Egyptian finger and toe stalls are pieces of

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

jewelry used in Ancient Egypt to protect digits during burial. Such stalls were used during the 18th Dynasty of Egypt, as well as other eras, and were thought to protect the deceased from both magical and physical dangers, such as damage which could occur during the mummification process. Additionally, they were sometimes used in order to replace missing digits on the deceased, as it was believed that a complete body was needed for successful passage into the afterlife. This belief mirrors the myth of

Osiris Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wsjr'', cop, ⲟⲩⲥⲓⲣⲉ , ; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎𐤓, romanized: ʾsr) is the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He wa ...

, whose body was put back together by his wife

Isis Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...

, resulting in him becoming the first

mummy A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay fu ...

. Some mummies were buried with prosthetics which they used in life, rather than toe stalls created specifically for burial. These stalls were most commonly found on the remains of royalty. Toe stalls were discovered in the tomb of

Tutankhamun Tutankhamun (, egy, twt-ꜥnḫ-jmn), Egyptological pronunciation Tutankhamen () (), sometimes referred to as King Tut, was an Egyptian pharaoh who was the last of his royal family to rule during the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty (ruled ...

, and a nearly complete set of finger and toe stalls was discovered in the tomb of three of the wives of

Thutmose III Thutmose III (variously also spelt Tuthmosis or Thothmes), sometimes called Thutmose the Great, was the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Officially, Thutmose III ruled Egypt for almost 54 years and his reign is usually dated from 2 ...

in Thebes. The wives' jewelry is currently on display at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

. The stalls from this tomb are some of the earliest known, originating from the early 18th Dynasty. A later surviving example of toe stalls comes from the tomb of

Psusennes I Psusennes I ( egy, pꜣ-sbꜣ-ḫꜥ-n-njwt; Greek Ψουσέννης) was the third pharaoh of the 21st Dynasty who ruled from Tanis between 1047 and 1001 BC. ''Psusennes'' is the Greek version of his original name Pasibkhanu or Pasebakhaenniu ...

, a

21st Dynasty The Twenty-first Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXI, alternatively 21st Dynasty or Dynasty 21) is usually classified as the first Dynasty of the Ancient Egyptian Third Intermediate Period, lasting from 1077 BC to 943 BC. History After the r ...

ruler. Although many surviving examples of finger and toe stalls originate from the 18th Dynasty, they were used for much of Ancient Egypt, including into the

Ptolemaic Ptolemaic is the adjective formed from the name Ptolemy, and may refer to: Pertaining to the Ptolemaic dynasty * Ptolemaic dynasty, the Macedonian Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter * Ptolemaic Kingdom Pertaining ...

and Roman periods. For example, one mummy from this period was found with carved golden finger stalls, similar to those discovered from earlier periods. Though royalty and the upper classes typically had stalls made of gold or silver, less wealthy Egyptians utilized other materials, including wood, stone, and/or mud. In order to provide magical protection for the deceased, a prayer was made to

as the stalls were created. The stalls were often highly detailed, with carved nails and other features, such as rings.

Gallery

File:Finger stall MET 26.8.190.jpg, A finger stall File:Toe stall MET 26.8.157.jpg, A toe stall File:Human mummy; mummy-wrapping; finger-stall.png, Mummy finger encased in silver stall

References

Ancient Egypt {{Egyptology-stub