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

Cowroid Seal Amulet Inscribed for the God's Wife Hatshepsut

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

Description

New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, Joint reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, ca. 1479–1458 B.C. Steatite (glazed). L. 1.9 cm (3/4 in.); W. 1.3 cm (1/2 in.); H. 0.5 cm (3/16 in.). From: Temple of Hatshepsut, Foundation Deposit 8 (H), Deir el-Bahri, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Egypt. Excavation: MMA excavations, 1926–27. Credit: Rogers Fund, 1927.

The same text in other collections

Linked by shared inventory number (MET-Object 547664). Each record below describes this same artifact or text from a different angle.

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.

Oval cowroid seal/amulet made of blue-green glazed steatite, inscribed with dark hieroglyphic signs arranged around a central motif.

The object is a small, oval (cowroid/“scaraboid”) amulet with a convex face and a recessed border. The surface is covered in a turquoise/blue-green glaze with dark outlines around an inscribed field. Inside the oval, multiple dark hieroglyphic signs are arranged in a roughly columnar layout, with cross-shaped and vertical-stemmed elements and a central human/standing figure–like form or tall sign cluster. Several small red-orange specks are visible on the lower left and around the border area, likely remnants of glaze/paint or manufacturing/handling marks rather than text. No clear cartouche or royal name is legible at this image resolution. No Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text is visible.

hieroglyphic only New Kingdom (as catalogued; exact dynastic assignment unclear from image alone) good
Deities unknown
Royals unknown
Materials glazed steatite (blue-green glaze)
Signs unidentified hieroglyphic group (multiple signs in vertical arrangement) ×6
Visible text "Unreadable at this resolution; appears to contain multiple hieroglyphic signs including cross/ankh-like and vertical-stemmed elements arranged in columns."

Inscriptions (1)

Inscription #1 AI reading of the photograph

Visible text (machine reading)

Unreadable at this resolution; appears to contain multiple hieroglyphic signs including cross/ankh-like and vertical-stemmed elements arranged in columns.

Connections

Found at Deir el-Bahri
Royals Hatshepsut

Cross-references (5)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116276512 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 27.3.180 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 547664 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • PNM-Object pnm:83916829 tier-2 (inventory-match)
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.