Merit’s Wig

New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, ca. 1425-1353 B.C. From the Tomb of Kha and Merit (TT8), Deir el-Medina. Museo Egizio, Turin, Italy. Suppl. 8499

▫ Merit was the wife of the foreman Kha, and the couple both resided in the Worker’s Village of Deir el-Medina (Set Ma’at) and were buried together in the local necropolis within Theban Tomb 8 (TT8). Made of human hair that has been curled and/or tousled into a thick headdress of dark brown to black hair with lighter hair at the parting, the wig is held together by sewing the hair into a mesh which would rest upon the wearers scalp, the mesh is still visible through the middle part of the wig’s hairstyle.

The tresses of curls come to a tightly twisted or curled end around the sides and looser curls upon the back, this could be due to the passage of time untwining the curls and/or plaits, or simply the intended style. Also, still intact are a set of larger plaits or braids falling down the back of the wig. While being worn, one could assume the hair would have been slightly past shoulder-length, caressing the bust.

The wig could have been worn in daily life, or special events and religious rituals. The wig could also have been adorned with decorations such as real floral garlands, diadems of varied materials, individual hair jewels, and a perfume cone atop of the head, which is thought to have caused a delicious scent upon the wig. It is not documented if the piece is scented or not, but tests showed that the tips of the hair are coated in plant oil/balsam.

Shell, limestone, and lapis lazuli game board, city of Ur, Sumer, circa 2450 BC

Apollo with a raven and Artemis with a deer

The Dancing Satyr of Mazara del Vallo,Sicily.

An important bronze statue rescued from the sea, and on display in Mazara del Vallo, Sicily. The over-lifesize Dancing Satyr of Mazara del Vallo is a Greek bronze statue,whose refinement and rapprochement with the manner of Praxiteles has made it a subject of discussion.

Though the satyr is missing both arms, one leg and its separately-cast tail (originally fixed in a surviving hole at the base of the spine), its head and torso are remarkably well-preserved despite millennia spent at the bottom of the sea. The satyr is depicted in mid-leap, head thrown back ecstatically and back arched, his hair swinging with the movement of his head.

The facture is highly refined; the whites of his eyes are inlays of white alabaster. Though some have dated it to the 4th century BCE and said it was an original work by Praxiteles or a faithful copy, it is more securely dated either to the Hellenistic period of the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE, or possibly to the “"Atticising”“ phase of Roman taste in the early 2nd century CE.

Bowl with a Hathor cow

Thebes, New Kingdom Egypt, c. 1479–1425 BCE

Necklace of gold links with a disc decorated with a head of Medusa.

Glass ewer, Roman, late 4th century AD

Uncovered from the Hwangnamdaechong Tomb in Korea

Faience ring with Udjat eye, Egypt, 18th Dynasty, 1550-1292 BC

Denarius with a portrait of Plautilla, wife of the emperor Caracalla

Roman, A.D. 202-205

silver