Wall Tile from a Royal Funerary Structure
Description
Object Label: Blue-green glazed rectangular tiles like these once decorated the walls of subterranean rooms beneath King Djoser’s Step Pyramid. As the first example of monumental stone architecture in Egypt, Djoser’s funerary complex was meant to provide the king’s spirit with an abode for eternity. The tiles imitated the hangings of reeds lashed together by horizontal cords that decorated palace walls during this king’s lifetime. Caption: Wall Tile from a Royal Funerary Structure, ca. 2675–2625 B.C.E.. Faience, 2 3/16 x 1 7/16 x 11/16 in. (5.6 x 3.6 x 1.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 73.84.2.
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 five small, rectangular green-blue glazed ceramic (faience) wall-tile fragments arranged side by side.
Five roughly rectangular wall-tile pieces are displayed against a dark background. Their surfaces are predominantly turquoise/green with mottled weathering and spots where glaze has flaked; small chips/edges suggest they are broken remnants rather than complete tiles. No clearly readable modeled relief, inlaid designs, or hieroglyphic/figural elements are visible in this image at the given resolution; only general glaze coloration and damage patterns can be confidently noted. No royal cartouches or deity names are discernible. No modern labels or non-Egyptian scripts appear.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 73.84.2 tier-2
- BKM-Object 3823 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.