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

Die

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

Description

Dice. Roman Period, 30 B.C.–A.D. 330. ivory. dimensions: 0.9 cm square (5/16 in square). From: Oxyrhynchus (Bahnasa), Middle Egypt, Egypt. Excavation: EEF excavations 1896–97. Credit: Gift of Egypt Exploration Fund, 1897.

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 small ivory cube or die fragment/card printed with ink-like markings, likely used as a gaming or fate die.

The image shows a light tan, ivory-colored object shaped as a small cube. One face has a dark circular “dot” symbol at the center; adjacent faces display additional dark circular motifs resembling pips or numerals. A red marking, resembling a streak or a numeral-like mark, appears on the right face. The surface shows wear consistent with a small carved/inscribed object rather than a sculpted figure. No clearly legible Egyptian hieroglyphs, Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text is visible at this resolution; the markings resemble numerical/pip symbols rather than formal script.

decorative Roman Period (per catalogue) good
Materials ivory (carved)
Signs pip/dot symbol (possible numeral) ×3

Connections

Found at Oxyrhynchus
Materials Ivory

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116276182 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 97.4.123 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 547961 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
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.