Published: 28th July 2025 | The English Chronicle Online
In a stunning and unusually intimate discovery from ancient Egypt, researchers at the University of Cambridge have uncovered a 4,000-year-old complete handprint preserved in clay—pressed onto the base of an offering object known as a “soul house”. The faint but distinct mark, believed to have been left by the object’s original maker before the clay had fully dried, has been described by experts as an “extraordinary and rare” window into the lives of ordinary craftspeople in Egypt’s Middle Kingdom.
The soul house, a clay model in the shape of a two-storey building, is believed to have been created between 2055 and 1650 BC. Such objects were typically buried alongside the deceased, often functioning either as symbolic domiciles for the soul in the afterlife or as offering trays. In this instance, the model includes intricate representations of loaves of bread, lettuce, and an ox’s head—food meant to sustain the spirit in eternity.
The discovery was made during preparations for the Fitzwilliam Museum’s upcoming exhibition Made in Ancient Egypt, which is scheduled to open to the public on 3rd October. Helen Strudwick, senior Egyptologist and curator at the museum, revealed the find and emphasised its importance. “We’ve spotted traces of fingerprints in varnish or on the surface of coffins before,” she said, “but never a fully preserved handprint like this. It’s a direct, human touch across four millennia—a moment of presence from someone long gone.”
Researchers believe that the handprint was impressed into the underside of the object when its maker—possibly a potter or an apprentice—touched it while moving the model to dry in the sun, shortly before it was placed in a kiln. The soul house itself was likely constructed by layering clay over a temporary wooden framework, which burned away during firing, leaving only the hollowed clay shell supported by pillars.
Though ancient Egyptian ceramics are among the most common surviving artefacts from the period, very little is known about the artisans who created them. Unlike sculptors and painters—whose names and work were occasionally inscribed and celebrated—potters occupied a lower tier in the social hierarchy. A satirical Egyptian text, The Teaching of Kheti, even compares potters to pigs who roll about in mud, underscoring the relative disdain with which their labor was viewed.
That social context makes this discovery all the more poignant. In a civilisation best remembered for the grandeur of its pharaohs and monumental architecture, the mark of an anonymous worker offers a glimpse into the hidden human dimension behind the artefacts that fill museums today. For Strudwick and her team, this singular handprint encapsulates the very purpose of the exhibition—to give voice to the often overlooked hands behind Egypt’s material culture.
Made in Ancient Egypt seeks to shift the lens from kings to craftsmen, from temples to tools, from the divine to the domestic. Through pottery, jewellery, carvings, and tools, the exhibition explores how the people who built, painted, and fired these objects viewed themselves, and how society viewed them in turn. The Fitzwilliam Museum’s curators aim to breathe life into the identities of these nameless creators, many of whom were never recorded in hieroglyphs, but whose fingerprints—quite literally—remain.
As the exhibition opening nears, anticipation grows. The complete handprint will take its place as a centrepiece, inviting viewers to reach across time and feel the presence of a single, forgotten artisan. In doing so, it reminds us that history is not only told by rulers and scribes, but also by those whose silent, skilled hands shaped the world beneath them.
The English Chronicle Online
