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

Speciman of Mortar from the Great Pyramid

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

Description

Mortar, Giza Pyramid. Old Kingdom, Dynasty 4, reign of Khufu, ca. 2550 B.C. Mortar. L. 8.8 cm (3 7/16 in.); W. 6 cm (2 3/8 in.); D. 2.2 cm (7/8 in.). From: Pyramid Complex of Khufu, Pyramid, Giza, Memphite Region, Egypt. Credit: Gift of Albert M. Lythgoe, 1917.

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.

Photograph of rough, irregular stone fragments shown against a light background, consistent in appearance with a hardened mineral/plaster-like material sample.

The image shows at least one large, irregular chunk of gritty, light-to-reddish brown material with embedded small particles and lighter patches, suggesting a mineral aggregate set in a binder. A smaller separate fragment appears to the right. There are no carved or painted designs, no legible inscriptions, and no hieroglyphic layout visible on the surfaces shown. The material texture and color resemble mortar/plaster or building matrix rather than an inscribed artifact. Because the sample is not visibly organized as an inscription panel or sculpted object, no deities or royal names can be reliably identified from the image.

unclear Old Kingdom (per catalogue; not verifiable from image alone) fragmentary
Materials mortar-like mineral/stone matrix (hardened aggregate)

Connections

Found at Giza
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.