A handprint left by an Egyptian potteraround 4,000 years ago has been discovered on the underside of a clay “soul house,” a type of funerary object placed in tombs.
Hidden from view since the day it was made, the handprint was found by specialists at Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum, where the object will be featured in an exhibition focused on the workers and craftspeople of ancient Egypt.
The clay “soul house” bearing the handprint dates to between 2055 and 1650 B.C. While the artifact itself has long been known, the accidental handprint offers an unusually direct link to the person who created it.
A Handprint That Was Never Meant To Be Seen
The handprint was discovered on the underside of a soul house, a clay model shaped like a building with an open courtyard. These structures were placed in tombs and used to hold food offerings for the dead.
Researchers atThe Fitzwilliam Museumbelieve the imprint was left when the potter picked up the object before it had fully dried, likely moving it before it was fired in a kiln.
As noted in a statement released by the University of Cambridge, complete handprints are extremely rare on Egyptian artifacts. Archaeologists sometimes find fingerprints preserved in decoration or varnish, but finding an entire handprint is much less common.
“We’ve spotted traces of fingerprints left in wet varnish or on a coffin in the decoration, but it is rare and exciting to find a complete handprint underneath this soul house,” said Helen Strudwick, senior Egyptologist at the museum.
Because the mark was left underneath the object, it remained hidden for thousands of years.
How The Soul House Was Made
The artifact also provides insight into the techniques used by Egyptian potters during the period. Museum researchers think the structure was first built around a framework of wooden sticks and then coated with clay. The finished model represented a two-story building supported by pillars, while details such as staircases were shaped directly by hand.
Once completed, the object would have been fired in a kiln. The museum explains that the wooden framework burned away during firing, leaving empty spaces inside the clay structure.
The handprint appears to date from the final stages of production. It likely formed when the potter lifted the soul house and moved it to dry before firing.
“I have never seen such a complete handprint on an Egyptian object before,” Strudwick said. “You can just imagine the person who made this, picking it up to move it out of the workshop to dry before firing.”
The Ancient Worker Behind The Handprint
The discovery comes as The Fitzwilliam Museum prepares to open Made in Ancient Egypt, an exhibition that focuses on the workers who created many of the objects now displayed in museums.
Clay was one of the most common materials used in ancient Egypt, collected from Nile silt deposits or from shale. It was used to make both practical and decorative objects, yet the people who worked with it were not highly regarded.
A report from BBC stated that some ancient Egyptian texts compared potters to pigs wallowing in mud. As a result, historians often know much more about the objects themselves than the individuals who produced them.
“This takes you directly to the moment when the object was made, and to the person who made it, which is the focus of our exhibition,” noted Strudwick.
The exhibition aims to address that imbalance through evidence such as work orders, receipts, delivery notes, and unfinished objects. The newly discovered handprint fits perfectly within that effort.