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

Scarab Inscribed Maatkare (Hatshepsut) Living

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

Description

Scarab; Maatkare, ankhti; simple back. New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, early, Joint reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, ca. 1479–1458 B.C. Steatite (glazed). L. 1.5 cm (9/16 in.); W. 1.1 cm (7/16 in.). From: Temple of Hatshepsut, Foundation Deposit 9 (I), 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 small, green-glazed Egyptian scarab-like amulet bearing an incised/painted inscription within an oval border.

The image shows a single oval scarab (underside view implied) with a thick outer circular border. Inside the border are multiple green-blue pigment remnants and darker incised lines forming what appears to be a columnar hieroglyphic text; the signs are not fully legible at this resolution. No clear deity figure is depicted—only inscriptional signs. The surface shows mottled green glaze and areas of flaking or discoloration (brown/orange spots and specks), suggesting a glazed steatite artifact. No Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text is visible. The royal name/cartouche claimed by the catalogue (Maatkare/Hatshepsut) is not clearly readable in the provided image, so specific attribution from the inscription cannot be confirmed visually.

decorative New Kingdom (per catalogue) good
Materials steatite (glazed)
Signs Incised hieroglyphic inscription (individual signs unclear) ×5

Connections

Found at Deir el-Bahri
Royals Hatshepsut
Materials Steatite

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116273287 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 27.3.239 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 549725 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.