Made in Ancient EgyptFitzwilliam Museum, until 12 April 2026
Numerous research academics have contributed to this highly cogent show celebrating the craftspeople of Ancient Egypt. My preteen companion, though a big fan of Egypt, was still slightly hesitant about whether this would be the most interesting angle. It began with a 4,000-year-old stele, or tombstone, on loan from the Louvre, praising the sculptural and painterly skills of an artisan called Irtysen, about whom, of course, nothing more is known. The perennial problem.
General information, however, came thick and fast. We learned that a cooperative of skilled workers was a hemut, and a singular skilled worker a hemu. We came face-to-face with a cubit (a measuring stick six palms in length), a plumb line, several levelling rods, and the by-products of…