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

Papyrus burnisher

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

Description

burnisher, polishing tool. Middle Kingdom–Early New Kingdom, Dynasty 12, late-early 18 or later, ca. 1800–1500 B.C. or later. Wood. L. 13.3 cm (5 1/4 in.). From: Tomb MMA 828 (H4), Forecourt, in debris, Khokha, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Egypt. Excavation: MMA excavations 1911. Credit: Rogers Fund, 1915.

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, handheld wooden papyrus burnisher form with a rounded rectangular head attached to a cylindrical handle.

The image shows a single object photographed against a plain light background. It has a cylindrical shaft extending to the left and terminating at a chunky, rounded-rectangular head at the right. The head is slightly flattened on the top and bottom, with worn edges consistent with use. No painted decoration, carved iconography, or legible inscriptions are visible on the object’s surface. The wood shows a brown tone with darker areas suggesting age, patina, and handling wear. The form matches a burnishing tool used on papyrus sheets, though the photograph does not show any papyrus material itself.

decorative Middle Kingdom–Early New Kingdom (per catalogue) good
Materials wood

Connections

Found at Khokha
Materials Wood

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116243299 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 15.10.134 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 556699 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.