Home › Browse › MET › Object 39087
Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access) · architecture

Inscribed fragment, Aten cartouche

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

Description

New Kingdom, Amarna Period, Dynasty 18, reign of Akhenaten, ca. 1353–1336 B.C. Indurated limestone. H. 8.5 × W. 7.5 × D. 3.5 cm (3 3/8 × 2 15/16 × 1 3/8 in.). From: Great Temple of the Aten, pit outside southern wall, Amarna (Akhetaten), Middle Egypt, Egypt. Excavation: Petrie/Carter excavations, 1891–92. Credit: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1957.

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 limestone fragment with incised hieroglyphic signs, including a partial sun-disk/cartouche-related element consistent with an Aten inscription.

The image shows a broken, irregularly shaped piece of light-colored stone with deeply carved, vertical and curved incised marks. On the left, a large circular form containing a central dot is visible, resembling a sun-disk element; nearby are vertical strokes and additional light, worn incisions. On the right, parts of a curved form and several vertical lines/signs remain, though the full sequence is incomplete due to damage and cropping. No clearly readable cartouche text is fully preserved, and no royal name is recoverable from the visible portion. There is no Greek/Coptic/Arabic text visible. The overall style and iconographic element (sun-disk-like carving) are compatible with an Amarna-period Aten inscription fragment, but the exact Aten cartouche wording cannot be confirmed from this image alone.

hieroglyphic only New Kingdom, Amarna Period (c. reign of Akhenaten), approximate based on Aten cartouche attribution fragmentary
Deities Aten (implied/likely by sun-disk element; exact text not fully preserved)
Materials limestone (inscribed, carved)
Signs partial sun-disk / Aten-related sun element (exact reading unclear) incised vertical hieroglyph strokes (possibly part of an Aten/cartouche formula) ×4
Visible text "Sun-disk-like element and incised vertical strokes are present, but the legible wording is incomplete/unclear in the visible fragment."

Inscriptions (1)

Inscription #1 AI reading of the photograph

Visible text (machine reading)

Sun-disk-like element and incised vertical strokes are present, but the legible wording is incomplete/unclear in the visible fragment.

Connections

Found at Amarna (Akhetaten)
Deities Aten
Materials Limestone

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116273475 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 57.180.14 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 549669 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.