Fragment of Building/Structure

Fragment of Building/Structure

A long fragment of pale cream stone, roughly facetted on the top with a flat reverse. On the reverse is written the Queensland Museum number "H2407".

While the two fragments of stone said to be from the Pyramids of Giza and donated by JH Lowe in 1928 are described as alabaster in the Queensland Museum register, as suggested at the time of donation, the stone has not been formally identified. The Pyramids of Giza were primarily constructed from a limestone core and the outer casing of the Pyramids of Khufu and Kahfre were completed in a fine white limestone from Tura. Limestone was the most common soft building stone used in the Old Kingdom. The casing of the Pyramid of Menkaure was partially completed in granite, the most common hard building stone of the First Dynasty. Alabaster (calcite) was not usually used for building stone in Egypt, but was more common for decorative elements such as sarcophagi and shrines.

In a letter dated 2 July 1918, JH Lowe mentions that the Pyramids were originally covered in alabaster, that most has now fallen off, and that he has acquired two small pieces of it. These are the same two pieces now held by the Queensland Museum but it is impossible to prove that they certainly come from the Pyramids. Many Australian soldiers visited, and even climbed, the Pyramids between 1914 and 1919.

2589 BC - 2504 BC

Height: 55 mm

Width: 21 mm

Depth: 18 mm

C.011.002

QM H2407

© Queensland Museum, Peter Waddington.

Collected by Pte. JH Lowe, Giza, Egypt, July 1918.
Donated by Pte. JH Lowe, Wilston, to Queensland Museum, 24-27 April 1928.

Queensland Museum, Brisbane

Arnold, D. (1991). Building in Egypt: pharaonic stone masonry. Oxford University Press.

Isler, M. (2001). Sticks, Stones, and Shadows: Building the Egyptian Pyramids. University of Oklahoma Press.

Queensland Museum Donor Schedule #28/86 (1928).

Queensland Museum Miscellaneous Register, A1101-2.

Lowe Family Archive, Brisbane.

P.011

Mr James Donaldson