Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, part 7

[dragoness_e]

Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, part 1
Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, part 2
Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, part 3
Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, part 4
Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, part 5
Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, part 6

In this, the next-to-last installment of my visit to the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, I show off some photos of dioramas that I forgot to fit in previously, and a variety of those wooden boat models the ancient Egyptians were fond of.


Diorama: Scribes taking inventory of the books



This shows the temple scribes going through the temple scroll collection and taking inventory. Papyrus scrolls were very valuable, and any valuable government property was closely accounted for (for example, bronze chisels used by the tomb builders of Deir al-Medina were carefully inventoried and sent back to be recycled when they wore out. Bronze was too valuable to just throw out). They would be stored in cases like the one on the floor (left center), or large baskets (far Left) or wooden chests (center rear).

Model: Figures working under scribal supervision



In ancient Egypt, scribes weren't just people who could write. Literacy was the skill of the elite and members of the government. Scribes were also overseers, supervisors, managers, city officials, bureaucrats, accountants, etc.

"The tomb tableaus of the Middle Kingdom included many images of common people like the ones seen here. They were often shown working under the auspices of a scribe, who documents their activities for all eternity."

Funeral Boat



This is a very ancient and decrepit funeral boat model.

The Nile river was the major avenue of transportation, trade and communication in ancient Egypt. It figured heavily in religion as well as daily life. Boats are a recurring theme; people fished from boats, boats transported goods and people, soldiers traveled to where they were needed by boat, and in the end, a boat carried an Egyptian's coffin to the west bank, where his tomb was.

(There's a rather nice article on ancient Egyptian boats and ships here.)

Like other things from daily life, boats in miniature were placed in tombs to accompany the deceased. (Or if you were an Old Kingdom pharoah, you might get full-sized boats buried next to your tomb). One type was the funeral boat, the boat that carried the deceased to the west bank and the beginning of his afterlife. In the tomb, that model boat might also represent the boat of Ra, that carried the Sun and hopefully the deceased safely through the horrors of the underworld.

Large Boat



Close-up, crew with sacks of grain



If this was a funeral boat, they were bringing extra rations.

Close-up, Sail



Actually, it is a funeral boat. Note the coffin under the canopy in the middle, and the seated mourners at either end. It is also post-Old Kingdom; the sail has a bottom spar, which Old Kingdom boats did not.

Close-up, Men Handling lines



I love the detail in this model, including the cloth sail and the lines with men handling them. The guy in the back in the Frankenstein's monster pose is the helmsman; his model steering oars seem to have gotten lost over time. If this is a later-period boat, he would be holding a crossbar connecting two steering oars, one over each side of the boat.

Smaller boat



This one may have actually been a papyrus-reed boat. It looks to be another funeral boat.

Worker transport



This boat is taking a bunch of guys somewhere. The sail is missing, but you can see the forked post where the mast would be stepped when not in use. They're having to row hard to get where they're going; winds must not be favorable.

Close-up, anchor



Egyptian boats just used a big ball of stone tied to a rope for an anchor.

Troop transport



The soldiers in the bow are holding bows; in the center of the boat, shields are stacked over spare arrows and spears.

Weapons



Bronze axeheads, spearheads and arrowheads from weapons that our soldiers in the boat above would have been using.


Next and Last: Ancient Babylon

Comments

[libsechumanist.livejournal.com]

Hey - Nice photos of the boat models. I just submitted my PhD dissertation on Egyptian watercraft models on June 30 - "A New Typology of Egyptian Watercraft Models from the Predynastic to Third Intermediate Periods" - I documented all the boats you've pictured and that one is not a papyrus raft - it is a wooden boat that is decorated to imitate papyrus. I think my name may be on at least one of the placards at the REM, since I confirmed for them that two of their boats are forgeries and that the "changed" one - the boat with the guys carrying grain - is very rare and it's too bad that it's not in the original configuration. I hope to defend within the next 4 months or so, but it's up to my examiners to determine when....again, nice photos!