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

Bes Amulet

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

Description

Amulet, Bes. New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, reign of Amenhotep III, ca. 1390–1352 B.C. Faience, blue. H. 1.4 cm (9/16 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.

A small turquoise-blue faience amulet shaped like the dwarf god Bes, with a rounded head and stylized facial features and chest/arms.

The object is a compact, hand-sized amulet in a turquoise-blue body with a darker blue/blue-green head or cap element. The figure stands in a frontal view with a rounded head and simplified, molded facial details (unclear exact features due to wear). The torso is modeled with rounded shapes and sparse, raised/brownish patches that may be remnants of surface decoration or weathering. No clear arms-hands or legs are fully defined, but the overall silhouette matches a Bes amulet form (upright, stocky dwarf-like figure). The back is not visible in the image. The surface shows areas of discoloration and chipped edges consistent with an artifact of ceramic/glazed composition. No legible hieroglyphic, Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text is visible on the photograph.

religious New Kingdom (per catalogue) fragmentary
Deities Bes
Materials faienceblue (glaze)

Connections

Found at Malqata
Deities Bes
Materials FaienceBlue
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.