Handle for rope for lowering coffin

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Discovered in the pit of MMA 60, this is one of three wooden rods with rounded ends, slightly larger at the ends than in the middle. Two of the sticks seem to have made a pair; this one is slightly shorter. These rods may have been used as handles on ropes by the ancient undertakers to lower the inner coffins into the outer coffins, or for lowering an entire set of coffins into place.

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