Rectangular Linen Chest

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This simple rectangular box with a flat lid was whitewashed inside and out. Two battens on the underside of the lid hold it in place when closed and battens on the bottom of the box hold it above the floor surface. The box is made of sycamore and the two knobs at the front (one on the box and one on the lid are made of a harder wood, perhaps tamarisk. A length of linen cord was wound around these knobs and a piece of mud applied to the cord was impressed with a square seal. Inside the box were 25 linen sheets, the majority of which had been used before being buried in Hatnefer's tomb (36.3.1). A number of the sheets had ink inscriptions (see 36.3 151). All but one of the sheets had been cleaned and most were folded into small bundles and carefully packed into the box. At the top, several sheets had been partially folded placed in the box, and pushed down around the edges of the sheets below.

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