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

Mud jar sealing impressed with a row of spiral signs

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

Description

Predynastic, Late Naqada III, ca. 3100 B.C. Clay (mud). W: 11.9 cm (4 11/16 in.). From: Tomb 414, Tarkhan, Fayum Entrance Area, Egypt. Excavation: BSAE excavations 1911-1913. 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.

A broken clay (mud) object with an impressed band of repeated spiral-like incisions on one surface.

The image shows a roughly rectangular/irregular lump of fired or sun-dried mud/clay with extensive surface weathering and breaks along the edges. On the upper-right area there is a visible row of impressed, tightly curved spiral or whorl-like marks pressed into the clay, appearing as a sequence of repeated circular/spiral motifs. No legible royal titulary, human figures, or identifiable deity iconography is visible. The object surface also includes small pits and minor tool marks, consistent with a sealing-type impression. There is no clearly discernible Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text; no clear hieroglyphic captioning beyond the spiral sign impressions.

hieroglyphic only Predynastic, Late Naqada III (as catalogued); precise attribution from the image alone is unclear. fragmentary
Materials clay (mud)
Signs spiral/whorl sign(s) in a row ×10
Visible text "Impressed spiral/whorl signs in a row (no further readable text)"

Inscriptions (1)

Inscription #1 AI reading of the photograph

Visible text (machine reading)

Impressed spiral/whorl signs in a row (no further readable text)

Connections

Found at Tarkhan
Materials Clay

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116277595 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 12.187.36 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 547401 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.