Home › Browse › MET › Object 32205
Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access) · tool

Bifacial Knife

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

Description

Knife, bifacial knife. Neolithic Period, Buto–Merimda–Maadi, ca. 4500–4000 B.C. Flint. H. 8 × W. 2.2 × Th. 1.1 cm (3 1/8 × 7/8 × 7/16 in.). From: Merimda Beni Salama, Western Delta, Egypt. Excavation: Vienna Academy of Science excavations 1929–30. Credit: Gift of Albert Rothbart, 1933.

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 single worked stone artifact is shown from the side on a neutral background. It appears to be an elongated, bifacially worked flint-like piece with a pointed end.

The image depicts a small handheld stone implement photographed against a plain gray background. The object is horizontally oriented with a pointed, tapering end and a broader opposite end. Surfaces show reddish-brown to dark gray flint-like areas and step-like scar patterns from knapping/flaking along the edges, consistent with a bifacially worked tool. No visible pigments, metal, or attached hafting elements are apparent. There are no readable hieroglyphs and no cartouches, and no human figures or iconography are present. The visible form matches a bifacial lithic knife silhouette (though without scales, precise dimensions cannot be determined).

decorative Neolithic Period (Buto–Merimda–Maadi), as catalogued good
Materials flint/stone

Connections

Found at Merimda Beni Salama

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116415057 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 33.4.24 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 547153 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.