Ancient Egyptian Form Of 'Tipp-Ex' Identified On Papyrus At UK's Fitzwilliam Museum The Art Newspaper International Art News And Events

(MENAFN- USA Art News) $1 Fitzwilliam Researchers Spot“Tipp-Ex” Style Touch-Ups on Ancient Egyptian Papyri A jackal on an Ancient Egyptian papyrus has become the unlikely site of a modern-sounding revelation: researchers at The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, have identified what they describe as white correction fluid -“Tipp-Ex” - used to revise imagery on ancient papyri. The finding emerged through close technical study for the museum’s exhibition“Made in Ancient Egypt,” which examines the working lives and methods of craftspeople across millennia. Using a 3D digital microscope at 90x magnification, the team examined a detail on the back of a jackal figure and found that a layer of white paint sits directly over the animal’s black body. Where the white layer thins, tiny flecks of yellow orpiment are visible - a pigment detail that helps clarify how the alteration was applied. The implication is not simply that the papyrus has aged or been repaired, but that it was actively edited. In the museum’s account, the intervention reads like a deliberate aesthetic adjustment: the jackal, as one description put it, looked“too dog-like” and was“thinned down.” Under magnification, the white layer functions like a corrective veil, reshaping the silhouette. Curator and researcher Strudwick said she has since noticed comparable white“Tipp-Ex” applications on other papyri in UK museum collections, including the“Book of the Dead of Nakht” at the British Museum and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo’s papyrus of Yuya.“I am not aware that anyone has ever noticed it before,” she said, adding that, to her knowledge, it has therefore not been analyzed previously. She also noted that when she has pointed out the material to curators at institutions with objects that appear to feature the same fluid,“they’ve been astonished.” The discovery adds a fresh layer to the exhibition’s broader premise: that Egyptian objects were not only made with extraordinary skill, but also subject to workshop decisions, revisions, and problem-solving that can still be traced in the material record. It also underscores how contemporary imaging tools can surface evidence that remains invisible to the naked eye. Parts of the papyrus of Ramose - originally discovered in 1922 in a tomb at Sedment, Egypt, by archaeologist William Flinders Petrie - are now on view in“Made in Ancient Egypt.” The museum has framed the“Tipp-Ex” finding as one of several technical insights generated by the project. In July 2025, Fitzwilliam researchers also announced the discovery of a handprint during related work. Taken together, the revelations point to a more intimate picture of ancient production: not a fixed, untouchable past, but a working environment where images could be adjusted, corrected, and refined - and where those decisions, centuries later, can be read in a thin skim of white over black. “Made in Ancient Egypt” is on view at The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, with papyri including the Ramose fragments presented as evidence of both artistic ambition and the practical realities of making images that had to look right.

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