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 5/16 × 1 7/16 × 7/16 in. (5.9 × 3.6 × 1.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 34.1180c.
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 glazed blue faience sculptural element depicting a seated, winged mythic creature (human- or lion-like) shown in profile, likely representing a protective/royal motif from an Old Kingdom funerary context.
The image shows a dark-to-medium blue glazed faience object displayed in a museum case. The figure is molded with a prominent head and long mane or curving, ribbed elements around the body; raised, wing-like forms are visible along the back/side, and the creature appears seated or braced with a compact base. The surface has glossy highlights from the glaze, with visible chips/losses along edges. No clearly legible painted or incised hieroglyphs are visible on the object itself. A nearby museum label on the left includes printed English text, but the excerpt shown is not reliably readable at full detail for dating/identification beyond general context. The catalogue title given by the user indicates a 'Wall Tile from a Royal Funerary Structure,' but the photographed object appears more like a molded sculptural amulet or small figurine than a flat wall tile; the discrepancy is noted while still recording visible features. Deities are not explicitly identifiable from iconography alone with high confidence; the motif is described generally as a protective winged figure. No royal names/cartouches are clearly visible.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 34.1180c tier-2
- BKM-Object 3338 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.