Document Sealing
Unknown Artist
ca. 1390–1352 B.C.
Medium
Mud
Dimensions
H. 1.8 cm (11/16 in.); w. 2.8 cm (1 1/8 in.); maximum th. 0.7 cm (1/4 in.)
Classification
Sealing, winged scarab, sun, nefer
Period
New Kingdom
Department
Egyptian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1911, 1912
Accession Number
12.180.633
Art Historical Context
Step into the bustling administrative world of ancient Egypt with *Document Sealing*, a yet telling artifact from the New Kingdom Dynasty 18 (ca. 1390–1352 B.C.). Crafted from mud—likely unbaked clay—this unassuming object measures just 1.8 cm high and 2.8 cm wide, small enough to fit in your palm. Acquired through the Rogers Fund in 1911 and 1912, it now resides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Egyptian Art collection. In the height of Egypt's imperial age, under pharaohs like Amenhotep III and Akhenaten, such sealings were everyday tools of bureaucracy. Pressed onto the edges of papyrus ...