Leather in Ancient Egypt: gallery

In the Naqada Period leather was already widely used. There is evidence that leather was painted and sometimes stamped. Tooling (known from basketry) is also attested.

clay cone covered with leather	goatskin, coloured red	leather bag	red-painted container

Not much leather survives from the Old Kingdom (about 2686-2181 BC) , but this might simply reflect changes of burial customs: objects of daily life were not placed into tombs in the same scale as before. Many leather objects were found in the Middle Kingdom (about 2025-1700 BC) town Lahun. The dating of some of them is not certain.

leather objects from the Middle Kingdom (about 2025-1700 BC)

leather bag	leather bag	leather ball

New Kingdom (about 1550-1069 BC)

leather object with coloured strips as decoration	leather sandal

Third Intermediate Period

leather braces found on mummies

There are few leather objects securely datable to the Ptolemaic Period, in contrast to the great number found at Roman and Byzantine settlement and cemetery sites.