MIDDLE KINGDOM-NEW KINGDOM, 12TH-18TH DYNASTY, CIRCA 1985-1295 B.C.

Music was an integral part of Ancient Egyptian life, particularly in worship and rituals for the dead, and temples would have had their own troop of musicians. There are numerous depictions of clappers in reliefs and wall-paintings and many known examples. These clappers replaced the handclapping of earlier times, and most examples are in the form of arms and hands, made of ivory or wood. Egyptian reliefs show that there were a number of different ways of playing these instruments, as described in the exhibition catalogue Egypt's Golden Age: The Art of Living in the New Kingdom 1558-1085 B.C, Boston, 1982, pp. 261-2 nos 368-369: 'The musician sometimes held one clapper in each hand and then beat them together vigorously. Sometimes they were placed in pairs between the fingers of the same hand or they might be joined by means of a small tie and suspended from the wrist.'
Similar clappers are depicted in the tomb of Antekofer, vizier of Sesostris I, carried by the priests of Hathor (TT60), and in the tomb of Amenemhet, scribe in the reign of Tuthmosis III (TT82).