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. 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.

Small carved cube with painted markings on multiple faces; appears to be an inscribed/marked dice-like object rather than a carved human/animal figure.

The image shows a small, off-white/cream cube with slightly worn edges. Several faces have dark circular dot motifs resembling pips, and one face includes a red/black painted marking near the top edge that does not clearly resolve as Egyptian hieroglyphs. No readable hieroglyphic lines, cartouches, or deity iconography are visible. The object is photographed against a plain white background, with no visible mounting or associated text. The surface shows abrasion consistent with an aged or handled artifact.

unclear Roman Period (catalogue ground truth; image does not allow independent dating) good
Materials ivory (appearance and catalogue ground truth; exact identification not independently verifiable from image)
Signs dot/pip-like circular marks (dice-style) ×6

Connections

Found at Oxyrhynchus

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116276185 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 97.4.125 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 547963 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.