Ink well

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

To make black ink, Egyptians mixed the carbon derived from partially burned organic materials, such as oil or wood, with some sort of binder, probably gum arabic. Red ink was made from hematite, a naturally occurring mineral form of iron oxide.

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