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pleasespellchimerical asked:

Hey so the granary post with the tomb model really caught my interest! Have a lot of these tomb models survived? What kind of activities do they show?

thatlittleegyptologist answered:

Oh they have! We have many different types:

People carrying bread/fish/water as offerings or daily life:

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(image id: Egyptian woman in a white dress standing, holding a large basket of bread on her head.) (Source: British Museum)

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(image id: 4 Egyptians 2 men/2 women carry baskets of bread and fish, while also carrying wine jars and geese, as part offerings of a funeral procession) (Source: The Met Museum)

Boats, either fishing or funerary barques:

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(Image id: a barque boat with 3 men ferrying the mummified body of the deceased to the tomb. The mummy is on a table which has a canopy over it. There are two large oars, and a small table with two jars on it) (Source: The British Museum)

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(image id: a fishing boat with six wooden men on deck. There is a large, square white sail, and at the back of the boat is a small hut where the fishermen would sit out of the sun. A man on the prow appears to be weighing anchor) (Source: British Museum)

Farming:

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(image id: A man holding a plough attached to two speckled oxen) (Source: The British Museum)

Food production scenes like bread/beer making and meat butchery:

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(image id: family group of 4 people: man, woman, boy girl, doing preparation for making bread and beer. Man and girl are working on a millstone next to several jars of beer. Boy and woman are bringing in more food stuffs.) (Source: British Museum)

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(image id: 4 men and 2 women take part in brewing beer and butchering oxen. One woman is with the brewing jar, one man by an oven, one woman is milling flour, one man carries two jugs suspended by rope from a wooden pole over his shoulders, and two men are butchering an oxen) (Source: British Museum)

Grain Silos and other administrative jobs (sizes and shapes vary by model as not all look like this):

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(image id: square grain silo model. 5 men are inside, one man who is a scribe recording the comings and goings is sat on a raised platform observing the other 4 men working) (source: British Museum)

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(image id: wooden model of a cattle shed. Inside are 5 oxen and 3 men. 2 oxen are in the entry room with the men, and 3 oxen are in the second room) (Source: The Met Museum)

Houses:

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(image id: wooden model of a courtyard and porch of a house. The porch is pilared, the courtyard is surrounded by sycamore trees, and in the centre is a small rectangular pool) (Source: The Met Museum)

Soldiers:

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(image id: Wooden models of Nubian soldiers. All soldiers carry bows and a handful of arrows. Each wears a loincloth. Some of these are white with a red belt, and some are entirely red. Every soldier has a white headband) (Source: UNESCO photo of the model inside the Cairo Museum)

If you want more images I would definitely google ‘Egyptian wooden tomb models’ :)

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