Writing board

Writing board

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Discovered crushed and warped under a pile of stones at the entrance to a tomb at Deir el-Bahri, this writing board retains only a few traces of the fine, polished gesso that once covered its rough surface. It was set in ancient times into a frame of ebony, one end of which was missing and has been restored by The Museum. Ink found in the cracks of the plaster indicates that the board had been written on, but it had been cleaned thoroughly before being placed in the tomb.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.