The Meketre Models -- Episode 9 -- Egyptian Object Stories

Welcome back to Ancient Egyptian Object Stories. In this episode, we will examine a collection of wooden models from the tomb of an official named Mekhetre. There are several objects, so we will examine only a handful. All of these objects are found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The objects in this object story date to the Middle Kingdom period, during both the 11th and 12th dynasties, because Mekhetre served under three different kings. The first being Nebhebetre Mentuhotep, whom we met in the last object story, and Mekhetre's name even appears in the hieroglyphic inscriptions in the mortuary temple of Nebhebetre. The second pharaoh under whom Mekhetre served was Sankhkara Mentuhotep, and last was Amenemhet I, the first king of the 12th dynasty. Mekhetre died in around 1980 BCE, in the early years of Amenemhet's reign. Mekhetre's rock-cut tomb is situated on the west bank of modern Luxor, behind the mortuary site called Al-Asasif and Sheikh Abdel Ghurna, near the mortuary temples of Nebhebetre, Hatshapsut, and Tapnoze III. During an excavation of the tomb in 1920, a remarkable discovery was made of several wooden models and dioramas of daily life scenes, from cutting meat in a slaughterhouse, to a series of boats filled with people dressed in real linen. These organic materials managed to survive because of the dry climate of the western desert, as well as having been securely sealed for thousands of years. The horde of wooden models was divided in half, with half the collection going to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and the other half being gifted to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mekhetre's models demonstrate not only a return to the traditional Egyptian art style that was used throughout Egypt, until the first intermediate period when the Theban provincial style appeared in southern Egypt, but also the models demonstrate one of the heights in Egyptian art in terms of detail and craftsmanship, exemplified also on the coffin of Naqt Qanum in episode 5. Let us begin with my favorite in the collection, the model granary. I love this one because of the view through the little door, though it is not the only model with the door. Peering inside, one sees a group of scribes recording the count and maybe quality of grain being deposited in the silos in the next room, also accessed through a little door. The scribes hold wooden tablets, or rolls of papyri, and each has a realistic scribal palette filled with red and black paint. Some of the men in the scribes' room wear wraps or kilts made of real linen. In the silos, a row of people are mounted upon an upper ledge, pouring baskets or sacks of grain into the three silos in which real grain had been deposited in antiquity. At the base of the stairs, another man who has just passed through the door into the silos area is carrying a sack of grain on his back. The bakery and brewery reveals interesting aspects of society. This model contains both male and female figures who are each given specific tasks. Mostly the figures are men, and they roll the dough and mash the beer, but the women have the specific role of grinding the grain into flour. A clever detail on the male figures who are forming the dough is their hands are painted white, indicating they are covered with flour. Anyone who has mixed dough by hand when making bread or cookies is well aware of how messy it can be. Also interesting in this model is the clear specialization of activities and the processes by which bread and beer are made. First, the grain is ground on a probably stone surface, though here it is wood painted black perhaps to represent basalt. The resulting flour is mixed with water to create dough, and then it is shaped into a loaf and slid into an oven. The beer is also made from grain, and you can see it arranged into balls before presumably being mixed with water and mashed by workers with large sticks shaped like baseball bats. The resulting almost sludge-like drink is then poured into beer jars. A slaughterhouse model contains people busily butchering and processing the meat of cattle. Two cattle are tied and in the process of being slaughtered, while two men slice the throats of the cattle. They had probably just come from the model stable where they ate contentedly and grew fat, unaware of their fate. In the slaughterhouse, the meat of the cattle is being prepared in two ways through cooking by grilling or boiling, while men fan the flames to maintain the fire, and then the meat is hung to dry on the upper level of the slaughterhouse. Another man is preparing a duck or goose. An overseer supervises one of the butchers and makes his presence known by prodding the butcher with his scepter. His superior role may also be evidenced as being the most prominent figure when