Leather durability brings us back a 3,500-year-old game. Only leather could tell such a story. In fact, right thanks to leather durability we could preserve an Egyptian tool, dated back to 3,500 years ago, which has now come back to us. On April 24, a group of Hispanic and Egyptian archaeologists, led by Professor José Galán, announced the finding of a sarcophagus containing a mummy of the XVII dynasty. While searching the tomb, researchers found several objects inside, including a leather tool alongside a pair of sandals, made of the same material.
Leather durability
The team of experts focused their research on the Dra Abu el-Naga necropolis, close to Luxor. The sarcophagus contains a mummy, 1.75 metres tall, which is presumably the corpse of a woman, aged 15 or 16, yet preserved in very bad conditions. Besides that, as reported by mediterraneoantico.it, researchers also discovered, around a grave well, not very far from the sarcophagus, some objects made of leather. Unlike the mummy, they turned out to be in good conditions of preservation.
More specifically, we are talking about a pair of red sandals, adorned with some decorations depicting Bes god and some animals as well. Furthermore, they could also find two leather balls, tied to each other through a rope. Still archaeologists wonder about their use and function. They have made different assumptions: they could be, perhaps, kind of gymnastic equipment or, possibly, a tool to set a dance choreography. For sure, we can say they were everyday stuff: we could successfully preserve it until present exclusively thanks to the properties of their material.
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