Hieratic ostracon with accounts
Description
Ostracon, hieratic. Late Period, Persian Period, Dynasty 27, 525–404 BC. Limestone, ink. H. 9.8 × W. 12.6 × D. 4.3 cm (3 7/8 × 4 15/16 × 1 11/16 in.). From: Tomb of Nespekashuty (TT 312, MMA 509), Deir el-Bahri, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Egypt. Excavation: MMA excavations, 1922–23. Subject: Hieratic. Credit: Rogers Fund, 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.
Fragmentary Egyptian ostracon of limestone bearing inked hieratic-style marks arranged in lines, likely administrative or accounting notes.
The image shows a broken, roughly trapezoidal limestone ostracon with a coarse, sandy surface. Several rows of dark ink marks appear across the right and central areas, including clustered strokes and some repeated sign-like forms consistent with hieratic accounting text. The left portion is more eroded/blank, while the right edge preserves the clearest ink distribution. No cartouches, royal titulary, or clearly legible full words are discernible at this resolution, and no Greek/Coptic/Arabic script is visible.
Inscriptions (1)
Visible text (machine reading)
Cross-references (4)
- Wikidata-Q Q116234893 tier-1
- Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
- Inventory-Number 26.3.171 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
- MET-Object 558436 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.