Faience and Turquoise Fragments

Lumps of broken faience and perhaps some turquoise from the pharaonic copper mines at Wadi Maghara. Dimensions are of the box container. Presented by the Egypt Exploration Fund following Petrie's 1904-1905 fieldwork in Sinai, one of the main copper and turquoise mining regions for ancient Egypt. There was a temple for Hathor at Serabit el-Khadim ('Hathor mistress of turquoise') built in the Middle Kingdom (about 2025-1700 BC) and still important in the New Kingdom (about 1550-1069 BC) as attested by private and royal stelae and many 1000s of votive offerings left on the floor of the temple sanctuary.