Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access) · other

Sample of Grain from Merimda

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

Description

Neolithic Period–Predynastic Period, ca. 4500–4000 B.C. Burned Grain. From: Merimda Beni Salama, Western Delta, Egypt. Excavation: Vienna Academy of Science excavations 1929–30. Subject: Food. 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.

The image shows a circular tray filled with dark, carbonized grain kernels, photographed from above against a light background.

A top-down view depicts a round container with a light-colored rim holding many small, elongated seed/grain kernels. The kernels are predominantly dark gray to black, with a charred/carbonized appearance consistent with burned grain. No tools, labels, or additional materials are visible beyond the grain and the rim of the container. There are no discernible hieroglyphs or other inscriptions on the artifact or in the photograph.

agricultural Neolithic Period–Predynastic Period (as provided by catalogue; image itself does not allow finer dating) good
Materials burned/charred grain (carbonized kernels)light-colored container rim (material unclear, likely ceramic/plaster or similar)

Connections

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.