Daily Life in Ancient Egypt (Mehenkwetre
Tomb continued - Page 2)
500
Years Before Tutankhamen - Models Made in this World to Work
in the Next
by Donald A. Mackenzie
trouble to make strong and enduring tombs for their
dead and to stuff them with food, clothing, furniture, boats, the
figures of servants and so on. It was supposed that their Paradise
was just a glorified Egypt, with richer cornfields, fatter cattle,
a more beautiful Nile, finer houses, and a better climate. There
the dead would live as they had lived in Egypt. The fields would
have to be cultivated and sown and the harvests reaped, and the
grain would have to be stored and ground, and loaves would have
to be baked. In short, all the work done on earth would have to
be done in Paradise, the only difference being that work there
would be easier and more pleasant, and that the disasters due to
floods or shortage of water experienced on earth would not be repeated
in the wonder-land of the new life.
THE
SPIRIT MODEL OF THE RICH MAN'S STEWARD
This
model of a trusty steward was placed in the tomb in order that
Mehenkwetre should be able to travel in his boat upon the Nile
as he might wish in the Otherword, free from anxiety regarding
the safety of his personal luggage, the spirit of the steward being
ever present. Note the model trunks beneath the bed just as they
might be on a Nile voyage today.
For many centuries the ancient Egyptians were quite
content with the idea that everyone who went to Paradise would
have to work there. But when we come to study the beliefs that
existed during the Middle Kingdom period (about 2500 B.C.), we
begin to find evidence that those who were not accustomed to manual
labour in this world did not like the idea that they would have
to sow and reap grain and do other necessary tasks in Paradise-the
celestial Egypt. They wanted to live there as they had lived on
the earth.
In short, the great lords of ancient Egypt wished to be great
lords in Paradise, with their servants about them, ready to respond
to orders and to perform whatever task was allotted to them. If
the soul of the dead lord wished to sail on the celestial Nile,
he must have his boat and his sailors; if he wanted food, he must
have his servants to cook and serve it; if he wanted his fields
tilled and sown and reaped in season, or his cattle herded and
counted, or his cows milked, he must have all these things done
for
WOMEN
MAKING THE FINE RAIMENT FOR THEIR ILLUSTRIOUS MASTER
These
little wooden models are, perhaps the most charming in the whole
colleciton. Wile some of the wome are spinning flax with quaint,
old-world distaffs and spindles, others are weaving the threads
on the looms which can be seen lying on the floor. When the American
excavators discovered this model in the tomb of Mehenkwetre, many
of the threads on the spondles were found, after 4,000 years, still
to be intact.
continued...
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