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

Part of a (back?) pillar or stela with the first cartouche of the Aten

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

Description

(Back?) pillar or stela, first cartouche of the Aten. New Kingdom, Amarna Period, Dynasty 18, reign of Akhenaten, ca. 1353–1336 B.C. Red quartzite. H. 9.2 × W. 12.6 × D. 9.6 cm (3 5/8 × 4 15/16 × 3 3/4 in.); slab: Th. 5.8 cm (2 5/16 in.); inset to connective stone: L. 2.8 cm (1 1/8 in.); cartouche: W. 7.6 cm (3 in.). From: Great Temple of the Aten, pit outside southern wall, Amarna (Akhetaten), Middle Egypt, Egypt. Excavation: Petrie/Carter excavations, 1891–92. Subject: Cartouches. Credit: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1957.

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.

Stone fragment of a decorated architectural/inscribed element with a central cartouche-like shape and a vertical border line on the right face.

The object is a reddish, weathered stone fragment with a flat back and a pointed/lanceolate right edge. One broad face is divided by a shallow vertical groove/edge and contains an incised set of signs resembling a cartouche or royal name area: a rectangular frame with internal horizontal bands and a small element at the upper right (suggesting part of a sign group). Beneath the rectangular section there is a circular/oval form, possibly the lower portion of a sign (e.g., part of a hoop/loop or a letter within a cartouche). No clear Aten disk or rays are visible in the provided view, and the exact royal name cannot be read with confidence due to truncation and erosion. No Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text is visible; only Egyptian-style carved signs are present. The back/left side appears undecorated or too worn to confirm further inscriptions.

unclear New Kingdom, Amarna Period (inferred from catalogue; image alone cannot securely date). fragmentary
Deities Aten (not clearly visible; only the catalogue title suggests it)
Royals Aten cartouche first cartouche (illegible/unclear in image)
Materials red quartzite (as per catalogue; visible as reddish stone)
Signs cartouche/frame-like royal name enclosure (partial) incised Egyptian-style hieroglyphs within enclosure (partial)
Visible text "Partial incised royal-name/cartuched enclosure and internal horizontal sign elements; exact reading unclear due to breakage and erosion."

Inscriptions (1)

Inscription #1 AI reading of the photograph

Visible text (machine reading)

Partial incised royal-name/cartuched enclosure and internal horizontal sign elements; exact reading unclear due to breakage and erosion.

Connections

Found at Amarna (Akhetaten)
Deities Aten

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116245366 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 57.180.60 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 553779 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.