Home › Browse › MET › Object 39243
Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access) · jewelry

Scarab Inscribed for the God's Wife Hatshepsut

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

Description

Scarab; Hatshepsut, God's Wife; notched back. New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, early, Joint reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, ca. 1479–1458 B.C. Steatite (glazed). L. 1.8 cm (11/16 in); w. 1.3 cm (1/2 in); h. 0.8 cm (5/16 in). From: Temple of Hatshepsut, Foundation Deposit 7 (G), Deir el-Bahri, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Egypt. Excavation: MMA excavations, 1926–27. Subject: Hieroglyphs, Scarabs. Credit: Rogers Fund, 1927.

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 green-glazed steatite scarab seal with an intaglio inscription showing multiple arranged hieroglyphic signs around a central vertical staff-like sign.

The object appears to be a scarab-shaped amuletic stamp (scaraboid) viewed from the top. The surface is turquoise/green with a thin dark outline around an oval field. Inside the field are several carved hieroglyphic signs in black/brown pigment or shadowing, arranged in stacked rows around a prominent central vertical element resembling a tall staff or vertical sign. To the left and lower portions, animal/human-like figures and smaller signs are visible, but the exact reading is not confidently determinable from this resolution. No cartouche frames are clearly identifiable, and no explicit royal prenomen/nomen can be securely extracted. The back/patterning details are not visible in this image. No Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text is present.

hieroglyphic only New Kingdom (consistent with catalogue) good
Deities unknown
Royals Hatshepsut (claimed by catalogue; not clearly readable on image)
Materials steatite (glazed)green/turquoise glaze
Signs Central vertical staff-like hieroglyph Bird-like or falcon-like figure (upper left) Human/figure-like sign (lower left) Other stacked smaller hieroglyphs (unreadable) ×4

Connections

Found at Deir el-Bahri
Royals Hatshepsut
Materials Steatite

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116273363 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 27.3.178 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 549707 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.