Palette with double bird heads with inlaid eyes
Description
Palette, double birds. Predynastic, Naqada II, ca. 3500–3300 B.C. Greywacke, shell (?). H: 13 cm (5 1/8 in.); W: 5.7 cm (2 1/4 in.). From: Fort Cemetery (Hk 27), Tomb 68, Hierakonpolis (Nekhen), Southern Upper Egypt, Egypt. Excavation: MMA excavations, 1934–35. Subject: Birds. Credit: Rogers Fund, 1935.
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 greywacke cosmetic palette shaped like a bird’s head/upper body, with two bird-like heads rising at the top and small circular inlays marking the eyes.
The object is a teardrop-shaped palette with its upper edge formed into two close-set bird heads. Each head has a pointed beak angled to either side and a small circular eye inset near the top of the head; the insets appear lighter in color than the surrounding stone, suggesting shell-like inlay. The main body is plain grey, with surface wear, scratches, and discoloration from age and use. No painted decoration, carved hieroglyphs, or cartouches are visible on this view. The overall styling matches the catalogue description of a palette with a double bird-head motif and inlaid eyes, though the surrounding palette rim details are limited by the angle and lighting.
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.