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

Inlay depicting a falcon

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

Description

Inlay, falcon. Late Period–Ptolemaic Period, 4th century B.C. Faience. H. 14.9 cm (5 7/8 in.); W. 1.3 cm (1/2 in.); L. 13.7 cm (5 3/8 in.). Possibly from: Hermopolis (Ashmunein; Khemenu), Middle Egypt. Subject: Falcons. Credit: Rogers Fund, 1918.

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.

Faience inlay depicting a standing falcon with painted blue/green patterned wings and tail feathers.

The object is a small, mounted faience figure in the shape of a falcon, shown in profile facing left. The head and beak are pale with a dark circular eye detail. The wings and body are decorated with scale-like and feather-like patterning in light blue and greenish-blue tones; the tail shows layered, linear feather strokes extending to the right. The legs are represented as separate pale elements with small feet/plinth-like support. No visible hieroglyphs or alphabetic text appear on the provided image, and there are no clearly readable cartouches or royal names. The overall style fits an animal-art inlay/decoration category, with surface coloration consistent with a faience object rather than carved stone or metal.

decorative Late Period–Ptolemaic Period (consistent with catalogue; exact dating unclear from image alone) good
Materials faience (surface glaze/paint appearance)

Connections

Found at Hermopolis

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116252540 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 18.2.9 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 551313 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.