A handprint left 4,000 years ago on a clay model crafted to go inside an Egyptian tomb has been discovered during preparation for an exhibition at a museum.
The complete handprint was probably made by the maker of the item who touched it before the clay dried, an Egyptologist at Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum said.
The imprint was left on the base of a “soul house” – a clay model in the shape of a building which would be placed inside a burial. The soul house dates back to about 2055-1650 BC.
It had an open front space where items of food were laid out, such as loaves of bread, a lettuce and an ox’s head.
Soul houses may have acted as offering trays or provided a place for the soul of the deceased to live within the tomb.
