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

Cylinder seal

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

Description

Second Intermediate Period, Dynasty 13–17, ca. 1640–1550 B.C. Black steatite. L. 2.2 cm (7/8 in.). From: Egypt. Credit: Purchase, Edward S. Harkness Gift, 1926.

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 cylindrical stone seal with a carved design featuring vertical registers of incised motifs and what appear to be hieroglyphic signs and/or stylized figures on the front face.

The object is shown in a frontal view as a short cylinder with rounded ends. The surface appears dark (likely consistent with steatite), and the decoration is incised in a vertical, column-like layout across the visible face. The central area includes multiple stacked circular/oval and linear elements resembling hieroglyphic signs; the left and right sides show additional incised forms that could be parts of a seal legend or decorative motifs. No clear royal name cartouche is legible at this image resolution. No modern inscriptions, or Greek/Coptic/Arabic text are visible. The condition appears worn with softened edges of the carving, but the overall cylinder shape and incised pattern are intact.

decorative Second Intermediate Period (per catalogue; exact iconography/signs not clearly legible) good
Materials dark stoneblack steatite (consistent with catalogue; exact confirmation not fully possible from image)
Signs incised hieroglyphic-style signs (exact identification unclear) ×6

Connections

Materials Dark Stone

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116280055 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 26.7.26 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 559752 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.