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

Palette with two birds attached at their tails

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

Description

Palette, double bird. Predynastic, Naqada II, ca. 3650–3500 B.C. Greywacke. L. 19.1 × W. 9.1 cm (7 1/2 × 3 9/16 in.). From: Egypt. Subject: Birds. Credit: Rogers Fund, 1910.

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, two-lobed stone palette-like object in grey-green material, shaped like two rounded ends joined in the middle; small projections at both outer ends suggest attached elements (possibly birds) per the catalogue description.

The image shows a compact greywacke object photographed against a neutral light background. The form consists of two roughly semicircular/almond-shaped lobes that meet at a narrow central waist, creating a symmetrical “two-piece” look. At the outer top ends of each lobe there is a small raised projection or tail-like protrusion, but no clear carved birds, wings, or beaks are visible at this resolution. The surface is worn and mottled, with minor chips and abrasions; no clear pigment traces are visible. No hieroglyphs, cartouches, or other inscriptions are present, and there is no visible Greek/Coptic/Arabic text. Overall appearance is consistent with a predynastic palette motif, though the specific “two birds attached at their tails” aspect cannot be confirmed visually beyond the presence of small end projections.

daily life Predynastic (Naqada II), per catalogue; visual details insufficient for independent refinement. good
Materials greywacke (grey-green stone)

Connections

Materials Greywacke
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.