Pitt Rivers Museum Anthropology and World Archaology

 

Africa

 

Wooden top

Egypt

 

Excavated by William Matthew Flinders Petrie

Given to the Museum by Henry M. Kennard in 1890

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Wooden top, Egypt

Tops have the unique ability to balance upright whilst rotating rapidly. They can be started by string, or spun by hand, and can be whipped to keep them spinning. This wooden object from Egypt is a whip-top. It is nearly 4000 years old, and was excavated by Flinders Petrie in the late nineteenth century.

View database record 1890.26.4