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

Cylinder seal

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

Description

Blue steatite

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.

Small cylindrical seal with a carved standing or seated figure wearing a tall headdress and holding a staff-like object, surrounded by decorative elements and a ring-like top.

The image shows a small, vertical, stone cylinder/inscribed seal photographed against a plain light background. The top section contains a circular, ring-like motif. Below it, a central anthropomorphic figure is carved in relief, wearing a tall, structured headdress/diadem and a broad collar. The figure’s body is outlined with raised lines, and one hand appears to extend toward a staff or tool held near the torso. At the base, a horizontal band with short vertical marks suggests a ground line or decorative register. No clearly legible hieroglyphs are visible; the carving appears primarily figural rather than text-based. The material appears pale/white to light beige in the photograph rather than strongly blue.

royal Middle Kingdom (per catalogue), though exact dynastic attribution unclear from image alone good
Deities unknown (likely a protective/ritual deity figure; headdress and collar suggest an Egyptian god but not identifiable with certainty)
Materials stone (color appears light/beige in photo)

Connections

Found at Lisht
Royals Senwosret II

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116431076 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 34.1.27 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 555694 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.