Relief from the Tomb of Mentuemhat
The ancient Egyptians decorated the walls of their tombs with elaborate scenes showing the type of life they wished to live after death. This relief fragment comes from the tomb of Mentuemhat, a governor of Thebes. One of the most powerful men of his time, Mentuemhat was able to employ the best artists to carve and paint scenes of abundance that would satisfy his every need in the afterlife.
In the relief above, oarsmen paddle small boats made of papyrus bundles through waters teeming with fish. The first boat contains two oarsmen and a third figure, perhaps identified as an overseer by his staff (?) and gesture, sitting between wicker baskets piled high with fruit.
Model of a Butcher Shop
A butcher's shop, like the one represented by this model, was part of many large estates in ancient Egypt. On the ground level floor, a trussed bovine is being slaughtered while workmen go about their related tasks. A stairway at the right side of the shop leads to the second floor where two figures stand, cleavers raised, perhaps to receive the meat for carving. Painted wooden models of daily- life activities were commonly placed in Middle Kingdom tombs to serve the deceased in the next life.
Bed
The curved side rails of this bed are lashed with leather thongs (restored) to the end rails and the feet, which are carved in the shape of bulls' legs. Leather strips were laced through rectangular holes in the inner sides and bottoms of the rails to provide a woven or lattice-work base to support the sleeper. (Remnants of the original leather strips are still visible; the wooden slats are modern). A wooden bed like this one would have belonged only to a member of the wealthy class.
Pitcher with built-in strainer
This gracefully shaped pitcher was a mortuary gift in a communal burial chamber. The highly polished exterior has a brown-red slip and shows striations of the polishing stone. Two breast-like protuberances placed on the upper body of the vessel lend it a slight anthropomorphic air. The elegant spout curves upward from the neck and is supplied with a strainer to remove impurities from the liquid that was poured through it.
Krater of Khirbet Kerak Ware
This jar is made of a specific ware named after the Palestinian site of Khirbet Kerak, where it was first discovered. Vessels of Khirbet Kerak ware were made by hand and covered both inside and out with a brilliantly polished slip, originally orange-red in color (as on the interior of this vessel) but turned to black on the exterior by specialized treatment during firing. This large pot bears a typical decoration of horizontal and vertical flutings separated by zigzags, perhaps in imitation of fluted metal prototypes.
Cypriot Juglet
Vessels such as this one were imported into Syria from Cyprus in ancient times, during a period of strong commercial contacts between that island and the Levant. This juglet belongs to a type of pottery known as bichrome ware because of its painted decoration in black and red. It is the work of a talented potter who used geometric ornament-such as the concentric circles on the globular body-not only to harmonize with, but even to enhance, the shape of the vessel.
Four-Lugged Vessel
Short, squat jars with painted decoration on the shoulder and four pierced lugs are characteristic of the period around 3000 B.C. in Mesopotamia. Many are decorated with only geometric designs; on this vessel a tree was added beneath each lug. Probably strings were passed through the lugs and used to tie a lid securely in place over the jar's low neck, thus safeguarding its contents.
Painted Bowl
Many of the pottery vessels from the site of Tall-i-Bakun in the plain of Persepolis show a highly sophisticated use of negative designs in conjunction with more usual painted patterns. On this bowl, two patterns alternate in rhythmic sequence. One is a painted design of anthropomorphic inspiration with a "head" flanked by upraised "arms" facing both the rim and base of the bowl. The other pattern, which is given in negative by the buff surface of the vessel, consists of a cross and two lozenges.
Spouted Gray-Ware Pitcher
Around 1200 B.C. monochrome wares were introduced in many parts of Iran and replaced the earlier painted pottery. These new, frequently burnished, wares occur in both a reddish-orange and a dark gray variety. The gray wares, of which this long-spouted pitcher is a characteristic example, were given their color by special firing in an oxygen-reducing atmosphere. They appear to have been ceramic imitations of metal vessels.
Oil Lamp
Lamps such as this one consist of a bowl to hold fuel, which was usually olive oil, and a spout to support a wick, which was probably made of flax. The burning wick blackened the spout and must have produced a rather smoky light. The shape of these lamps changed over time, going from an open bowl with four pinched spouts to the one-spouted type shown here and, finally, to a closed lamp with a single spout. These differences in shape are one type of evidence used by archaeologists to date the levels they are excavating.
Butcher Slaughtering a Calf
This statuette of a butcher is one of a group of sculptures placed in the tomb of an ancient Egyptian official so that he might take with him into the afterlife things that had been important to him during his lifetime. The group, which seems to represent the household and staff of a typical prosperous estate owner in Old Kingdom Egypt, included representations of the owner Ny-kau-Inpu and his family, two butchers, men and women processing grain and making bread, four musicians, a metalworker with a blowpipe, a potter, and even two children playing leapfrog.
