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

Inlay in the form of the Horus falcon

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. 16 cm (6 5/16 in.); W. 1.2 cm (1/2 in.); L. 15.5 cm (6 1/8 in.). Possibly from: Hermopolis (Ashmunein; Khemenu), Middle Egypt. Subject: Falcons, Horus. 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.

An Egyptian faience inlay shaped like a standing Horus falcon, with a blue-green body and detailed feather patterning on the wings and tail.

The object depicts a falcon with a rounded head, beak pointing left, and a prominent eye. The body is rendered in a blue-green faience color, while the wing and tail feathers are marked with dark incised/outlined bands and scales. The legs are shown gripping a small ground line, and there is a gold-toned area on the feet/feet base. The overall style and form match a falcon icon typical of Horus-inlay jewelry; no clearly readable hieroglyphic inscriptions, cartouches, or textual elements are visible on the image. There are no Greek/Coptic/Arabic characters visible.

decorative Late Period–Ptolemaic (consistent with catalogue) good
Deities Horus (falcon)
Materials faiencegold-toned surface on feet/base (possible inlay or metal mount; uncertain)

Connections

Found at Hermopolis
Deities Horus
Materials Faience

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116252502 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 26.7.995 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 551331 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.