Palette with antelope heads and a turtle
Description
Predynastic, Naqada II, ca. 3650–3500 B.C. Greywacke. H: 14 cm (5 11/16); W: 14.5 cm (5 11/16 in.). From: Egypt. Subject: Animals. Credit: Gift of Lily S. Place, 1921.
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 Predynastic greywacke cosmetic/ceremonial palette shaped like a shield, with two projecting antelope-head forms at the top corners and a turtle-like motif implied by the central form.
The object is a compact, shield-shaped stone palette with a broad rounded bottom and two raised, openwork projections at the upper left and upper right that resemble stylized animal heads (often described as antelope heads). Small circular perforations/holes appear near the projections. The central field has irregular incised or pecked marks and a darker band across the midsection that may indicate wear or surface preparation; no clearly readable painted decoration is visible. A small dark spot or hole is present near the lower center. No definite hieroglyphic, Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text is visible on the pictured face.
Connections
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.