Biface, commonly referred to as a hand ax
Description
Early Dynastic Period, ca. 300,000–90,000 B.C. Flint. From: Deir el-Bahri, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Egypt. Credit: Gift of C. T. Currelly, 1906.
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 tool resembling a biface/hand ax with a chipped, dark flint core and a darker iron-oxide-like patina.
The image shows a single handheld stone implement viewed from above. The object has an irregular, ovate/triangular outline typical of a biface/hand ax, with flaked edges around much of the perimeter. The surface is largely dark brown to black, with areas of bluish-gray and orange-brown corrosion or weathering. A metallic, reflective wedge-like area appears on the right side of the tool; it is unclear whether this is modern conservation material, breakage exposing different material, or lighting/photographic artifact. No hieroglyphs, cartouches, or other inscriptions are visible, and no associated text (Greek/Coptic/Arabic) is present. No depictions of human or divine figures are visible, indicating no deity identification from the image.
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.