For my historical artifact, I made hieroglyphics to demonstrate the beginnings of visual communication from prehistory. I created a piece from Nefertari (an ancient Egyptian queen) tomb, where I found an interesting art piece that featured both hieroglyphics and an interesting Egyptian God, Osiris. Osiris is the God of the afterlife and rebirth, and there’s a plaque of him in Nefertari’s tomb surrounded by hieroglyphics because hieroglyphics were known to have special powers and were used to help guide Egyptian pharaohs and royalty through the afterlife (which is why there’s also an image of Osiris there). I made my own plaque using air dry clay so that it could dry without me using a kiln and I could paint my piece, I roughly spent 10 hours working on this project because I had to restart as my first plaque broke because the clay was too fragile. I think that my project turned out to be successful, as I got the design of the plaque the way I wanted to, and I also carved my museum label and description by hand (which was very difficult) but I liked how it turned out. I give myself a 10/10 on this project because I worked very hard on it and there’s nothing that I feel like I would do differently!

Reference Images of hieroglyphics and the God Osiris: