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

Fragment of Amulet with Nefer sign

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

Description

New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, reign of Amenhotep III, ca. 1390–1352 B.C. Faience. H. 1.2 cm (1/2 in). From: Palace of Amenhotep III, Malqata, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Egypt. Excavation: MMA excavations, 1910–11. Credit: Rogers Fund, 1911.

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.

Small blue-green faience amulet fragment shaped like an incised hieroglyphic sign (catalogued as the “nefer” sign).

The object is a turquoise/blue-green molded ceramic-like fragment with an overall vertical, tapering form. At the top is a slightly rounded projection that could be part of the amulet’s attachment or the upper end of the sign. The central area preserves a darker recessed area suggesting carved/raised hieroglyphic detail, consistent with a single hieroglyphic sign on an amulet. The lower end flares into three lobes resembling the foot of a sign, though the full outline is broken and not fully preserved. No readable Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text is visible. No cartouche or royal titulary is clearly preserved. The surface shows wear and small chips along the edges, with patchy discoloration typical of excavated faience.

decorative New Kingdom (per catalogue; exact sign/type unclear due to fragmentary condition) fragmentary
Materials faience
Signs Nefer sign (𓏏/“nefer”/goodness)
Visible text "Fragmentary hieroglyphic sign consistent with the “nefer” sign; exact reading beyond the sign is unclear."

Inscriptions (1)

Inscription #1 AI reading of the photograph

Visible text (machine reading)

Fragmentary hieroglyphic sign consistent with the “nefer” sign; exact reading beyond the sign is unclear.

Connections

Found at Malqata
Materials Faience
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.