Home › Browse › MET › Object 55780
Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access) · jewelry

Scarab Inscribed for Queen Merytamun

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

Description

Scarab, Queen Merytamun. New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, reign of Amenhotep I, ca. 1525–1504 B.C. Faience ?. L. 1.5 × W. 1 × H. 0.7 cm (9/16 × 3/8 × 1/4 in.). From: Egypt. Subject: Hieroglyphs, Scarabs. Credit: Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1905.

The same text in other collections

Linked by shared inventory number (MET-Object 554598). Each record below describes this same artifact or text from a different angle.

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 oval turquoise/green faience scarab with an incised central column of hieroglyphs surrounded by additional border signs.

The object is an oval scarab-shaped amulet rendered in a glossy turquoise-green material. The underside/broad face shows an incised hieroglyphic layout: a central vertical column of signs in darker incised lines, flanked by symmetrical groups of signs near the left and right edges, all within a bordered frame on the scarab’s face. No visible cartouche ends are apparent in the provided image. No deities or royal cartouches are clearly legible at this resolution; the inscription is present but details are insufficient for confident reading. The image shows only the scarab and background, with no other inscriptions in Greek, Coptic, or Arabic.

decorative New Kingdom (per catalogue ground truth) good
Materials turquoise-green faience/ceramic (likely)
Signs Incised hieroglyphs (central vertical column and flanking signs) ×12
Visible text "Multiple incised hieroglyphic signs arranged vertically and symmetrically on the scarab face; exact reading unclear at this resolution."

Inscriptions (1)

Inscription #1 AI reading of the photograph

Visible text (machine reading)

Multiple incised hieroglyphic signs arranged vertically and symmetrically on the scarab face; exact reading unclear at this resolution.

Cross-references (5)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116244708 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 05.3.350 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 554598 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • PNM-Object pnm:83896050 tier-2 (inventory-match)
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.