A Year in the Life of Ancient Egypt by Ann Rosalie David

Author:Ann Rosalie David [David, Ann Rosalie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Ancient / General
ISBN: 9781473859821
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2015-04-15T21:00:00+00:00

A gold pectoral (chest ornament), set with turquoise, carnelian and lapis lazuli. This fine example of cloisonné work was discovered on a mummy during excavation of a tomb. The archaeologist found the body of an ancient tomb-robber lying across the mummy, in the act of stealing the pectoral. He was killed when the roof partially collapsed. From Riqqeh. Dynasty 12. Manchester Museum.

Glass manufacture became important in Egypt in Dynasty 18, probably inspired by contact with other centres in the Near East.4 The earliest glass factory discovered to date was established at Thebes during the reign of Amenhotep III but earlier examples may have existed. Small glass objects such as beads and amulets were produced in earlier times, but decorative perfume jars, other vessels, and inlays for coffins, furniture and jewellery only occur in significant numbers from the middle of Dynasty 18. Blown glass was not introduced into Egypt until the Roman Period, but coloured glass, produced by adding various compounds during the manufacturing process, enjoyed widespread popularity in the New Kingdom.

Shoes and sandals were worn regularly by the middle and upper classes. They were made from interlaced palm-leaves, papyrus stalks, or leather. Tomb-scenes and examples of footwear provide ample evidence of sandal-making and shoe production; at Kahun, the excavators discovered shoemaker’s tools as well as a variety of shoes and sandals, and similar workshops would have existed at Thebes.

The leatherworkers’ tasks included various procedures. From earliest times, hunters had procured skins and hides from different animals, and some – particularly those from oxen and gazelles – were processed to produce leather. Treatments included drying or curing the skins or hides with smoke, salt or ocherous earths, or softening them with urine, dung or fat; tanning – a process which probably used Acacia Arabica pods as a tanning agent – was already known in the Predynastic Period. Tomb-scenes depict the skin being treated in a large jar, either to tan it or in preparation for depilation, cleaning or softening.

Once removed from the jar, the skin was beaten with a stone and stretched over a table or frame so that oil could be worked into it to make it supple. Next, the shoemaker placed the prepared leather on a sloping worktable, and with a half-moon knife, cut it into soles and straps before using a piercer to make holes through which thongs could be drawn. Sometimes, the material was dyed (a process in use from earliest times), and red, yellow and green examples have been found. Leather was used not only for shoes and sandals, but was also made into bags, clothes, cushion-covers, ropes, and parts for chariots and tackle, while skins and hides were turned into shield covers, tents and water carriers.

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