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

Face attributed to Ptolemy II Philadelphos or a contemporary

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

Description

Head fragment, Ptolemy II. Ptolemaic Period, Ptolemaic Dynasty, reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphos, 285–246 B.C. Greywacke. H. 16.2 cm (6 3/8 in.); W. 10.8 cm (4 1/4 in.); D. 6 cm (2 3/8 in.). From: Near the obelisk, Heliopolis (Iunu; On), Memphite Region, Egypt. Excavation: BSAE excavations 1912. Credit: Gift of The Egyptian Research Account and British School of Archaeology in Egypt, 1912.

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.

Stone head/face fragment of a male figure, shown in a frontal view with a calm expression and stylized facial features.

The object is a carved stone face fragment representing a male royal/official type head. The eyes are carved with prominent lids and arched brows; the nose is well modeled, and the mouth has a defined upper lip with a slightly open, neutral expression. The chin and cheeks show worn or chipped areas, and a break runs vertically through the face near the nose/cheek region. The forehead and hairline are indicated by minimal, smooth carving, without clearly preserved crown details. Small chipped attachment points or losses are visible around the perimeter. No legible inscriptions or text are visible on the surface in the provided image. No explicit attributes of a specific deity are identifiable; the style appears consistent with a royal portrait fragment from the Hellenistic/Ptolemaic period, matching the catalogue attribution to Ptolemy II or a contemporary.

royal Ptolemaic Period (attributed; Hellenistic-style royal portrait fragment) fragmentary
Materials greywacke

Connections

Found at Heliopolis
Royals Ptolemy II
Materials Greywacke

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q29385935 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 12.187.31 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 548230 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.