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

Magic wand

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

Description

Middle Kingdom, Dynasty 12–13, ca. 1981–1640 B.C. Ivory. L. 28.2 × W. 4.7 × H. 8.8 × Th. 0.8 cm (11 1/8 × 1 7/8 × 3 7/16 × 5/16 in.). From: Expedition House area, House Pit 1, Lisht North, Memphite Region, Egypt. Excavation: MMA excavations, 1924–25. Credit: Rogers Fund, 1932.

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.

An ivory, curved wand-like object decorated with incised outlines of figures and animals along its length.

The image shows a long, slightly curved, tusk- or baton-shaped artifact held against a light background. Along the upper surface there are multiple shallow incisions forming schematic human/animal figures and possibly processional scenes, arranged in registers that follow the curve of the object. The surface appears light yellow/cream consistent with ivory, with faint outlines and lines suggesting either hieroglyphic or narrative decoration. No clearly legible cartouches, deity names, or continuous text are readable at this resolution. No modern labels, Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text are visible.

decorative Middle Kingdom (per catalogue ground truth) good
Materials ivory
Signs incised figure/scene elements (non-fully legible) ×10

Connections

Found at Lisht
Materials Ivory

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116389401 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 32.1.231 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 546493 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.