Ancient Egypt has always been about the big things: the pyramids, the pharaohs, the treasures of the civilization. But the people who made those things have mostly stayed out of the spotlight. A new book wants to change that.
Made in Ancient Egypt is a catalog for an exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. It is also a methodological argument. Its authors, curator Helen Strudwick and Exhibition Assistant Thomas Clarke, want to understand Egyptian art through the materials and skills of the craftsmen who made it, rather than through theories or treatises.
The book ditches the familiar Old Kingdom-New Kingdom chronology. Instead, it organizes objects by medium: clay, stone, papyrus, wood, metal. That reorganization is the point. It forces you to look at the work itself, not just the dates and dynasties.
The Craft Behind the Treasures
The book argues that Ancient Egyptian art cannot be explained by theory alone. There was no Egyptian aesthetic treatise, no word for “art” as we define it today. So the art is best understood through the science behind its materials and the skill sets of its artisans.
The evidence comes from new scientific analysis. Micro-CT scans reveal gold leaf applied to linen cartonnage from 380–30 BCE, used for wrapping mummified bodies. Studies of Ancient Egyptian carpentry, led by independent researcher Geoffrey Killen, show how a carpenter created tight joints in a wooden mummy coffin from 680 BCE.
These craftsmen were tech-savvy. They used measurable systems: faience firing, temperature controls, tool construction, inventories of materials.
Why the Marginalization Happened
Most literature about Ancient Egypt, and popular culture, favors a glamorous depiction of its treasures and dynastic power struggles. The makers themselves are often absent or relegated to the margins.
“There was no Egyptian theoretical or aesthetic treatise, nor a word for ‘art’ as we define it today.”
Without a treatise, the art has no abstract framework. It only exists in the physical objects, and the objects carry the story of the people who made them.
What the Book Actually Does
The catalog is fully illustrated, which matters. It shows the artifacts alongside the scientific data. A micro-CT scan of a linen cartonnage reveals gold leaf. A study of carpentry shows tight joints in a wooden coffin.
The book’s structure is the real innovation. Rather than moving through dynasties, it moves through materials. Clay, stone, papyrus, wood, metal — each section stands in for a whole era of Egyptian production.
The Scientific Method
The book’s main argument is methodological. Any theory alone cannot account for the characteristics of Ancient Egyptian art and objects because there was no Egyptian theoretical or aesthetic treatise, nor a word for “art” as we define it today. Therefore, Ancient Egyptian art is perhaps best understood through the science behind its materials and the skill sets of its artisans.
That is a bold claim. It says the art is not about ideas or symbols. It is about what the makers knew how to do.
The Makers Themselves
The book’s title, Made in Ancient Egypt, points at the people doing the work. These were skilled professionals operating within a systemic hierarchy. They had jobs, tools, methods — and they left traces of all three in the objects they produced.
The book treats them as subjects, not objects. That shift is small on paper but large in practice. It turns the spotlight away from the pharaohs and onto the people who built the civilization.
A New Way to See Egypt
The book is a corrective to a long tradition of erasure. The makers of Ancient Egypt have been marginalized in modern literature and popular culture. Now they have a catalog of their own.
The book is also a model for future scholarship. It shows that material analysis can replace chronological narrative. It shows that the makers deserve attention as people, not just as producers of objects.
The book’s argument is simple. Ancient Egyptian art is not abstract. It is physical. It is made by hands. It is recorded by systems. And it can be understood through the science of its materials and the skill of its artisans.
That is a useful lesson. It applies to any civilization, any artist, any object. The maker is always in the material. You just have to look for them.
Source material: “The Unsung Craftspeople Who Built Ancient Egypt,” Hyperallergic.
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