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

Inscription, Pyramid Temple of Amenemhat I

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

Description

Tempera on paper

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 painted sheet shows a cluster of Egyptian-style hieroglyphic signs and decorative motifs around an oval cartouche-like frame and various symbol blocks. No legible Greek/Coptic/Arabic text is visible.

The image is a watercolor/painted document (tempera on paper per catalogue) containing multiple blue-and-black hieroglyphic signs with some red and tan fill. The central feature is a large oval/arched cartouche-like enclosure filled with orange/brown tones, with internal vertical and horizontal bands resembling partitioned sign fields. Surrounding it are numerous standalone hieroglyphic elements: blue ankh-like and djed-like/column-like forms, wedge/line signs (m/ n/ t-type linear strokes), a seated/standing figure-like silhouette is not clearly identifiable but parts resembling a leg/arm or ritual object appear near the center-right. Along the left and upper-left are additional sign blocks drawn in blue with red accents. A portion of the sheet appears bordered by vertical striping that could indicate the continuation of a wall inscription layout. There are no clear cartouches with readable royal names; the central oval does not show a securely readable sequence of signs. No Greek, Coptic, or Arabic script is visible.

hieroglyphic only Middle Kingdom (per catalogue); exact reign unreadable good
Materials tempera paintpaper supportblue and red pigment
Signs Ankh (ankh-shaped cross) Djed/column-like vertical sign Linear stroke/wedge signs (group of short lines and wedges) ×6 Ww/three-stroke style element (wedge cluster) Oval/cartouche-like enclosure without legible royal name
Visible text "Inscription is present as hieroglyphic signs, but no unambiguous royal-name sequence is legible in this image."

Connections

Found at Lisht
Royals Amenemhat I
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.