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

Bes-Image Amulet

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

Description

Amulet, Bes-Image. Third Intermediate Period, Dynasty 21–24, ca. 1070–712 B.C. Faience. H. 3.7 × W. 2 × D. 1.2 cm (1 7/16 × 13/16 × 1/2 in.). From: Egypt. Subject: Bes. Credit: Purchase, Edward S. Harkness Gift, 1926.

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 faience amulet depicts the god Bes in a seated/standing frontal pose, wearing a tall plume-like headdress and holding his arms near his body.

The object is a compact, molded figurine-style amulet in blue-green faience. It shows Bes frontally with a broad, square face, wide eyes, and an open mouth with teeth. He wears a tall, ribbed headdress/feather-like crown that rises above the head. Bes has both hands raised toward his chest/shoulders, with additional molded details on the forearms suggesting clenched hands or grasping gestures. The body is short and muscular, with a short kilt or apron at the waist. At the base, a rectangular ground line includes small molded/painted marks that resemble a number or inventory-like inscription; no clear hieroglyphic signs or cartouches are legible beyond these base markings. The background is plain, and the amulet appears intact with a glossy surface consistent with glazed faience.

religious Third Intermediate Period (catalogue ground truth) good
Deities Bes
Materials faience (glazed, blue-green)
Signs undetermined molded numerals/marks at base
Visible text "Base has small molded numerals/marks (not clearly readable as hieroglyphs)"

Inscriptions (1)

Inscription #1 AI reading of the photograph

Visible text (machine reading)

Base has small molded numerals/marks (not clearly readable as hieroglyphs)

Connections

Deities Bes
Materials Faience

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116275522 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 26.7.878 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 548301 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.