Skip Navigation

Goddess Seshat

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

On View: Old Kingdom to 18th Dynasty, Egyptian Galleries, 3rd Floor
Seshat, whose name means “female scribe,” was the goddess of writing and record keeping. She was believed to have responsibility for recording regnal years and maintaining the House of Life, an archive containing Egypt’s sacred books. This fragment—found at the Pyramid Temple of Senwosret I—was copied from a relief carved at least three hundred years earlier for Pepy II, the last great ruler of the Old Kingdom.
CULTURE Egyptian
MEDIUM Limestone
  • Place Excavated: Lisht, Egypt
  • DATES ca. 1919-1875 B.C.E.
    DYNASTY Dynasty 12
    PERIOD Middle Kingdom
    DIMENSIONS 20 11/16 x 23 1/4 in. (52.5 x 59 cm)  (show scale)
    ACCESSION NUMBER 52.129
    CREDIT LINE Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
    CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Limestone relief. In sunk relief, at right the goddess Seshat seated, recording on papyrus the royal booty. Epithet of goddess incised to left. Upper edge of relief preserves portion of register of kneeling captives. At left, incomplete column of seated foreigners or captives. Condition: Incomplete. Lower left and upper right corner lost; Upper register badly cracked. Lower right area also cracked. Surface weathered. No remains of paint.
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in Old Kingdom to 18th Dynasty, Egyptian Galleries, 3rd Floor
    CAPTION Egyptian. Goddess Seshat, ca. 1919-1875 B.C.E. Limestone, 20 11/16 x 23 1/4 in. (52.5 x 59 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 52.129. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 52.129_SL1.jpg)
    IMAGE overall, 52.129_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
    "CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
    RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
    You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
    RECORD COMPLETENESS
    Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.