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Fragment of a Coptic fabric (“orbiculus”) Textile executed in tapestry weave and “flying-shuttle” technique. This element originates from Coptic tunic. The preserved fragment inside an aorbiculus is covered with decoration of the Flechtknoten type. |
Greek ostrakon – instructions to issue wine Instructions to issue wine. Data: March 20, 15th indiction (6th–7th century) “To Martyrios, rogator. Deliver on the account of buccellarii three koloba of wine, that is koloba of wine 3, only. Written on 27th of Mesore, indiction XV. Pythidoros agreed.” |
Cartonnage coffin from el-Hiba The coffin form, decoration and the character of the hieroglyphic signs find close parallels on objects from el-Hiba. The hieroglyph form and the mistakes, which are proof of a poor understanding of the text, date the object to the Late Ptolemaic or Early Roman period and suggest a provincial origins. |
Cartonnage mask This anonymous cartonnage mask probably dates back to the Ptolemaic period (306–30 BC). The mask is gilded on the face but eyes, pupils and eyebrows are marked black. It has a typical blue wig (nemes). The representation of the deceased is definitely idealised and it bears no distinguishing features. |
El-Kantara male torso The alabaster sculpture, 15 cm high, was purchased by soldiers of the Polish Independent Carpathian Rifle Brigade during WW II. The statue represents a young naked man with a sealed head, legs and arms. At the back there is a flat column, which is triangularly finished at the top. |
Greek ostrakon An ostracon from the collection of the Field Museum No. 2 which was established thanks to the Independent Carpathian Rifle Brigade that fought in the Middle East during the World War II and reached Egypt where they managed to obtain museum exhibits. |
Greek ostrakon – receipt for grain tax payment Ostraka, pieces of broken pottery vessels, were used for writing a variety of different texts, most often tax receipts. They were used instead of the more expensive papyrus. Most ostraka come from Upper Egypt and the oases, where, unlike in Fayum and the localities of Middle Egypt, papyrus was not cultivated on a broad scale. |
Greek ostrakon – receipt of payment of a monetary equivalent for a tax in nature Receipt of payment of a monetary equivalent for a tax in nature. Date: December 21, year AD 78 or 91. “Daleas son of Abraimos, as an equivalent for the price of the dates from sacred land, 6 drachmas 4 obols. Year 11, Choiak 25.” Commentary: The divergence in the dating of this document results from the fact that the eleventh year may equally well refer to the emperors Vespasian or Domitian. Abraimos is well evidenced as a variant of the name Abraham. |
Head of a ruler The head is a fragment of the ruler's statue, it is covered with nemes [scarf] with a wide head-band over the forehead, decorated with the insignia of the Pharaonic power uraeus [cobra]. It is a face with faded features; the eyes are shown without detail; it has a wide nose with distended nostrils. |
Ushabti figures The ushabti figures — artistically perfect and finely made — were purchased from the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo by soldiers of the Polish Independent Carpathian Rifle Brigade during WW II and subsequently granted to the Archaeological Museum. The pillar at the back of the figure reaches the lower edge of a tripartite wig, finely fashioned in regular wisps exposing the ears. |
Sculpture of man and woman The sculpture comes from the excavations conducted by Hermann Junker in 1913 in the eastern sector of the Great Western Necropolis, west of the Pyramid of Cheops. The sculpture depicts the figures according to a specific canon: the man in a walking posture and the woman standing with feet held together. |
Stela with four figures from Kom Abu Billou A “family” stela showing a married couple (?) and two children in prayerful attitudes, one above their feet and the other opposite them. The adults, who are missing the upper bodies and heads, are depicted on a coach with mattress, one in front of the other, supporting themselves each on the left elbow resting on two pillows. Compositions with several figures are rare on stelae from Kom Abu Billou. |
Stela of woman from Kom Abou Billou The upper preserved part of the stela shows an aedicula constructed of a semicircular pediment supported on two plain columns with papyrus capitals. The deceased is shown frontally, but with the right leg in profile. She is reclining on a mattress, supported on her left elbow resting on two pillows. In her right hand, which is unnaturally long, she holds a bowl. Her dress consists of a chiton and himation arranged in semicircular folds. The long her falling to her breasts is pushed back behind the ears. Her face has been hammered away. Opposite her there is an engraved representation of a sitting jackal. The animal with a long snout and raised tail is shown facing her. |
Fragment of stela with three figures The composition appears in an engraved aedicula with a triangular pediment supported on straight columns (the column on the right is preserved). Two figures are depicted on the stela: a woman reclining on a couch and another woman standing before her in a prayerful attitude. The scene may be reconstructed despite considerable damage; presumably there was a third praying figure depicted on the right side. |
Stela of Bes from Kom Abu Billou The stela with deceased shown in prayer in the inly such example among the objects from Kom Abou Billou in Polish collections. The style of a stela, dated to 300 based on the archeological context, is similar, although not exactly the same. Modeling of the details of the figure and of the dress suggests an earlier dating for this object. |
Stela of man from Kom Abou Billou from the 1st half of the 3rd century The deceased rests on a couch with mattress in a repetition of a composition that is already known from the Stela of the son of Chairemon and Isidora. The differences are insignificant: a wreath held in the extended right hand and a different arrangement of the feet, which are crossed in this case. Both the mattress and the pillows are decorated with rhomboids. The features of the face are not very clear, but a flat wide nose predominates. |
Aset-iri-khet-es mummy With over two thousand years mummy comes from the excavations carried out in 1907 in el-Gamhud by the first Polish Egyptologist, Tadeusz Smoleński. The goddess Isis – Aset-iri-khet-es – lies in a sarcophagus with an impressive lid. Through research conducted in 1996 it found that it was a young woman who died approx. two thousand 300 years ago as a result of blood loss caused by arterial puncture fractured leg. Specialists able to determine, among others, the genetic code of the deceased and her blood type. It is the largest in terms of the size of the object from the collection of Egyptology in Poland and is best examined by specialists. |
Corn mummy with a wax mask of Osiris The object was purchased from Mohareb Zaaki by soldiers of the Polish Independent Carpathian Rifle Brigade during WW II. The mummy has a gilded wax mask. The sarcophagus with the head of Horus and a striated wig on the breast bear the necklace composed of a chapel with Ibis inside. |
Corn-mummy with silver mask of Osiris “Pseudo-mummy”, formed of Nile silt mixed with resin and germinating seeds, molded and then wrapped in linen bandages. Silver mask with traces of gilding in the place of the face. Eyes marked with drawn out corners, eyebrows painted brown, small nose and prominent ears. The crown of Upper Egypt on its head and a hole for the beard in the chin. Silver masks, unlike the waxen ones, are extremely rare in this kind of objects. |
Fragment of a shroud The shroud was purchased from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo by soldiers of the Polish Independent Carpathian Rifle Brigade during WW II and granted to the Archaeological Museum. The right side of the shroud represents the deceased person as Osiris. The head in a wig is decorated with a crown of ostrich feathers with a solar disk placed on the horns with uraei on the sides. |