Home › Browse › MET › Object 58118
Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access) · architecture

Fragment of a Scribe's Writing Board

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

Description

Writing Board fragments, scribe's. Middle Kingdom, Dynasty 11, ca. 2030–1981 B.C. Sycomore wood, gesso. L. 8.5 cm (3 3/8 in.); W. 3 cm (1 3/16 in.); Th. 0.9 cm (3/8 in.). From: Tomb MMA 515, Deir el-Bahri, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Egypt. Excavation: MMA excavations, 1921–22. Credit: Rogers Fund, 1926.

The same text in other collections

Linked by shared inventory number (ORAEC-id oraec8984). 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 fragment of an ancient Egyptian writing surface showing dark ink hieroglyphic practice marks and red pigment, with the remaining wooden/painted edge preserved.

The image shows a detached, irregularly shaped fragment with a curved end and a broken top edge. One face is coated/painted a light beige to off-white tone (consistent with prepared surface), over which dark, linear and wedge-shaped marks resembling hieroglyphs are visible in a vertical column near the left/center. A red pigment band/area appears along the right portion of the face. The reverse/edges show a darker brown core consistent with wood. No clear royal cartouche is visible; no deity names can be securely identified from the legible signs present. No Greek/Coptic/Arabic text is visible. The overall appearance is consistent with a fragment of a scribe’s writing board covered with gesso and incised/inked writing practice, as in the catalogued type.

hieroglyphic only Middle Kingdom (consistent with catalogue; exact reign/date unclear from fragment) fragmentary
Materials wood (core/edges)painted/prepared surfacered pigmentink/charcoal marks
Signs Unclear hieroglyphic sign/group (practice marks) ×5
Visible text "[hieroglyphic-like marks; exact transcription unclear from image resolution]"

Inscriptions (1)

Inscription #1 AI reading of the photograph

Visible text (machine reading)

[hieroglyphic-like marks; exact transcription unclear from image resolution]

Connections

Found at Deir el-Bahri
Materials Red Pigment

Cross-references (6)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116243360 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 26.3.277c tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 556637 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • ORAEC-id oraec8984 tier-2 (inventory-match)
  • ORAEC-id oraec9007 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.