Source

Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access)

Egypt, Sudan, Nubia (find spots) · Predynastic through Coptic; Greco-Roman Egypt

27,972

Objects

33,019

Images

19,527

Cross-references

Browse all 27,972 objects → Visit source →

Sample objects

Source details

Type: museum_collection
Access: rest_api
Stack: proprietary-cms
License: CC0 (Open Access objects); restricted for non-PD
Modality: none
ID system: MET objectID + accession number
ID tier: tier-2
Inscription richness: 2/10
Cleanliness: 6/10

Form breakdown

other: 9,392
jewelry: 8,417
vessel: 3,706
architecture: 3,369
statue: 2,647
papyrus: 273
stela: 168

Notes

## Discovered schema (MET Open Access Collection API, surveyed 2026-05-23) ### Endpoints used - Department list: https://collectionapi.metmuseum.org/public/collection/v1/departments - Department index: https://collectionapi.metmuseum.org/public/collection/v1/objects?departmentIds=10 (27,972 objects) - Search: https://collectionapi.metmuseum.org/public/collection/v1/search?departmentId=10&q={TERM} - Object detail: https://collectionapi.metmuseum.org/public/collection/v1/objects/{objectID} - Auth/key: none. Documented limit: ~80 req/s. ### Sample (77 objects across 6 form categories) - architecture n= 8 PD= 2/8 with-Wikidata= 6/8 excavated= 6/8 - jewelry n= 17 PD=10/17 with-Wikidata=17/17 excavated= 7/17 - papyrus n= 13 PD=13/13 with-Wikidata=11/13 excavated=12/13 - statue n= 13 PD=13/13 with-Wikidata=13/13 excavated= 5/13 - stela n= 13 PD=13/13 with-Wikidata=12/13 excavated= 5/13 - vessel n= 13 PD=13/13 with-Wikidata=11/13 excavated= 4/13 ### Schema observed (57 fields per object) Admin/id: objectID, accessionNumber, accessionYear, department, metadataDate, objectURL, repository, GalleryNumber Provenance (geographyType='From'): country, region, subregion, locale, locus, excavation, river, city, state, county Form: objectName, title, medium, dimensions, measurements (structured), classification, portfolio Date: objectDate (prose), objectBeginDate/objectEndDate (signed ints), period, dynasty, reign Artist (rare for ancient): artistDisplayName/Role/Bio/Nationality/Gender/Begin/End, artistWikidata_URL, artistULAN_URL Images: isPublicDomain, primaryImage, primaryImageSmall, additionalImages[], rightsAndReproduction, linkResource Cross-refs: objectWikidata_URL (the ONLY external ID exposed) Other: isHighlight, isTimelineWork, tags, creditLine, constituents ### Flag 1 — Object vs inscription modeling MET does NOT model inscriptions. No `inscription`, `inscriptionText`, `transcription`, or `transliteration` field. Multi-image objects (24/77 in this sample) proxy for "this artifact has multiple inscribed faces" — papyri (Books of the Dead) come with 14-18 extra image plates, statues with 12-14, but the API doesn't enumerate inscribable surfaces as structured data. Implication for our canonical schema: `object` and `inscription` need to be separate tables (one-to-many). MET supplies the `object` row only; inscription rows for the same artifact must come from TLA/TM/EpiDoc, cross-linked by accession + find spot + curator description. ### Flag 2 — Transcription presence (CONFIRMED ABSENT) 1/77 objects have ANY inscription-shaped string in any field across the sample. The single positive hit is "Jewelry plaque, Aten cartouche" (acc 1971.272.8) where the word "cartouche" appears in the title, not as a transcription. Museum data alone cannot serve as the inscription corpus. ### Flag 3 — Cross-ref gap (CONFIRMED) 77/77 objects have ZERO substring match for "trismeg", "porter-moss", "jde", or "journal d'entrée" anywhere in the JSON. The only external ID MET exposes is `objectWikidata_URL`, and spot-checking those Wikidata pages shows they carry P3634 (MET object ID) but NOT P9070/P9094/ P12348/P3320 (TM properties). The Wikidata bridge is one-way: external systems can reach MET, but MET → TM via Wikidata isn't viable today. Logged in decisions.md as the museum-cross-ref gap. Expect this to repeat for British Museum (#4) and Brooklyn Museum (#5). ### Flag 4 — Image licensing tier (per-object) - Public Domain (CC0): 64/77 (83%) - Gated: 13/77 (16%) Gating skews by category: jewelry runs ~41% gated (post-1960 acquisitions without estate clearance), architecture ~75% gated (smaller sample but distinct pattern), other categories ~0-8% gated. For gated records, `rightsAndReproduction` is often empty too — the restriction is encoded only in `isPublicDomain=false`. Downstream image-hosting strategy: mirror PD images to our S3, hot-link gated ones with attribution. ### Find spot vs current location (both always present in distinct fields) - Find spot: country / region / subregion / locale / excavation - Current: repository (always "Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY") + GalleryNumber 39/77 sampled objects have a populated `excavation` field. Papyri lead provenance quality (12/13 excavated — mostly MMA excavations 1906-37 and Egypt Exploration Fund divisions); statues and vessels lag (5/13, 4/13). ### IIIF / images No IIIF manifest URL is exposed. Images are served from images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/eg/ at two res (original + web-large). ### Wikidata cross-ref (the one we *do* get) 70/77 objects had a populated `objectWikidata_URL`. Worth ingesting because (a) it bridges to MET-side metadata Wikidata sometimes adds (artist, provenance prose), and (b) it's the entry point for crowd-curated cross-refs even if MET-side Wikidata pages don't currently carry TM IDs. ### Operational gotchas (for future-source authors) - MET's WAF 403s certain query tokens — confirmed: the bare word "fragment" in a search query trips it; the word "discovery" trips it (same as TM). Stick to single safe terms in search queries. - After a burst of object-detail requests, MET's WAF starts 403'ing for ~60 seconds. The script handles this by skipping 403/404/410 on object fetch and continuing. Search-level 403s are also skip-the-category, not abort-the-survey. - Rate: 0.2s between calls is fine for normal flow; backoff on 403 burst. ### Open questions for later sessions - MET Open Access GitHub CSV (https://github.com/metmuseum/openaccess) may carry columns the API omits — one-off check. - "Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History" essays sometimes quote inscriptions in prose; unstructured, but mineable for famous objects. - Whether British Museum (#4) closes any of these gaps will tell us if inscription-as-non-data is universal museum behavior. Bet: it is.

Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access)

Sample objects

Bastet holding aegis and basket

Upper half of a woman from a pair or group statue

Head from a figure of Osiris

Figure of Osiris

Head and chest of a shabti figure

Kohl Tube Held by a Dwarf

Sow Amulet

Falcon Amulet

Falcon Amulet

Menat with royal name Ptolemy

Statuette of a female figure with a braid

Upper Part of a Jar in the Shape of a Woman’s Head