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

Scarab Inscribed for the God's Wife Hatshepsut

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

Description

Scarab; Hatshepsut, God's Wife; simple back. New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, early, Joint reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, ca. 1479–1458 B.C. Steatite (glazed). L. 1.7 cm (11/16 in.); W. 1.2 cm (1/2 in.); H. 0.7 cm (1/4 in.). From: Temple of Hatshepsut, Foundation Deposit 7 (G), Deir el-Bahri, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Egypt. Excavation: MMA excavations, 1926–27. Subject: Women, Scarabs. Credit: Rogers Fund, 1927.

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.

Glazed steatite scarab seal with an oval bezel and an incised/painted hieroglyphic scene on a turquoise-green ground.

The image shows the face of an Egyptian scarab inscribed with hieroglyphs. The outer border is visible as a raised oval rim. Within the oval field, dark incised glyphs and figures are highlighted by the glazing contrast on a turquoise/green background; the details are partly worn but the composition clearly follows an inscribed scarab format rather than a pictorial scene. No cartouche frames are clearly legible at this resolution, and no Greek/Coptic/Arabic text is visible. The glaze appears to be intact overall, though there are small chips along the edges. Overall, the inscription is the main decorative/inscribed element.

hieroglyphic only New Kingdom (as catalogued) good
Deities unknown
Royals unknown
Materials glazed steatite (turquoise/green glaze)
Signs incised hieroglyphic inscription (exact sign forms unclear) ×6
Visible text "Hieroglyphic inscription present; specific readable excerpt not clear at this image resolution."

Inscriptions (1)

Inscription #1 AI reading of the photograph

Visible text (machine reading)

Hieroglyphic inscription present; specific readable excerpt not clear at this image resolution.

Connections

Found at Deir el-Bahri
Royals Hatshepsut

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116256752 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 27.3.184 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 550564 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.