Fixing Mistakes in Ancient Egypt
Helen Strudwick/Photo © The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge; Photo composite Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
The image on the right shows white “correction fluid” around an ancient painting of a jackal. The image on the left shows what the jackal would look like without the correction fluid.
Mistakes aren’t easy to fix when you’re working with paint or ink, but experts have discovered that ancient Egyptian artists found a way to cover their errors. They used a thick white “correction fluid.”
Researchers at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, United Kingdom, discovered the fluid on a 3,300-year-old painting of an animal called a jackal. The artist had made the outline of the jackal and then covered part of it with the correction fluid and painted a new line over it.
The researchers studied the fluid with the help of infrared photography, which can show things the human eye can’t see.
Using a digital microscope, the researchers discovered that the fluid was made of two minerals called calcite and huntite. (Ancient Egyptians also used minerals to make paint.) The microscope also revealed that the artist had added bits of yellow paint to the correction. This would have helped everything blend in with the yellowish papyrus so that the mistake wouldn’t be as visible.
Helen Strudwick/Photo © The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
Researchers studied the correction fluid to find out what it was made of and why it was applied.
The jackal painting appeared in a Book of the Dead that was created for a scribe called Ramose. Scribes were people who performed duties like record-keeping. They ranked high in ancient Egyptian society, often working directly for the pharaoh, or king. The painting in the book shows Ramose putting his hands on the jackal, which is meant to represent an Egyptian god.
Books of the Dead were filled with spells that ancient Egyptians believed could guide the dead through the afterlife. Since this was long before printing technology, books were difficult to make and were owned only by high-ranking people like Ramose.
A mistake would have been a major problem for such an important book. Luckily, the correction fluid was available.
