Inscribed Pen Case

Part of a hollow small square section of ivory which has been described as a pen case, but the identification is not certain. Incised with hieroglyphic inscription filled with turquoise blue pigment. Inscribed for a man called Paser, with the cartouche of King Ramesses II. Triangular fragment missing from front. The excavator, Arthur Mace, identified the object as a penholder after finding it in a much plundered and reused tomb (Abydos cemetery D, tomb 44). A vizier called Paser was buried in Theban Tomb 106 and Professor Kenneth Kitchen speculated, that this may be an object dedicated for some afterlife cult of Paser at Abydos, in some small cenotaph burial. Professor Kitchen translated the inscription as: "...who adorns the King in his holy form, Chief of Secrets in the Mansion of (the goddess) Neith, judge for the Lord of the Two Lands, Prefect and Vizier, Paser, justified, uniting with the earth." Text copied by Newberry and Peet on the catalogue card.