‘Made in Ancient Egypt’ exhibition on now at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Ancient Egyptian excuses for skipping work and receipts for paying the bills are among the artefacts now on display in a new exhibition at Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum that reveals the everyday workers who built ancient Egypt.

Made in Ancient Egypt opened to the public last Friday (3 October) and runs until April next year.

It is the first exhibition to examine the role of the people who built this remarkable civilization.

These texts were written on ostraca – shards of stone of pieces of pottery – which were the ancient Egyptian equivalent of writing on the back of an envelope or a Post-it note.

Ostraca were readily available for use as notepads or for writing reminders and administrative jottings, as well as sketches or absent-minded doodles.

These humble pieces of stone provide invaluable insights into the everyday lives of ordinary Egyptians, which the exhibition examines, from stonemasons and coffin decorators to royal sandal-makers.

Many ostraca were discovered in a huge pit close to the workers village of Deir el-Medina, in Luxor.

One 3,500-year-old ostracon, on loan for the first time to the UK from the Louvre in Paris, records absences from work on the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings in ancient Thebes.

On one day, a worker called Panebu was away because he said he had been bitten by something. Another line records the foreman Ramery as off sick, while five others also ‘did not work’ that day.

Another 3,200-year-old ostraca, a receipt for decorating an ancient Egyptian coffin, is also on loan from the Louvre for the first time.

The costs of materials for making a coffin were almost never itemised, making it impossible to know how much was charged for the craftsmen’s time and skill.

This rare receipt most likely found in or near to the Valley of the Kings shows that on average a complete coffin cost them roughly the same as three months’ wages.

Elsewhere in the exhibition is an urgent order for windows, written alongside a specific illustration of what size was needed.

Helen Strudwick, curator of Made in Ancient Egypt and senior Egyptologist at the Fitzwilliam, said: “These remarkable ostraca on loan for the first time from our colleagues at the Louvre take us right into the lives of the craftsmen.

“We can all recognise the tone of voice of the man who needed his windows the next day. We can sympathise with Panebu suffering from a bite.

“Mention of the foreman Ramery starts to give us an idea about the organisation of these workers.

“The texts on these ostraca are part of a huge body of information about these craftspeople who become living individuals, with similar concerns to us today.”

Made in Ancient Egypt shows landmark loans of antiquities from the Louvre and Germany to the UK for the first time.

With 22 artefacts coming from the famed French museum, it is the most significant loan of objects from the Department of Egyptian Antiquities at the Louvre to the UK in 20 years.

In addition, 29 objects are also on show in the UK for the first time from the Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung in Berlin, including one of the famous heads from statues of Amarna princesses.

Their loan represents the largest number of objects lent by the Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung for an exhibition in the UK.

In a press launch last Thursday (2 October), Helen noted that when they approached the museums requesting loans, they all said, “Sure, what else would you like?”, noting that they couldn’t have been more helpful.

She told the Cambridge Independent: “I have been so thrilled by the response to the exhibition theme from colleagues in other museums.

“The team at the Louvre, when I contacted them about possible loans, immediately said, ‘Yes, and what else could we lend to support the exhibition?’

“Everyone has been so generous in lending spectacular objects for the displays that really speak to the themes so well.”

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue featuring new research and essays by Helen Strudwick, Alessio Delli Castello, Dimitri Laboury and Sara Hany Abed.

It is supported by David and Molly Lowell Borthwick.

Made in Ancient Egypt is on now at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and runs until 12 April, 2026. Tickets are from £14.50, although the exhibition is free for members and concessions are available.