The dataset
268 items. The sealed sentences carry the whole ladder. The public set tests whether a model can name what it is looking at, with controls that look like hieratic but aren't.
Single signs come from AKU-PAL, the hieratic palaeography of the Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz, under CC BY 4.0. Objects come from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Chester Beatty in Dublin, the Yale Peabody Museum and Wikimedia Commons. Every item links to its source and keeps the license the source states.
Sealed 2
One sentence in two hands, commissioned in 2022. The script is public. The signs, transliteration and translation are held privately and have never been published.
The professor's sentence
2022
Sealed© Aly Moursy. Free to use for evaluating models.
Named correctly by 0 of 13 models
The scribe's rendition
2022
Sealed© Aly Moursy. Free to use for evaluating models.
Named correctly by 0 of 13 models
Hieratic 87
Real documents in hieratic, from openly licensed photographs and facsimiles. Scored on the identify rung.
Contendings of Horus and Seth (recto), Beginning of the sweet sayings found while using a papyrus (love-songs III) (recto), Love-songs II (verso), Memoranda or business jottings (verso), Chester Beatty Pap 1.5
c. 1160 BC, Chester Beatty, Dublin
HieraticCC BY 4.0
Named correctly by 8 of 10 models
Contendings of Horus and Seth (recto), Encomium of Ramesses V (verso), Beginning of the words of the great dispenser of entertainment (love-songs I) (verso), Chester Beatty Pap 1.2
c. 1160 BC, Chester Beatty, Dublin
HieraticCC BY 4.0
Named correctly by 6 of 10 models
Contendings of Horus and Seth (recto), Love-songs II (verso), Memoranda or business jottings (verso), Chester Beatty Pap 1.4
c. 1160 BC, Chester Beatty, Dublin
HieraticCC BY 4.0
Named correctly by 6 of 10 models
Papyrus fragments, Chester Beatty Pap XXII
c. 1800 BC (Lahun fragments), 100 BC-100 AD (Book of the Dead fragments), Chester Beatty, Dublin
HieraticCC BY 4.0
Named correctly by 2 of 10 models
Book of the Dead of Patjauderetmut, Chester Beatty Pap XX
10th or 9th century BC, Chester Beatty, Dublin
HieraticCC BY 4.0
Named correctly by 9 of 10 models
Book of Breathings of Khonsdjehuty, Chester Beatty Pap XXa
c. 100 AD, Chester Beatty, Dublin
HieraticCC BY 4.0
Named correctly by 8 of 10 models
Opening of the Mouth, Chester Beatty Pap XXIII
3rd century BC, Chester Beatty, Dublin
HieraticCC BY 4.0
Named correctly by 7 of 10 models
Book of the Dead of the 'scribe of documents of the king', Chester Beatty Pap XXIV
4th century BC, Chester Beatty, Dublin
HieraticCC BY 4.0
Named correctly by 2 of 10 models
Controls 29
Real Egyptian writing that is not hieratic, in demotic and hieroglyphs, so a model that always answers hieratic loses points.
Papyrus fragments, Chester Beatty Pap XXII
c. 1800 BC (Lahun fragments), 100 BC-100 AD (Book of the Dead fragments), Chester Beatty, Dublin
HieroglyphicCC BY 4.0
Named correctly by 8 of 10 models
Book of the Dead of Lady Neskhons, Chester Beatty Pap XXI.2
c. 300 BC, Chester Beatty, Dublin
HieroglyphicCC BY 4.0
Named correctly by 9 of 10 models
Demotic fragment, Chester Beatty MP Dem 2
Unknown, Chester Beatty, Dublin
DemoticCC BY 4.0
Named correctly by 5 of 10 models
Account and letter relating to wine, Chester Beatty Pap XXIX
unknown, Chester Beatty, Dublin
DemoticCC BY 4.0
Named correctly by 3 of 10 models
Sale of land (Gebelein), Chester Beatty Pap XXVI.2
168-116 BC, Chester Beatty, Dublin
DemoticCC BY 4.0
Named correctly by 5 of 10 models
Fragments of contracts, Chester Beatty Pap XXX
4th century BC, Chester Beatty, Dublin
DemoticCC BY 4.0
Named correctly by 4 of 10 models
Business document or memorandum, Chester Beatty Pap XXV
2nd or 1st century BC, Chester Beatty, Dublin
DemoticCC BY 4.0
Named correctly by 4 of 10 models
Legal document relating to land (Gebelein), Chester Beatty Pap XXVII
96-95 BC, Chester Beatty, Dublin
DemoticCC BY 4.0
Named correctly by 3 of 10 models
Single signs 150
One hieratic sign per image. The model names the matching hieroglyph by its Gardiner code. The codes are kept off this page.
New Kingdom
Third Intermediate Period
New Kingdom
Late Period
Late Period
Late Period
New Kingdom
First Intermediate Period
New Kingdom
Middle Kingdom
First Intermediate Period
Roman Period