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

Coffin panel with paintings of funerary rituals and gods

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

Description

Roman Period, 100–300 A.D. Wood, gesso, paint. L. 118 × H. 27.2 × D. 2.4 cm (46 7/16 × 10 11/16 × 15/16 in.). From: Roman Cemetery, el-Deir, Western Desert; Kharga Oasis, Egypt. Credit: Rogers Fund, 1913.

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.

Painted coffin-panel fragment showing a procession of figures and offerings before seated gods in a continuous register.

The artifact appears to be a rectangular painted wood panel (fragmentary at the left edge), decorated with a border at the top and a stepped/striped ground line. Multiple human and possibly divine figures are shown in a row, holding implements or offering vessels. In the center there is a seated, human-like figure on a dark-toned support, flanked by other figures. Toward the right, a larger standing or enthroned deity-like figure with a distinctive headdress stands before a table or offering stand. A winged or arm-like motif and a smaller, kneeling figure with a raised arm appear near the middle-right. The composition resembles funerary ritual scenes with gods and ritual attendants, consistent with a coffin-panel context. No clearly legible hieroglyphic inscriptions (Egyptian or Greek/Coptic/Arabic) are visible in the image provided; the decorative border does not resolve into identifiable text. Materials visible include painted surfaces with a light ground consistent with gesso.

funerary Roman Period (as given by catalogue; iconography appears consistent but cannot be independently verified from the image alone) fragmentary
Deities unknown seated god (deity not clearly identifiable)unknown standing god (deity not clearly identifiable)
Materials woodgessopaint

Connections

Materials WoodPaintGesso
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.