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 3/8 × 5/8 in. (5.8 × 3.5 × 1.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 34.1180b.
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 turquoise-blue glazed faience object depicting a seated/standing winged or caped male/female figurative figure, likely in a protective or religious pose, displayed in a museum case.
In the foreground, a glossy turquoise-blue faience (visible as glazed ceramic) figurative element is mounted or displayed on a stand/label base. The figure has a molded headdress and a large wing-like element extending upward and to the rear/side, with incised/ridged detailing on the torso and wings. The object appears sculptural and three-dimensional rather than a flat wall tile; no clear rectangular tile border or wall-tile surface is visible in this photograph. Behind/around it are other museum objects and case fixtures. On the left background there is printed interpretive text on a museum label, but it is out of focus/partially occluded; no legible hieroglyphic inscription is visible on the artifact itself. No Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text is discernible.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 34.1180b tier-2
- BKM-Object 3337 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.