Why does Macclesfield have an Ancient Egyptian Collection?

When visiting The Silk Museum in Macclesfield you would, quite understandably, expect to see exhibitions of silk. Less expected, is an Ancient Egyptian collection of mummy case, shabti figurines, scarab beetle amulets and other artifacts.

When faced with this you may well ask:

“What does Ancient Egypt have to do with silk?”

Well, when it comes to Macclesfield, all roads lead to silk…

Tucked in a corner of a display case at the Silk Museum is a tiny object with a big story.

This object is a small wooden statuette of a priest that measures just 7 cm in height.

He is stood with legs together, wearing a kilt and with a head shaved all over, save for a little ponytail at the back. We know that this priest’s name was Ankhefenkhonsu from a simple inscription on the back pillar of the statuette.

When you look at an ancient Egyptian object, it is easy to see it suspended in time, its story beginning and ending in Ancient Egypt. In reality that is far from the truth. The life of an artefact continues right to the present day in the way it has been collected, researched, displayed and viewed by visitors like you!

One of the more unusual reasons visitors have given for coming to see Macclesfield’s Egyptian Collection is to see the little wooden statuette of Ankhefenkhonsu. People have come from as far afield as the USA to see this tiny, unassuming object. But why?

Impress friends and family with your new-found knowledge of hieroglyphic inscription from our resident Egyptologist, Bryony Renshaw.