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

Magic wand

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

Description

Middle Kingdom, Dynasty 12, late–early 13, ca. 1850–1640 B.C. Ivory: Hippopotamus. L. 26.7 × W. 4.5 × H. 9.4 × Th. 0.6 cm (10 1/2 × 1 3/4 × 3 11/16 × 1/4 in.). From: Tomb of Nakht (493), brick building east, Pit 475, Lisht North, Memphite Region, Egypt. Excavation: MMA excavations, 1913–14. Subject: Animals. Credit: Rogers Fund, 1915.

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 curved ivory-like wand carved with incised figures and hieroglyph-like signs along its surface.

The object is a single, long, curved baton with a pointed-to-rounded profile. Its outer face is densely decorated with incised line drawings and sign-like marks arranged in bands following the curve of the wand. The motifs include human or animal-like figures (e.g., a figure with arms/legs indicated, and a separate caped or standing form) and adjacent groups of small abstract symbols that resemble hieroglyphic signs, though individual signs are not confidently legible at this resolution. No cartouche is clearly readable. No modern inscriptions are visible.

hieroglyphic only Middle Kingdom (as catalogued) good
Materials ivory (light tan/cream, smooth carved surface)unclear pigments/none visible
Signs incised sign clusters (specific Gardiner numbers unclear) ×10
Visible text "Multiple small incised sign groups along the curved face; exact characters unreadable."

Inscriptions (1)

Inscription #1 AI reading of the photograph

Visible text (machine reading)

Multiple small incised sign groups along the curved face; exact characters unreadable.

Connections

Found at Lisht

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116726729 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 15.3.197 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 544243 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.