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

Cylinder seal of Senwosret III

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

Description

Glazed 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.

A small, vertically oriented cylindrical Egyptian seal with carved/painted blue-green and dark bands; the side is decorated with what appear to be raised hieroglyphic motifs or a seal design but individual signs are not clearly legible in the image.

The object is a short cylinder photographed on a neutral gray background, shown standing upright. Its surface has a glossy, glazed appearance with extensive blue-green coloration and darker (black/oxidized) areas. Around the visible face, there are linear and block-like carved elements suggesting hieroglyphic or emblematic decoration typical of cylinder seals, but the resolution and lighting do not allow confident identification of specific sign forms. No clear depiction of a deity figure is discernible; the design appears primarily as carved/printed motifs rather than a full figurative scene. There is no readable Greek/Coptic/Arabic text. A royal name/cartouche cannot be confirmed from the visible marks.

decorative Middle Kingdom (consistent with catalogue attribution; exact reign not confirmable from image alone) good
Materials glazed steatite (blue-green glaze visible; base material implied by catalogue)
Signs unclear hieroglyphic motifs (cylinder-seal design) ×6

Connections

Found at Lisht
Royals Senwosret III

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116282300 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 20.1.19 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 557024 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.