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

Inlay Representing the Cartouche of Seti II

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

Description

Faience

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 Egyptian faience inlay fragment showing a central oval cartouche-like frame bordered by vertical and architectural elements, with purple/blue pigment forming Egyptian-style signs.

The object is a vertically oriented, rectangular faience inlay with rounded top. A central dark circular/oval cartouche cartouche-like element sits within a stylized frame; surrounding it are symmetrical, wing-like or columnar motifs rendered in dark (black/brown) and purple-blue lines. Below, the surface contains grouped hieroglyph-like blocks and vertical sign strokes arranged in rows, including a horizontal register line near the bottom and a wavy band below that resembles a water/line-sign motif. The right and left sides show repeated tall vertical elements, and the upper area includes two mirrored panel forms. No additional modern inscriptions or labels are visible. The photographed surface shows age-related pitting and discoloration, with pigment wear especially on the lower left.

decorative New Kingdom (Ramesside period), consistent with Seti II inlay work (exact dating of the depicted signs not fully verifiable from photo). good
Deities unknown
Royals Seti II (catalogue subject; not definitively readable from this image)
Materials faiencepurple-blue pigment (inlay coloration)
Signs cartouche/royal protocol frame (stylized oval within a surrounding cartouche-like band) hieroglyphic sign blocks (unreadable individual signs due to wear/scale) ×5 wavy line / water-like motif

Connections

Royals Seti II
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.