Egypt Museum ancient Egypt art culture and history

Plumb Level of Sennedjem

Plumb Level of Sennedjem

This wooden plumb level from the tomb of Sennedjem consists of two short pieces projecting at right angles from a longer slab. A limestone bob is strung from the top of the long slab and the upper short projecting wooden piece. The string would touch the lower projecting piece when the long slab was held...

The Meidum Geese

Meidum Geese

This part of a wall painting of geese was found in the Mastaba of Nefermaat and his wife, Itet, at Meidum where it decorated the lower part of one of the walls in the passage leading to Itet’s chapel. The colors used here derived from natural materials: white from limestone, red from hematite and green...

WPT RNPT NFRT

The Egyptian word for “year” was rnpt and was closely related to the idea of annual growth and the renewal of the cycle of vegetation; the hieroglyph would represent a branch of palm, leafless and carved for measurement purposes. The beginning of the year for the ancient Egyptians was not on January 1st, but in...