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

Chest of Akhenaten

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

Description

Chest, Akhenaten. New Kingdom, Amarna Period, Dynasty 18, reign of Akhenaten, ca. 1352–1336 B.C. Indurated limestone. H. as mounted 23.5 x W. 34 x D. 22 cm; cartouche W. 2 cm. From: Great Temple of the Aten, pit outside southern wall, Amarna (Akhetaten), Middle Egypt, Egypt. Excavation: Petrie/Carter excavations, 1891–92. Credit: Gift of Edward S. Harkness, 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.

Fragmentary stone chest or lid/cover with carved cartouches-like hieroglyphic panels on the exterior surface.

The image shows a broken, roughly rectangular/rounded block of pale stone with a concave/stepped top edge, consistent with a fragment from a larger chest or container. Two recessed hieroglyphic cartouche-like blocks are carved in relief on the front face. Each block encloses multiple stacked signs; the exact reading is not fully legible at this resolution, though the presence of cartouche-style formatting suggests royal naming. No figural deity imagery is visible; the decoration appears limited to hieroglyphic inscriptions. The surface is worn and chipped, indicating age and/or excavation damage; tool marks and fractures are visible around the breaks. No Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text is visible.

funerary New Kingdom, Amarna Period (attributed) fragmentary
Materials light-colored stone (likely indurated limestone, as catalogued)
Signs cartouche-like oval with internal signs (left panel) cartouche-like oval with internal signs (right panel)
Visible text "Two cartouche-like hieroglyphic panels carved in relief on the front face; individual sign forms are not clearly legible in the provided image."

Inscriptions (1)

Inscription #1 AI reading of the photograph

Visible text (machine reading)

Two cartouche-like hieroglyphic panels carved in relief on the front face; individual sign forms are not clearly legible in the provided image.

Connections

Found at Amarna (Akhetaten)
Royals Akhenaten

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116273845 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 21.9.455 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 549207 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.