Preserved Shoulder of Beef and Half of a Food Box

This preserved shoulder of beef was placed in a wooden box of the same shape (the lid is now missing). It was found with other boxes of preserved meat near the entrance of a cliff tomb in West Thebes by the Museum’s Egyptian Expedition. The boxes were intended as food offerings for the spirit of the tomb’s owner who may have been a young prince named Amenemhat whose coffin was found nearby.

New Kingdom, early 18th Dynasty, reign of Ahmose I to Hatshepsut, ca. 1550-1458 BC. Animal remains, linen. Found inside or near entrance, Burial of Prince Amenemhat, Meketre Valley, Southern Assasif, West Thebes. Now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 19.3.247