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

Ostracon

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

Description

Pottery, ink

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.

A triangular, reddish-brown pottery ostracon fragment with faint, partially preserved marks that may be inked writing on one face.

The image shows a single, broken sherd/ostracon with a wedge-like triangular shape. The surface appears to be coarse pottery with visible inclusions and a light reddish-brown exterior/break edges. On the broad face, there are very faint, dark gray/black lines or smudges consistent with possible ink application, but the individual signs are not legible at this resolution and under the current lighting. No clear cartouche, royal name, deity iconography, or distinct hieroglyphic sign forms can be confidently identified. No Greek, Coptic, or Arabic script is visible. The back/other side appears plain with no clearly readable markings.

hieroglyphic only Late Period–Ptolemaic Period (consistent with the catalogue; specific signs not readable) fragmentary
Materials potteryink (faint traces; not legible)

Connections

Found at Hibis
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.