Skip to main content

Plaster writing board

Object(s) photograph: Site: Giza; View: G 1011

Plaster writing board; with list of deities, beginning with names of kings of Dynasty 5

Details

  • ID
    GEM_3215
  • Department
    Grand Egyptian Museum
  • Classification
    Tools & equipment-Writing
  • Findspot
    G 1011 A
  • Material
    Plaster
  • Dimensions
    GEM: 4.4 x 16.6 x 76.2 cm; 3460 g; JE: 69 x 12 cm
  • Credit Line
    Grand Egyptian Museum
  • Journal d'Entree number
    EMC_JE_37734
  • Cairo Special Register number
    EMC_SR_4/599
  • Period
    Old Kingdom, Dynasty 5
  • Excavator
    George Andrew Reisner, American, 1867–1942
  • Notes
    Two scribal writing boards were recovered during Reisner's excavations at Giza. There is some confusion concerning these objects due to incomplete record keeping; the photo register entries providing the most, but not necessarily most accurate, information. One was found in 1904 in pit G 1011 A (letter C on map; mentioned on tomb card for G 1011 C [A altered to read C]; in situ photos: HUMFA_C10181_OS, HUMFA_C10182_OS). That writing board is presumably the one in the collection of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM_3215 = EMC_JE_37734; photos: HUMFA_B11772_OS, HUMFA_B11773_OS, HUMFA_B11774A_OS). Information for the other writing board (MFAB_13.4301) is provided only by the photo register entry (photo HUMFA_A1021_NS, dated July 1913); the reference in that entry to "found 1905-06 by Lythgoe" may or may not be a mistaken reference to the other writing board. The most that can be stated concerning the provenance for MFAB_13.4301 is that it may have been found somewhere in cemetery G 2000.
  • Remarks
    RELATED CONSTITUENT(S): George Reisner; RELATED SITE(S): G 1011 Pit C; ALTERNATE NUMBER(S): EMC_JE_37734; EMC_SR_4.599

Tombs and Monuments 1

  • G 1011

    • Site Name Western Cemetery

Published Documents 1

Full Bibliography

  • Reisner, George A. “A Scribe’s Tablet found by the Hearst Expedition at Giza.” Richard Lepsius als Erinnerungsdenkmal zum hundertsten Geburtstage, Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 48 (1911), pp. 113–114.

    Smith, William Stevenson. “The Old Kingdom in Egypt,” The Cambridge Ancient History, rev. ed. of vols. I & II, Cambridge University Press, 1962, pp. 8, 14, 63.

People 1

Modern People

  • George Andrew Reisner

    • Type Excavator
    • Nationality & Dates American, 1867–1942
    • Remarks Egyptologist, archaeologist; Referred to as "the doctor" and "mudir" (Arabic for "director") in the excavation records. Nationality and life dates from Who was Who in Egyptology.