Mummy Label

1973.4.140

Information

Wooden mummy label carved and painted with four lines of Greek text on one side. Roughly painted with Greek on the other side. During the Roman Period (30 BC – AD 395) inscribed wooden labels were attached to the mummies to identify the dead person. Rectangular label with ornate blue border adhered to the surface marked with a previous collector's number 479A. Purchased at Sotheby's, London, 9-10 December 1907 (Robert de Rustafjaell sale) Lot 149/30 "Thirty wooden Tablets and Labels from Mummies, etc.; mostly of Coptic date; the names incised or painted".