the slaughterhouse is viewed from the outside. Why would such models be found in this tomb? Apart from being cute from our perspective 4,000 years later, there was an intended and serious purpose. Recalling again what we learned in episode 5, coffins, funerary stelae, and tomb paintings and relief usually included the standard offering formula that granted the tomb owner 1,000 bread, beer, cattle, fowl, linen, and oils. In order to ensure Mekhetre will receive all his tomb offerings, he was buried with an entire workforce to make him bread and beer, and to slaughter cattle, and to bring him ducks so that he would be able to enjoy these offerings for eternity. He would be able to enjoy these gifts in his little house that includes a garden and pool that may have been filled with water at the time of burial. Along with the model industries and offering bearers, several boats were found in the tomb, each of them bearing significance and interesting details. We will look at only two of these boats. To go with all the aforementioned foodstuffs, one boat is meant for fishing and following. This is a standard motif in funerary art that often shows the tomb owner spearing fish and hunting waterfowl. On this boat, men are hunting gigantic tilapia fish, which had religious significance. The tilapia holds its eggs in its mouth, and when the eggs hatch, they emerge from the mouth as fish. The ancient Egyptians considered this fish as a symbol of creation. It is no surprise, therefore, that two of the fishermen have each managed to catch one. A female figure dressed in a colorful mantle, possibly a bead net or feathers, holds a dead duck, and her companion holds two handfuls of geese as part of the fulfillment of the 1,000-fowl offering. In front of these two people is Mekhetre, but as a statue. The statue may represent a real one that was probably meant to reside in his tomb. Mekhetre's funerary statue appears on another boat, painted green and outfitted with a sail. This is one of a pair, and there are two other similar boats, but they are without sails. It is believed that these boats are meant to reflect the pilgrimage to and from Abydos, where the annual festival of Osiris took place. For more information, see episode 8 in the Object Stories series, The Stela of Abka'u. Mekhetre's model pilgrimage boats ensure his continued annual pilgrimage to Abydos, even after death. The depiction of Mekhetre as a statue is joined by a man seated beside it. It has been interpreted that the seated man is the living Mekhetre, accompanying his own statue to and from Abydos. Because this boat has a sail, it is likely indicating that it is a journey to, rather than from, Abydos, because his sail would have been necessary to sail a river, which in Egypt means that one would be traveling southward. Presumably, Mekhetre is traveling from his home in northern Egypt southward to Abydos. Or maybe it shows that Mekhetre is sailing from Abydos to Thebes, which is south of Abydos, to be interred in his tomb. This is because there appear to be funerary rituals taking place on this boat. Two men are proffering offerings to the statue of Mekhetre. One is presenting an incense burner, and another is presenting a leg of cattle. Meanwhile, another man presents a papyrus on which the hieroglyphs for 1,000 bread, beer, cattle, and fowl are inscribed. These are the standard funerary offerings. Behind the man with the incense burner is a libation vessel, on which is inscribed the offering formula that begins with loyal offering of Osiris. However, it is still possible that the seated man represents a living Mekhetre, because the goal for the ancient Egyptians was to live forever. One last model is arguably the most striking of the group, and it is of a svelte young woman dressed in an elaborate dress. What makes the statue so remarkable is the attention to detail, from her individually painted toenails up to the brown color of her irises. The detail of the eyes, with the corners painted red, is similar to the eyes we saw on the coffin of Naqt Khnum. Individual fan's beads are delineated on her broad collar and the straps of her dress, as well as on her anklets and bracelets. The contours of her body are carefully modeled beneath her skin-tight dress, which is made up of feathers of yellow, red, blue, and green, and seems similar to the mantle of the female figure on the hunting boat. She carries a basket of offerings on her head and a duck in her right hand. She is one of a pair, and together the two female statues may be attributed to the goddesses Isis and Nephthys, but this is not clear. Thank you for watching, and I hope you will join me again for my next ancient Egyptian object story. For further reading, please see the description box below. If you liked this video, don't forget to click the like button and subscribe to be notified of future content.