Knife

AAT Object Form/FunctionDaggers (weapons)

Place CreatedEgypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodOld Kingdom or later

Dateafter 2543 BCE

MediumObsidian

Credit LineGift of Dr. Thomas H. English

Dimensions9 5/8 x 2 3/16 in. (24.4 x 5.5 cm)

Object number1971.102 A

Label TextRitual texts specify a "black stone" knife as the tool that should be used by the embalmer to make the incision to remove the internal organ. Obsidian, a volcanic glass, fractures to create an edge sharper than surgical steel, and thus served as an ideal cutting instrument.

Natron, a naturally occurring salt usually consisting of sodium bicarbonate or sodium chloride, was the chief ingredient employed in drying and preserving the mummy. It was placed over the skin of the mummy as well as inside the body cavity during the process of embalming. It was also used as a cleansing agent and signified purity.

Once the body was prepared, a process that ideally took seventy days, it would be wrapped in yards and yards of linen bandages. These sometimes served as writing surfaces for the Book of the Dead, substituting for expensive papyrus rolls. This bandage has a scene in black ink of a funerary boat on wheels, part of a procession to the tomb.
Exhibition HistoryA Preview of the Collections, Schatten Gallery, February 15 - April 4, 1982
MCCM Permanent Collection Galleries, May 11, 1993 - Spring 2001
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 2001 - Present
Published ReferencesPeter Lacovara and Betsy Teasley Trope, The Realm of Osiris (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2001), 43.

ProvenanceEx coll. Dr. Thomas H. English (1895-1992), Atlanta, Georgia.

Status

On view

Collections