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Ivory comsetic box
Length: 13.800 cm
Height: 5.300 cm
Excavated by C.L. Woolley (1937)
ME 135060
Room 57-59: Ancient Levant
Fish
Fish make-up box
The fish is in fact a box, used for holding make-up (cosmetics). You can just see that the body is a sliding lid, and the fins are part of the base. The fish box has been put inside a bowl.
There is much mystery surrounding it. The box (already placed inside the bowl) was found in a grave, strapped to the private parts of the male corpse. The corpse had been buried lying face down, which was very unusual. Even more strange, three real fish had been placed across the back of his skull. Their skeletons remain.
We don't know why any of this was done, but it was probably a practice borrowed from ancient Egypt.
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