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

Raised relief fragment

Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access), acc. 23.3.783. Public domain (CC0). Copy archived by egyptianinscriptions.org with attribution; original at the holding institution.

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Accession: 23.3.783
Find spot: Deir el-Bahri, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Egypt approx. site location
Period: Late Period, Saite
Dynasty: Dynasty 26
Reign: reign of Psamtik I
Date: 664–610 B.C.
Date range: 664 BCE – 610 BCE
Materials: ['limestone', 'varnish']
Repository: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
At source: View original →

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Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access), Raised relief fragment (23.3.783). Egyptian Inscriptions Database. https://egyptianinscriptions.org/object/39876

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Description

Relief, Tomb of Nespekashuty. Late Period, Saite, Dynasty 26, reign of Psamtik I, 664–610 B.C. Limestone, varnish. H. 8.1 × W. 3.5 cm (3 3/16 × 1 3/8 in.). From: Tomb of Nespekashuty (TT 312, MMA 509), 1st chamber W. wall, Deir el-Bahri, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Egypt. Excavation: MMA excavations, 1922–23. Credit: Rogers Fund, 1923.

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 fragment of Egyptian carved stone showing traces of red-painted hieroglyphic bands on a light background.

The image shows a curved, broken limestone fragment with a flat front face. On the front face there are several vertical, reed-like or columnar marks in red paint, and a few thicker red strokes grouped into bands, resembling the remaining portion of an inscription or decorative field from a raised-relief surface. No complete sign, cartouche, or human/animal figure is clearly preserved, and no Greek/Coptic/Arabic text is visible. The sides and back are rough and unpainted, consistent with a broken relief block. Surfaces show light-colored ground with red pigment residue; a varnish or protective coating is suggested by the glossy look on the painted face but cannot be confirmed from the image alone.

hieroglyphic only Late Period, Saite (per catalogue; exact dating not independently confirmable from visible fragment) fragmentary

Materials limestone (stone substrate)red pigment/paintlight coating resembling varnish (uncertain)

Signs unidentified red-painted hieroglyphic/inscription strokes (vertical reed/line-like marks) ×6

Visible text "Portion of red-painted hieroglyphic strokes only; no legible complete sign or name preserved in this fragment."

Inscriptions (1)

Inscription #1 AI reading of the photograph

Visible text (machine reading)

Portion of red-painted hieroglyphic strokes only; no legible complete sign or name preserved in this fragment.

Connections

Found at Deir el-Bahri

Materials Limestone

Cross-references (4)

Wikidata-Q Q116276146 tier-1
Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
Inventory-Number 23.3.783 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
MET-Object 547986 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.