Tomorrow the foyer of the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir will be graced with the newly-picked July piece of the month; a Ptolemaic childbirth stelae that won a Facebook poll put up by the antiquities ministry.

The stelae is carved in limestone and depicts the childbirth process, showing a Ptolemaic woman giving birth with the help of two ancient Egyptian deities sitting beside her.

The poll was set up by the ministry two weeks ago to enable the community to choose among 10 items, with the object to receive the most comments to be picked as the July piece of the month.

The second piece that won the voting is the ancient Egyptian wig, while the third is the faience of the ancient Egyptian hippopotamus.

The hippopotamus that won the second place

Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enany told Ahram Online that he is happy with the voting because it shows the effective coming together of antiquities lovers and the Egyptian community in choosing the artefact they hope to see on display as the July piece of the month.

Elham Salah, the head of the ministry’s Museums Department, views the childbirth stelae as a perfect choice because it is a distinguished object on both the archaeological and artistic levels.

Salah asserts that the ministry’s use of social media, as was done with the Facebook poll, is an effective channel of communication between the ministry and the community in Egypt and antiquity lovers worldwide, and can help in raising cultural and archaeological awareness among the public.

The hippopotamus that won the second place