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

Inlay of the hieroglyphic sign "heh" meaning "millions of years"

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

Description

Late Period–Ptolemaic Period, 4th century B.C. Faience. H. 14.9 cm (5 7/8 in.); W. 10.1 cm (4 in.); D. 1.1 cm (7/16 in.). Possibly from: Hermopolis (Ashmunein; Khemenu), Middle Egypt. Subject: Men. 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.

The image shows a seated male Egyptian figure holding one arm raised, presented as a small inlaid/colored relief or object fragment.

A stylized Egyptian male figure is shown kneeling on the ground with one leg folded and the other tucked, body in profile facing left. The figure wears a patterned collar and a distinctive headdress/headpiece (with layered elements over the head) and has a stylized facial profile. One arm is raised straight upward with an open hand; the other arm is bent and gestures forward. The surface appears polychromed/colored with turquoise-green and blue tones and some gold-like highlights. No clear hieroglyphic sign in the form of the single “heh” (millions of years) sign is visible in this photo; the catalogue description is therefore not directly verifiable from the image provided. No legible Greek/Coptic/Arabic text is visible. The object appears to be made of or decorated with faience-like colored material, consistent with the catalogue's material listing, though the full inlay form cannot be confirmed from the image.

royal Late Period–Ptolemaic Period (per catalogue; visually consistent with Late Period–Ptolemaic stylistic polychromy, but exact dating not determinable from image alone) good
Materials faience (coloring/inhabited glaze-like surface, not fully confirmable)
Signs heh

Connections

Found at Hermopolis

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116252503 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 26.7.993 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 551329 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.