Mummy Label
1973.4.142
Information
Wooden mummy label pierced with one side painted with Greek text which is now very faint. During the Roman Period (30 BC – AD 395) inscribed wooden labels were attached to the mummies to identify the dead person. Round label with blue border adhered to the surface, with a rectangular label with serrated edge stuck upon this with the printed number 920, like how other objects are marked that were acquired by Henry Wellcome from Robert de Rustafjaell's collection.
Purchased at Sotheby's, London, 9-10 December 1907 (Robert de Rustafjaell sale) Lot 149/30 "Thirty wooden Tablets and Labels from Mumies, etc.; mostly of Coptic date; the names incised or painted".