Hieratic ostracon
Description
Ostracon, hieratic. New Kingdom, Ramesside, Dynasty 20, ca 1186–1070 B.C. Limestone, ink. H. 18.8 × W. 12.8 × Th. 4.5 cm (7 3/8 × 5 1/16 × 1 3/4 in.). From: Valley of the Kings, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Egypt. Excavation: Davis excavations, 1909. Credit: Gift of Theodore M. Davis, 1909.
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 a broken, irregular limestone ostracon covered with faded black ink in hieratic script lines.
The object is a small, thick, irregular limestone fragment with chipped edges and a large break revealing a jagged surface. Across most of the visible face are several horizontal bands of dark ink forming handwritten hieratic signs (curving strokes and repeated groupings). The ink is partially faded and abraded in places, but multiple lines are still distinguishable, including a few darker, clustered sign groups near the lower left and center. No cartouches or clear royal titulary are visible in the provided image. There is no imagery of deities; the markings appear to be text only. No Greek, Coptic, or Arabic script is apparent.
Inscriptions (1)
Visible text (machine reading)
Cross-references (4)
- Wikidata-Q Q116275901 tier-1
- Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
- Inventory-Number 09.184.703 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
- MET-Object 561345 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.