Bead inscribed for King Shabaka
Description
Catalogue description: Cultures Egyptian, Nubian, Kushite Caption: Egyptian; Nubian; Kushite. Bead inscribed for King Shabaka, ca. 716–702 B.C.E.. Faience, 13/16 x 3/8 x 2 5/16 in. (2 x 1 x 5.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield, Theodora Wilbour, and Victor Wilbour honoring the wishes of their mother, Charlotte Beebe Wilbour, as a memorial to their father, Charles Edwin Wilbour, 16.431. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
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 small, greenish faience cylinder/oval bead with a carved or incised design resembling Egyptian hieroglyphs and possibly a human/royal motif on the face.
The object is shown centered against a neutral background: a small, elongated bead (cylindrical/rounded-rectangular in profile) with a mottled green surface consistent with glazed faience. The front face has a vertical arrangement of carved/inscribed marks. At the lower portion, multiple compact signs form a band of text-like strokes. In the central area there appears to be a human-like figure or seated/standing form rendered in low relief (or a tightly incised schematic), though the exact signs cannot be read with certainty from this image. No clear cartouche borders are visible. The bead shows wear consistent with age, with minor surface loss and uneven glaze. A separate paper label at the bottom bears inventory numbers in modern print, not ancient writing.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 16.431 tier-2
- BKM-Object 9682 tier-2
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art.
- 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.