Description Plougher with two draught cattle
Sycamore wood, painted yellow, white, red and black, painting partly rubbed off,
one horn of the right cattle broken off and lost, fossil plant and mineral deposits
Total height appx. 170 mm, size of the rectangular base plate appx. 315 x 215 mm
Middle Kingdom, XII. Dynasty around 1800 BC.
Provenance: Sayyed Molattam, Luxor, private collection Austria
The farmer walks behind the characteristic hook plough pulled by two cattle, like it is still in use today everywhere in Egypt, and will immediately replace it with the left press down hand while he swings the whip in the right one and drives the cattle.
Numerous depictions of this scene have already been handed down on grave reliefs from the Old Empire, but they were only executed in full plastic and wood from the Middle Kingdom onwards.
Remarkable is the care with which the respective position of the ploughman and cattle on the floor slab was determined. Not enough that each foot and each hoof had its own recess in it, the figure of the Fellah was made without forefeet, these were carved separately, attached directly to the plate and the legs were inserted directly behind it. Even for the ploughshare itself, a precisely fitting recess was carved, which not only provides support for the tool, but also enhances the illusion of ploughing.
Expert: Dr. Helmut Satzinger, Professor of Egyptology, University of Vienna
Former Keeper of ‘The Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection’, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Literature:
Wilfried Seipel hrsg.,
“?gypten, G?tter, Gr?ber und die Kunst”, Ausstellungskatalog Linz 1989, Nr. 72, Nr. 74
J. Vandier, “Manuel d‘archéologie égyptienne VI, Scènes de la vie agricole à l‘ancien et au moyen empire”, Paris 1978
W. Wetterstrom, “Foraging and farming in Egypt: The transition from hunting and gathering to horticulture in the Nile valley”, in:
T. Shaw, “The archeology of Africa”, London 1993, pp. 165-226
K. Baer, “An eleventh dynasty farmer‘s letter to his family”, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 83, 1983
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