Tales from the Two Lands

Snippets from the fascinating history & culture of Ancient Egypt

[Tales from the Two Lands @TalesTwoLands]

The Friends of Saqqara website has more information on the tomb: https://t.co/GgSHGnSyX6

See it on my photo site: https://t.co/0FLElH5dna

Jigsaw Puzzles:
easier: https://t.co/IVEm1Yyc6m
harder: https://t.co/N11nrmqL4h

[Tales from the Two Lands @TalesTwoLands]

Horemheb was king of Egypt at the end of the 18th Dynasty or beginning of the 19th, depending on quite how you want to divide the dynasties up. His predecessor but one on the throne was Tutankhamun and his successor was the first Ramesses (grandfather of Ramesses II).

[Tales from the Two Lands @TalesTwoLands]

Underneath this was where Horemheb originally intended himself to be buried, and although he wasn’t interred there it was still the final resting place of his wife Mutnodjmet and when the tomb was excavated in the 1970s female remains were found along with a still born infant.

[Tales from the Two Lands @TalesTwoLands]

See it on my photo site: https://t.co/2cK29wHXcN

Jigsaw Puzzles:
easier: https://t.co/nmonkQoKHt
harder: https://t.co/JwQUdiXBUY

[Tales from the Two Lands @TalesTwoLands]

This is a piece of a tomb relief that was originally in Saqqara and was excavated by Mariette in 1859 & taken to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It dates to the New Kingdom, and you can easily see from the art style that it is from after the Amarna period.

[Tales from the Two Lands @TalesTwoLands]

The information I have doesn’t say which tomb this relief came from (if it’s even known), but in 2016 it was in the Cairo Museum acc. no. JE 4872 (I’m not sure if it’s moved about in the more recent reshuffling of objects between museums in Egypt).

[Tales from the Two Lands @TalesTwoLands]

It’s now in the Met Museum with accession numbers: 26.7.1351, 26.7.1438, 26.7.1439, 26.7.1440, 26.7.1441, and 26.7.1442.

See it on my photo site: https://t.co/ZDMLKsxPJn

Jigsaw Puzzles:
easier: https://t.co/ssttZquKqh
harder: https://t.co/BSpJgzW5n7

[Tales from the Two Lands @TalesTwoLands]

Having a skincare routine & wanting to look good is not a modern invention, and boxes of mirrors, unguents & cosmetics, and the other paraphernalia of grooming oneself have been found dating to anything from relatively modern times stretching back into the distant past.

[Tales from the Two Lands @TalesTwoLands]

The box is really rather nice and probably quite expensive. On the front you see the Royal Butler Kemeni making an offering of ointment to Amenemhat IV, and the top of the lid has a long inscription with the name & titles of both Kemeni & the king as well as a prayer to Sobek.

[Tales from the Two Lands @TalesTwoLands]

See it on my photo site: https://t.co/E1QWq42k0x

Jigsaw Puzzles:
easier: https://t.co/yT2fz0zlQG
harder: https://t.co/TQRF4hIWOv

[Tales from the Two Lands @TalesTwoLands]

One of the things that strikes you when you visit Egypt that you don’t always get from the photos is how often the ancient is next to the modern. The ruins don’t always stand in splendid isolation, the places that were good to live in back in ancient Egypt remain good today.

[Tales from the Two Lands @TalesTwoLands]

But the reality is that it’s just on the doorstep of a modern town, we were so close that the local children came out to see what was going on and to watch us wandering around an area that must seem incredibly ordinary to them, not worth a trip from far away.