RAFAEL BARAGAÑO

The open porch and the garden, in which fig trees are growing in The front of the house. two rows of columns are supporting this porch which has a flat roof with three rain spouts that are long enough for the rainwater to fall into the pool below. The pool is lined with copper in order to handle real water. Two doors and a window are carved into the rear wall of the model to clear the interior details of this house.

The model is a depiction of a Kitchen with a teamwork of female and male workers. Some of them crush grain with a pestle on rounded grinders and long boards, and they grind it to make flour. In addition, the baker is also sitting in front of the stove baking and cooking. As well as, three butchers are slaughtering a cow, and there is a lady among them; which is very special! It seems that the principle of equality between women and men was highly appreciated in ancient Egypt, even in the Workers’ class, where we find them doing their tasks side by side, and this model confirms and indicates this idea well. Wood, Gesso, Pigments; Middle Kingdom Period; Saqqra.

Since the earliest times, cleanness has been related to divinity in ancient Egypt. Washing clothes was not an easy job since soap was unknown to the ancient Egyptians, so lye, made of castor oil and saltpeter, or detergents made of soapwort or asphodel were used. The laundry was beaten, rinsed, and wrung by pairs of workers using wooden sticks or ropes. By 1200 B.C. there were fire-proof boilers in the wash-houses, and the hot water lightened the workload. Ordinary people washed their clothes on the shore of the river or the bank of a canal, which had the advantage of not having to carry a lot of water in heavy earthen pots, but it could also be dangerous. Wood and pigments; Saqqara 1914.

Middle Kingdom (2160-1785 BC) – Wood Grains had an important role in ancient Egypt because bread is the main basis food during that time. It represented a part of staff salaries and wages of workers in the old kingdom these models are granaries that show various activities such as the weight of storing, and the distribution of grain. They contained a number of chambers that used in order to store the grain through holes appearing at the top of the granaries. These chambers have doors that it considered the main source for taking grains all over the year where all granaries were managed by a manager who is assisted by a number of clerks, workers and appraisers. There is a scribe inside the granaries with a read pen placed behind his ear, sits under the porch He is recording the baskets of grains which were carried by workers. A man holding a scepter oversees these workers.

Middle Kingdom, 11th dynasty, (2050 – 1786 BC). Tomb of Meket-Re, South of Deir al-Bahari, Luxor Painted wood and linen. Boat with rectangular, sail, the round roofed cabin is decorated in a perfect way and divided into two parts. A shallow porch where Meket Re is sitting, smelling a louts flower and listening to a singer in the first part, the second part is consisted of a room with bed in which a servant is waiting for orders. the captain whose head is shaven standing on the right of the cabin with a staff in his hand.

Middle Kingdom, 11th dynasty, (2050 – 1786 BC) Tomb of Meket-Re, South of Deir al-Bahari, Luxor Painted wood. The kitchen boat was to accompany Meket-Re on his river travels. Jars of beer and wine, joints of meat hanging on ropes and two baskets, probably filled with bread, are stored in the cabin .A large jar is beside the now-missing mast; the ropes from the sail is still in the hands of the crew. On the deck a brazier is tended by a seated man who holds a fan and blows up the fire.

This wooden model of two boats features several geometric patterns and papyrus shapes at the bow and stern, or front and back. The human figures on the boat include a crew made up of a pilot, rowers, sailors at the rigging, helmsmen, and servants. The noble Meket-Re sits inside the center chapel on the board of one of them. Ancient Egyptians believed in model boats that they would facilitate the transportation of the dead person who owns them in his journey in the afterlife. Wood, Gesso, Pigments & Linen, Dynasty 11 – Middle Kingdom, Tomb of Meket Re- Deir el-Bahari Luxor.

Ostraca, or drawing and inscription on stone, of which the museum possesses a very large collection mostly from the tombs of the kings at Thebes. while the workmen were cutting the royal tombs,which sometimes penetrate the rock for more than 100 meters. The artisans who were out on duty amused themselves by collecting fragments of limestone at the entrance to the underground chambers, on which they draw pictures to suit their fancy, or inscribed poetry of their composition. places where limestone was broken up,either in making buildings or in destroying them, provided abundant writing material,as small pieces smooth an one side provided a good writing surface and were easily portable for writing exercises, which had not be moved, quit large pieces were often used. The great majority of limestone ostraca come from Thebes probably the largest ostracon in existence (it is about one meter)it is inscribed in hieratic with the commencement of the famous story of Sinuhe, which was composed in the XIIth dynasty and may justly be called an Egyptian classic, from the tomb of Snndym.