This is a close up of a section of a rectangular Middle Kingdom (c.4000 years ago) coffin. Out of shot to the right are the large pair of eyes that you typically find on such coffins, and the text that runs along the top and in the vertical columns is a standard funerary formula. The vignette that I’ve photographed is one of those scenes that reminds us that the Egyptians were people like us: this is the man who was buried in this coffin (Khui) shown walking with his dog Iupu, held on a lead attached to a collar much like we’d use today. You can see it’s intended as a specific dog because he i ..read more

This little cube (less than 10cm on each side) was made from a single piece of wood that was hollowed out to form a box, there was then a separate lid attached with hinges. It probably held jewellery or some other small keepsake. The sides are decorated, in a reasonably crude style: on the one we’re looking at in the photo the picture is not centred in the frame, and the shapes are a bit unsophisticated. It’s a bit amateur, but nonetheless still rather fun. If you’ve seen much royal Egyptian art you’ll know that on the sides of thrones in particular there is a motif of the unification of the t ..read more

This lovely little pot (only about 7cm high) is around 5000 years old, and dates to the Predynastic Period of Egyptian history. It’s a type of pottery that we call black-topped redware (for obvious reasons) and it is found mostly in Upper Egypt and Nubia. The inside is black as well and there are indications that this may be a functional colour scheme not just an aesthetic one – the blackened portions of the clay are less porous than the red portions. So a pot with a blackened inside keeps its contents contained for longer. There’s more than one theory about how they got the black colour, but ..read more

This smiling big-eared fellow is the king Senwosret I, who was the second king of the 12th Dynasty (part of the Middle Kingdom, around 4000 years ago). His father was Amenemhat I and his son was Amenemhat II. In this sculpture he wears the dual crown of Upper & Lower Egypt. His succession was a little rocky – his father appears to’ve been assassinated, and this event forms the opening sequence of the Egyptian story “The Story of Sinhue” about an official in Senwosret’s retinue who runs away from Egypt in the aftermath of the assassination. There is also another classic text from the Middle ..read more

This photograph is of part of the reliefs decorating the outside of the entrance to the tomb of Djehutihotep at Deir el-Bersha, a few weeks ago I shared another photo from this area that showed him hunting in the marshes, and this text gives his name. At the top you see an ibis on a standard, this represents the god Thoth whose name in ancient Egyptian is something closer to Djehuti (the transcription is ḏḥwty and Egyptologists put the “e” in for pronunciation purposes). I’m not quite sure what the circle in front of this is. Below that are three signs for the second half of his name which spe ..read more

The Egyptian lotus (which is actually a sort of waterlily in taxonomic terms) is a symbol of birth & rebirth: in one version of Egyptian creation mythology the god Atum emerges from a lotus flower that has bloomed on the first land to rise from the eternal waters. It is also associated with the god Nefertem, and is the plant symbol for Upper Egypt (in contrast to the papyrus that signifies Lower Egypt) as well as being associated with the sun because of the way the flowers open in the morning and close in the evening. So it’s not a surprise that lotuses show up in many contexts in Egyptian ..read more

Thoth is one of the more prominent ancient Egyptian gods, and amongst other things was god of writing & wisdom. Part of his iconography includes the ibis, and he is often shown as a man with the head of that bird. I don’t have any details for these little statues of ibises, but I think it is probable that they represent Thoth. In the background of the photo there are also several mummies and I think these are mummified ibises. They are in the Mallawi Museum, and the collection here is primarily sourced from local sites. One of the nearby sites is Tuna el-Gebel, which was a cult centre for ..read more

This scene is from the area immediately outside the tomb of Djehutihotep at Deir el-Bersha. He was Governor of the Nome (district) that contained his tomb, and lived during the 12th Dynasty in the Middle Kingdom around 4000 years ago. In the scene Djehutihotep is the main figure, more than twice the size of the others and he stands on a boat in a striding position (I presume to represent dynamic action). In one hand he has a throwing stick and in the other hand he clutches birds (which I think are decoys). In front of him stands a woman, holding another throwing stick – this is presumably his ..read more

This is a statue of a man called Pepyankh or Ankh Pepi (or some other spelling variant of those two) and his wife. It dates to the 6th Dynasty, probably during the reign of Pepi II rather than Pepi I, so it’s around four & a half thousand years old. It comes from Meir, so the day before I saw it in the Mallawi Museum I was quite possibly standing in the tomb it came from! However I’m not entirely sure as there are at least 3 Pepyankhs with tombs at Meir, and the museum label didn’t tell me which one this was. Whichever Ankh Pepi he was, he was a pretty high ranking official – the rock cut ..read more

This rather fine pair of eyes belong to the wooden coffin of Atef Ib who lived during the Middle Kingdom (around 4000 years ago) probably somewhere near modern Minya. It’s now in the Mallawi Museum, but I have no further information on accession number or find site. (Edit: Thank you to Wolfram Grajetzki who tells me it has acc. no. 566 and is likely from Asyut.) Middle Kingdom coffins are generally rectangular in shape, rather than the human-shaped ones from the New Kingdom and later. The mummy of the deceased would be placed inside on his or her side, turned to face out of the side of the cof ..read more