Inscribed Object from Foundation Deposit of Amunemhat II
Description
Object Label: Foundation Deposits In addition to commissioning new buildings, Egyptian kings occasionally claimed existing structures such as temples or palaces as their own. The most common way for a king to do this was to substitute his own name for that of the original builder in the inscriptions. When a king commissioned a new structure, he buried objects in the four corners of the foundation to be certain that the gods would remember the true builder and that later kings could not find and reinscribe them. These so-called foundation deposits usually included plaques with the king’s name, as well as models of objects used to erect the building, such as grinders, hoes, and rockers needed to move large stones. Caption: Inscribed Object from Foundation Deposit of Amunemhat II, ca. 1876–1842 B.C.E.. Steatite, Other (circumference): 7/8 in. (2.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.1746E. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
AI image analysis GPT-4o-2024-08-06
Machine-generated from the object's image on May 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
A small wooden artifact with inscriptions around its surface.
The artifact appears to be a small, carved wooden object, possibly a ring or part of a furniture ornament, with visible inscriptions. The craftsmanship suggests careful detailing typical of Egyptian artifacts. The object is set on display with small mounts behind, indicating a museum setting. The inscriptions are faint but discernible, suggesting some wear over time.
Connections
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 37.1746E tier-2
- BKM-Object 4177 tier-2
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.