Plaque Inscribed with Royal Titles

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This rectangular plaque features a short inscription, finely carved in low relief within a slightly-sunken enclosing panel. The large hieroglyphs provide two common royal titles: King of Upper and Lower Egypt, and the vulture and cobra that precede the Two Ladies name. However, these titles are not followed, as would be usual, by specific royal names. Judging from recent discoveries of reliefs with similar stylistic and paleographic features, 11.150.31—like its presumptive counterpart 11.150.30—was probably created during the late Third Intermediate Period (around the middle of the Eighth Century B.C.) as a stylistic reference in order to facilitate the copying/emulation of artistic styles associated with the distant past. For more information, see Curatorial Interpretation below.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art