Researchers discovered 4,000-year-old handprints on tomb offerings from ancient Egypt, giving them a rare glimpse into the life of the makers.
The bill was left below the “Soul House.” This is a model residence intended to serve as a resting place for the souls of the dead. According to a statement from the University of Cambridge in the UK, these models, commonly found at burials, also have food supplies such as bread, lettuce and beef heads.
Seoul House came from a place called Deir Rifa, located 174 miles (280 km) north of Luxor city in southern Egypt between 2055 and 1650 BC. Researchers at the Fitzwilliam Museum, part of Cambridge University, discovered the handprints while preparing for the upcoming museum of the ancient Egyptian exhibition.
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Anyone who created the Seoul House is likely to have placed the handprint behind them by handling the clay before the clay dries, researchers said.
“We found traces of fingerprints left on the co in wet varnishes and decorations, but finding the perfect handprint under this soul house is rare and exciting,” said Helen Stoldwick, a maid curator in ancient Egypt and a senior Egyptian scholar at the Fitzwilliam Museum.
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The potter created the soul house by constructing frames from wooden sticks and coating them with wet clay. The frame was then burned out when the potter fired clay at high temperatures and turned it into ceramic.
Researchers still have much to learn about Seoul House. According to Egypt on the Manchester Museum blog, British Egyptian scholar William Matthew Flinders Petry (1853-1942) coined the term and believed that the house was used to provide a provision for the afterlife. However, it is unclear whether they intended to act as a home of the deceased’s spirit, or simply as a symbolic offering. A Cambridge University statement said the home could have served as both.
It is unclear whether the house of the soul represents the house of the deceased or the tomb. Strudwick told the Art Newspaper that the Seoul House is located directly above the burial shaft, suggesting that it was a cheap alternative to the elaborate tomb chapel built next to the burial room, and that it was used by people who could not afford such luxury items. However, Strudwick noted that he also believes there is a link between the soul house and the idea that the dead can return to their homes.
The Seoul House, which has a handprint on the bottom, has two levels each with a row of pillars. According to the statement, researchers suspect that the bills were left by moving the model to move it from the workshop and dry it out.
This bill is one of the relatively few glimpses of the potters in the workplace who survived ancient Egypt.
“I have never seen such a complete bill of money on an Egyptian object before,” Stroudwick said. “Imagine the person who made this and then pick it up and drive it out of the workshop to dry it before being fired. This takes it directly to the moment the object was made and the person who made it.”
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