mask

Mask

Remnants of the face from a wooden coffin with inlaid eyes of calcite and a black stone, perhaps obsidian. The cemetery where this was excavated lies near the villages of el-Riqqeh and Girza, not far from the Residence of the Middle Kingdom kings at Itjtawy (probably modern el-Lisht). The piece was found in the intact but partly rotted burial of the priest Sawadjyt. The entire tomb-group was presented to the National Museum of Ireland as an important example of wealthy Middle Kingdom burial.

EL-RIQQEH

CALCITE/ALABASTER

12TH DYNASTY

From the division of finds excavated by the British School of Archaeology at Tarkhan. Given to the museum in 1913.

R. Engelbach, Riqqeh and Memphis VI, London 1915, section 61, p 23.

Inventory number 1913:329

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF IRELAND

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