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Ostracon Permanent Collection:
Ancient Egyptian Art:
Ostracon

The Valley of the Kings, Thebes, Egypt. Twentieth Dynasty, ca. 1185-1070 B.C. Painted limestone. Lent by the Semitic Museum, Harvard University. L1999.25.13

As papyrus was quite expensive, most Egyptian artisans used flat flakes of the fine white limestone found in the desert as scrap paper for trial sketches and layouts of tomb decoration. Many are clearly the work of the finest artists, as is this one, depicting the god Osiris. It was probably a preliminary draft of one of the figures of this god that decorated the tomb of Ramesses VI.

The exhibition of this object is made possible by the Museum Loan Network - a national collection-sharing program funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts, and administered by MIT's Office of the Arts.

Collections & Exhibitions: | Ancient Near Eastern Art | Art of the Ancient Americas | Asian Art | Greek and Roman Art | Sub-Saharan African Art | Works of Art on Paper
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