Sealing
Unknown Artist
ca. 1981–1640 B.C.
Medium
Mud
Classification
Sealing
Period
Middle Kingdom
Department
Egyptian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund and Edward S. Harkness Gift, 1922
Accession Number
22.1.1888
Art Historical Context
Step into the ancient world of Egypt with this intriguing *Sealing*, crafted from mud around 1981–1640 B.C. during the Middle Kingdom's Dynasties 12–13. This small artifact, now housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Egyptian Art department to the Rogers Fund and Edward S. Harkness in 1922, exemplifies everyday administrative tools from a golden age of stability and cultural revival. In the Middle Kingdom, after centuries of fragmentation, Egypt reunified under strong pharaohs like those of Dynasty 12, fostering advanced bureaucracy and trade. Mud sealings like this one were pressed with ...