET › Object 309
Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access) · jewelry

A small inlaid sculpture of a soft-shelled turtle

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

Description

Middle Kingdom, Dynasty 12, ca. 1991–1802 B.C. Amethyst, turquoise, lapis-lazuli, carnelian, adhesive. L. 4.7 × W. 3.5 × H. 1.5 cm (1 7/8 × 1 3/8 × 9/16 in.). Said to be from: Dendera, Northern Upper Egypt. Subject: Turtles. Credit: Purchase, Edward S. Harkness Gift, 1926.

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 small, polished animal-shaped sculpture (turtle-like) carved from a light purple stone and densely inlaid with small colored gem pieces on the shell surface.

The object is shown in a single view against a light background. It has an ovoid, soft-shell–turtle-like outline: a broad rounded body with a smaller protrusion at one end that resembles a head, while the opposite side tapers slightly. The surface is extensively decorated with numerous small inlay settings/pieces in varied colors (notably turquoise-blue, dark blue, green, pale blue, and reddish-brown), creating a stippled pattern across the top. The inlaid elements appear to be small drilled/embedded stones with round or oval faces; some cavities or gaps are visible where inlay is missing. The carving/polishing is smooth, with the main body formed from the same material throughout; the underside details are not visible. No clear hieroglyphs, cartouches, or other textual scripts are visible on this side.

decorative Middle Kingdom (per catalogue); image itself does not provide diagnostic dating features. good
Materials amethyst (dominant light purple body)turquoise (numerous blue-green inlays)lapis-lazuli (some deep blue inlays)carnelian (reddish-brown inlays, possibly)adhesive (inlay setting/adhesive implied but not directly confirmable)

Connections

Found at Dendera

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116251801 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 26.7.1359 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 544102 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.