The hands behind the objects

Look at the wooden wedge and the metal blade with hands in mind. These small surviving pieces belonged to the practical world of making things. The wedge is only about eleven centimetres long. The copper-alloy adze blade has lost its handle, leaving you to recognise one working part of a larger tool. This room lets you slow down over materials and techniques. Wood and metal each offered different possibilities, and each required someone who knew how to work with it. A finished object can draw all our attention; tools help us remember the decisions and physical effort that came before it. The carved memorial of Hor adds people to that thought. Hor was an overseer of bow-makers. In one of the horizontal bands of its decoration, seated craftsmen work with bows and tools. Family and ritual scenes appear above them. Look at how these parts share the same stone: skilled work, relationships and religious life all helped describe a person. The makers become part of the story we can see.