Yoke Saddle Finial (acc. 9659)

The Egyptian gallery is currently closed, and 'Ancient Worlds' is due to open at the end of October 2012.

The Manchester Museum is home to one of the largest and most important collections of ancient Egyptian artifacts in the United Kingdom. The Egyptology collection includes about 16,000 objects from prehistoric Egypt (c. 10,000 BC) to the Byzantine era, up to around AD 600. Objects that are not on display are kept in storage, where they are accessible to researchers from around the world.

This artiffact has been recently 'rediscovered' and has found a new lease of life on the Egyptian Object Handling table. The function of this artifact is not immediately apparent, therein lies part of its appeal, allowing for a theatrical presentation; visitors are given the opportunity to engage with his exhibit on a tactile sensory level, as well as intellectually, in discovering its identity and usage.

Corroborative contextual evidence suggests that artifacts of this type are Yoke-saddle bosses or finials (Littaner & Crouwell 1985). Chariots found in the tomb aof Tutankhamun are the most secure context to understand bosses (such as this one) as chariot fittings.

The museum catalogue lists its material as "Travertine ('alabaster')", and indeed most examples of these finials from the Levant and Egypt were carved from 'alabaster' either Egyptian calcite or Canaanite gypsum, although striations through the centre of the piece suggest a more organic origin, possibly elephant ivory.

The inscription around the top of the piece reads;

"Live! Son of Re, Amenhotep, his fear is in the (foreign) lands..."

Although the name is not written in a cartouche, there can be little question that prefixed with 'Son of Re', it is the royal nomen of Amenhotep. There is no linguistic signifier of which Amenhotep, but the name at least provides a dating window of the 18th Dynasty (c. 1550-1295 BC). An attribution to a specific pharaoh is difficult without archaeological provenance, All three Amenhoteps reigned during the 18th Dynasty, founded by warrior king Ahmose I.

The museum has no archaeological context for this piece. It was donated in 1938 by George Spiegelberg, brother of a famous German Egyptologist Wilhelm Spiegelberg.