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Cambridge researchers find 4,000-year-old Egyptian handprint | UK News

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Katy Prickett

News, Cambridgeshire

PA Media Helen Strudwick on the left with the base of an ancient Egyptian soul house. She is side on and only the top of her dark hair and her nose can be seen as she looks a the soul house on the right. She has stretched out her right hand towards the artefact. The base of the house is in lumpy light brown clay. On its base, towards its bottom side, can be seen light ridges of fingers. PA Media

The discovery takes “you directly to the moment when the object was made and to the person who made it”, said curator Helen Strudwick

A 4,000-year-old handprint has been found on an ancient Egyptian tomb offering by curators preparing for an exhibition.

The discovery was made by University of Cambridge researchers on a “soul house”, a type of clay model in the shape of a building, typically found in burials.

Curator Helen Strudwick said the complete handprint, which dates to 2055 to 1650BC, was “a rare and exciting” find.

The ceramic will go on display as part of the university’s Made in Ancient Egypt exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum opening on 3 October.

The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge A view of a soul house made from lumpy light brown clay from the front. It is slightly off-centre to the viewer and shows a two storey open-fronted building, with pillars. Its ground floor has lumpen food offerings and an opening with a ramp for offerings to enter and exit. On its right side are steps rising up to the first and second floors. The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge

The potter would have created a framework of wooden sticks and then coated it with clay to make the building – the framework burnt away during firing

Ms Strudwick, senior egyptologist at the Fitzwilliam Museum, said: “We’ve spotted traces of fingerprints left in wet varnish or on a coffin in the decoration, but it is rare and exciting to find a complete handprint underneath this soul house.

“This was left by the maker who touched it before the clay dried.

“I have never seen such a complete handprint on an Egyptian object before.”

The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge A close-up of the base of the ancient Egyptian soul house made of lumpy light brown clay. The close up shows three ridges made by finger marks. They run from the top left corner to the bottom right corner. The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge

The discovery of a complete handprint is a very rare find, according to researchers

The exhibition concentrates on the people who made the ancient Egyptian crafts.

While ceramics were widely used and vast amounts of pottery survive, there are relatively few details known about the potters themselves, in comparison to other ancient Egyptian craftsmen.

The ready availability and generally low value of pottery may have affected their status, according to the museum, which cited a text known as the Teaching of Khet, comparing potters to pigs who wallow in mud.

The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge A close-up view of the ground floor of the soul house. It shows low walls on either side, a roughly crafted head of an ox resting on the wall on the left and roughly crafted food items on its floor.The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge

Models of food were laid out in front of the soul house, including loaves of bread, a lettuce and an ox’s head on the far left resting on the wall

Soul houses may have acted as offering trays or provided a place for the soul of the deceased to live within the tomb.

They had an open front space where items of food were laid out, in this example loaves of bread, a lettuce and an ox’s head.

Analysis of the item suggested the potter who made it first created a framework of wooden sticks and then coated it with clay to make a building with two storeys supported by pillars.

During firing the wooden framework burnt away, leaving empty spaces in their place.

The handprint found underneath was probably made when someone, perhaps the potter, moved the house out of the workshop to dry before firing in a kiln, according to the researchers.

The stories of Egyptian rulers, like Tutankhamun, have received a great deal of attention but the makers of the artefacts themselves are often overlooked.

Made in Ancient Egypt aims to show who these people were, how they thought of themselves and what other Egyptians thought of them.

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