Comb

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This beautifully preserved comb has three neatly carved shallow indentations at the top to allow the fingers a secure grip. The flat area between the undulated top and the comb's teeth is embellished with groups of perfectly straight incised, parallel lines. The comb does not show wear and thus cannot have been used for long, if at all, before it was deposited in the burial for use in the next world. The comb was excavated by the Earl of Carnarvon and Howard Carter in the Lower Assasif area of the Theban necropolis on the west bank of the Nile opposite modern Luxor. It was acquired by Carnarvon in the division of finds with the Egyptian Antiquities Service. Lord Carnarvon's collection was sold to the Museum after his death in 1923. Three similar combs were found by the Museum's Egyptian Expedition during excavations in the same area (16.10.428–.430).

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art