Scribe's Palette
Description
Palette, scribe. New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, ca. 1550–1295 B.C. Wood, ink. L. 23.5 × W. 3.2 cm (9 1/4 × 1 1/4 in.). From: Dra Abu el-Naga, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Egypt. Excavation: Carnarvon/Carter, 1906–1911. Credit: Rogers Fund, 1912.
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 long, flat, rectangular wooden palette with shallow incised channels and two dark circular marks at one end, accompanied by two reeds/pens and a single additional rod-like tool.
The image shows a New Kingdom–style scribe’s working set. The central object is a weathered, dark-brown wooden implement shaped like an elongated palette with slightly rounded ends. Several shallow, straight trough-like channels are incised along the top surface, designed to hold or mix pigments/ink. Near one end there appear to be two dark circular impressions/holes. To the right lie writing tools: two pointed reed/papyrus-like pens (light tan, with sharpened tips) and one additional slender rod/tool (also tan, pointed), arranged parallel to each other. No carved painted decoration is clearly visible. The background is plain white. No clear hieroglyphic, Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text is visible on the palette or surrounding items in this image.
Cross-references (4)
- Wikidata-Q Q116235135 tier-1
- Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
- Inventory-Number 12.181.203 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
- MET-Object 554341 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.