Signet Ring, ca. 664–404 B.C.E. Gold, 11/16 × 1 × 7/8 in. (1.8 × 2.5 × 2.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.734E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.734E_PS6.jpg)
Signet Ring, ca. 664–404 B.C.E. Gold, 11/16 × 1 × 7/8 in. (1.8 × 2.5 × 2.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.734E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.734E_SL3.jpg)
Signet Ring, ca. 664–404 B.C.E. Gold, 11/16 × 1 × 7/8 in. (1.8 × 2.5 × 2.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.734E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.734E_NegC_SL4.jpg)
Signet Ring, ca. 664–404 B.C.E. Gold, 11/16 × 1 × 7/8 in. (1.8 × 2.5 × 2.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.734E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.37.734E_wwg8.jpg)
Signet Ring, ca. 664–404 B.C.E. Gold, 11/16 × 1 × 7/8 in. (1.8 × 2.5 × 2.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.734E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.734E_NegG_SL4.jpg)
Signet Ring, ca. 664–404 B.C.E. Gold, 11/16 × 1 × 7/8 in. (1.8 × 2.5 × 2.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.734E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.734E_NegH_SL4.jpg)
Signet Ring, ca. 664–404 B.C.E. Gold, 11/16 × 1 × 7/8 in. (1.8 × 2.5 × 2.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.734E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: , 37.720E_37.725E_37.728E_37.729E_37.731E_37.733E_37.734E_GrpB_SL4.jpg)
Signet Ring
Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art
Because this ring bears a cartouche of King Khufu of Dynasty IV, known later to the Greeks as Cheops, it was once world famous as the actual signet ring of the builder of the Great Pyramid at Giza. The inscription, however, shows that it really belonged to a man named Neferibre who was a priest in the cults of Isis and the deified Cheops at Giza two thousand years after Cheops died. The ring is unusually heavy and is made of gold more than twenty-one karats pure.
