Pyramidion

Pyramidion

An alabaster pyramidion, small in size with a flat top and chipped base. The colouration is mostly white with bands of cream and yellow. The artefact is described in the Queensland Museum accession register as being donated by George Herbert Bourne in 1964 and coming from the Valley of the Queens at Luxor and being 5000 years old. Two letters held the the State Library of Queensland suggest that this artefact is actually a sample of the alabaster used in Egyptian Mosques collected by Bourne in December 1914, possibly from the Great Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha (also known as the Alabaster Mosque) itself.

In a letter to his mother in 1915, Bourne lists a series of souvenirs, including a fragment of plaster taken by him from the Valley of the Queens at Luxor. Another artefact is a fragment of semi transparent alabaster "similar to that used in building parts of the better Mosques". It appears that the identification of these two pieces was confused between their original collection in 1914 and donation in 1964.

AD 1900 - AD 1915

C.015.001

QM H725

Collected by Maj. George Herbert Bourne, Egypt, Dec 1914.
Donated on behalf of the late Maj. George Herbert Bourne to the Queensland Museum, Brisbane, March 1964.

Queensland Museum, Brisbane

Bourne, GH. (1915). OM68-25 George Herbert Bourne Papers 1846-195. State Library of Queensland, Brisbane. OM68-25-14

Bourne, GH. (1914). OM68-25 George Herbert Bourne Papers 1846-195. State Library of Queensland, Brisbane. OM68-25-9.

Queensland Museum Historical Register, H725.

P.015

Mr James Donaldson