Source

Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access)

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

27,972

Objects

531

Inscriptions

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

jewelry: 8,439
architecture: 4,274
vessel: 3,978
other: 3,427
statue: 2,685
seal: 1,282
tool: 1,062
funerary_equipment: 873
relief_fragment: 428
textile: 397
cosmetic_object: 305
ostracon: 272
papyrus: 261
stela: 168
scarab: 54
figurine: 39
amulet: 15
document: 13

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

Ointment jar from a Foundation Deposit of Hatshepsut's Valley Temple

Falcon amulet of Senebtisi

Magic wand

Magic Wand

Magical Figure

Canopic jar of Kay

Stela of Rehuerdjersen

Scarab of Sebekhotep IV

Ointment Jar

Hieratic Jar Label

Hippopotamus Head

Facsimile painting of Mentuherkhepeshef