Daily Life in Ancient Egypt (Mehenkwetre
Tomb continued - Page 5)
500
Years Before Tutankhamen - Models Made in this World to Work
in the Next
by Donald A. Mackenzie
Other models show us the cooks preparing food,the
bakers busy baking loaves and cakes, the carpenters at their benches,
the boat-builders, the
goldsmiths and others plying their trades.
CARPENTERS AT WORK IN THEIR SHOP BY THE WATERS
OF THE NILE
When making the arrangements for his future state, Mehenkwetre
left nothing to change. He even provided his tomb with the model
of a carpenter's shop, well equipped and surprisingly efficient
and up to date. While the central figure is sawing an upright beam
into planks, an apprentice on the right is busily engaged mortising
with mallet and chisel. This is a better record of a carpenter's
shop 2000 B.C. than any photograph of one or our own time could
be for future ages.
Of very special interest are the models of ships and boats. The
River Nile was the great highway of Egypt. It had constantly
to be crossed because some estates
lay on both banks. When a great lord wished to pass from one city to another, or
to " go to town " from his country-house, he called for a boat just
as a modem lord may call for his motor-car. The Egyptians were the oldest seamen
in the world; they were also the finest boatbuilders. They made great progress
in solving the problems of navigation, and discovered how to steer and adjust
the sails so as to tack and come up very close to the wind.
At
the bow of the old Egyptian sailing vessel stood the "look-out" to
take soundings and, with fender in hand, to guard against collsion.
The captain stood
amidships and the
man who was in charge of the steering paddle at the stern.
The various models show that they had excellent discipline in
their vessels. Every man knew his place and his duty. At the bow
stood the " lookout," who took soundings with a long
pole; at the stern was the steersman who attended to the steering-paddle.
The skipper stood amidships and issued orders, which were repeated
by his officers, who were always standing stiffly at attention.
In the rowing-boats the men kept stroke, but they sat looking forward
and not backward as in modern boats; in the sailing-boat the crew
collected round the mast ready to haul the
halyards and hoist or lower the sail.
When speed was of greater importance than comfort to the people
of old Egypt, vessels of this type, propelled by sixteen oarsmen,
who kept stroke but sat looking forward and not backward as in
modern boats, were used on the Nile.
The small canoes are of very
special interest, because they show us the earliest types of
vessels. They were made by binding together bundles of reeds and
coating
them with pitch so as to make them watertight. Sometimes
continued...
Page 5 of 8  
|
