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

Statue of the Overseer of Stonemasons Senbebu and Family

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, ca. 1981–1802 B.C. Sandstone. H. 22.2 cm (8 3/4 in.); W. 30 cm (11 13/16 in.); D. 16 cm (6 5/16 in.). Probably originally from: Elephantine, Southern Upper Egypt. Subject: Men, Women, Family. Credit: Dodge Fund, 1956.

The same text in other collections

Linked by shared inventory number (MET-Object 544181). 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.

Stone relief showing three male figures seated side-by-side, each with a wig/headpiece and hands posed over the lap or holds an object. The right figure includes a garment/strap crossing the torso and both outer figures appear to have offering-like elements beneath their arms.

The object is a carved sandstone sculptural group/relief block with three seated figures in a shallow register. The central figure is nude or minimally draped, wearing a tripartite wig and a broad collar; he sits with legs forward and one arm laid across his lap and the other resting near the body. The left and right figures wear wigs and more elaborate garments, with hands positioned near or holding a cloth/implements; the left figure’s arms appear to cross over a block-like element at the lap. Beneath both outer figures are incised bands/blocks that may represent hieroglyphic or decorative framing but the individual signs are not sufficiently clear in the image to identify specific words. No clearly legible hieroglyphic text, cartouches, Greek, Coptic, or Arabic inscriptions are visible at this resolution. No explicit deities are depicted with identifiable attributes; the iconography is consistent with a family/group of officials/individuals in Egyptian funerary/commemorative style rather than a specific named god.

royal Middle Kingdom (as catalogued; exact dating uncertain from image alone) good
Materials sandstone
Signs unknown incised/ornamental band beneath outer figures

Connections

Found at Elephantine
Materials Sandstone

Cross-references (5)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116248630 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 56.136 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 544181 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • PNM-Object pnm:83889276 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.