History / Exhibit
Mummy Label of Herakleides
Read the abbreviated Greek inscription naming Herakleides, his occupation and his mother.
Open interactive exhibit ↗At a glance
- Collection number
- 1934.2.b
- Date
- First–third century CE
- Origin
- Egypt
- Language
- Greek
- Material
- Wood
Translation
Herakleides, physician; mother: Thermouthis.
English rendering from the museum’s Greek transcription. The carved face abbreviates words; the longer ink inscription on the other face supplies the fuller name. Square brackets retain a restoration in the catalogue. Line breaks can split a name.
Start of Herakleides
ΗΡΑΚΛΕΙ
Heraklei–
The personal name continues at the beginning of the next carved line. Read the two lines together as Herakleides.
Name ending and occupation
ΔΣ ΙΑΤ /
–des; physician (abbreviated)
ΔΣ completes the abbreviated personal name. ΙΑΤ is an abbreviation of iatros, “physician”; the ink face writes the word across its first two lines.
Mother’s name
ΜΗΤ / ΘΕΡ[Μ]
Mother: Therm[outhis]
The carved line abbreviates “mother” and the name. The ink face records ΘΕΡΜΟΥ / ΘΙΟΣ, the genitive of Thermouthis. The catalogue restores Μ in the carved text; this display does not add letters to the scan.
Two versions of one identification
One face carries an ink inscription; the other carries a shorter carved version. Together they name Herakleides, his occupation and his mother. The initial view shows the carved face.
Abbreviation and survival
The carved text leaves out letters and shortens words. The displayed English expands those abbreviations using the longer inscription recorded by the museum. The scan preserves the wood and surviving marks.
A small identification tag
This label measures 5.2 × 11.8 × 1.0 cm. The museum dates it to the first through third centuries CE.
Original object and sources
Museum scan of the original collection object, simplified for web display. Surface textures are retained; missing geometry is not reconstructed. Select a highlighted passage to read its transcription and English rendering.
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg · CC0 1.0 · Public domain