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

Scarab Inscribed With the Cartouche of Maatkare (Hatshepsut)

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

Description

Scarab, Maatkare (Hatshepsut). New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, Joint reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, ca. 1479–1458 B.C. Steatite (glazed). L. 1.6 cm (5/8 in). From: Egypt. Subject: Scarabs. Credit: Purchase, Edward S. Harkness Gift, 1926.

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.

Oval scarab seal with an incised inscription filling the base of the beetle’s back; the text is dark against a brown glazed surface.

The image shows a small, oval/rounded scarab-shaped object viewed from above. The surface is brownish with an even glossy glaze, suggesting steatite that is glazed. The interior of the back is packed with incised signs forming a compact, cartouche-like oval frame around a line or block of hieroglyphic text. No figures of deities are clearly distinguishable from the inscription at this resolution, and there is no visible Greek, Coptic, or Arabic script. The visible hieroglyphs are worn but clearly present; individual signs cannot be confidently read as a specific royal cartouche (e.g., “Maatkare” or Hatshepsut) from this single image.

decorative New Kingdom (catalogue ground truth; inscription style appears consistent but exact reading uncertain) good
Royals unknown (cartouche text present but not legible enough to confirm Maatkare/Hatshepsut from this image)
Materials glazed steatite (brown glaze)
Signs incised hieroglyphic signs forming a framed cartouche/oval inscription (exact reading unclear) ×10
Visible text "incised hieroglyphic inscription within an oval frame; specific cartouche text not clearly legible in the provided image"

Inscriptions (1)

Inscription #1 AI reading of the photograph

Visible text (machine reading)

incised hieroglyphic inscription within an oval frame; specific cartouche text not clearly legible in the provided image

Connections

Royals Hatshepsut
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.