Razor Belonging to Hatnefer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This razor, which had been carefully wrapped in strips of linen, was found in a basket in the tomb of Hatnefer, the mother of Senenmut. Razors made entirely of metal were common in the Middle Kingdom and into Dynasty 18 (for an example see 35.3.30). Razors like Hatnefer's, which combine a blade and a wooden handle, appear for the first time early in Dynasty 18. The basket in which the razor was found is now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. It also contained a sealed pottery juglet, a pottery jar, a necklace, and a linen sheet.

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