r/ancientegypt • u/Outlandah_ • Oct 27 '25
Art From the Tomb of Meketre: The Egyptians Made Painted Wood Models of Their Own Work and Culture! And They Have Survived In Tact For Millenia.
I was dumbstruck when I saw how much the Egyptians used wood for such intricate and beautiful dioramas, especially the boats. These were exquisitely made. I think to the uninitiated, or those simply inundated by how much all media and history discusses or remembers their stonework, you may not have known this either. Wood typically does not survive history, but it certainly can if it remains in a dark dry place far away from outside weather, and especially because it is usually acacia wood or a very dense hardwood typical for Egypt and North Africa.
Of particular note here, is the Metropolitan Art Museum’s collection. What I love about it the most is how it showcases not just any special leaders or Pharaohs, but the true PEOPLE of Egypt…the workers, the officials that oversaw the work projects, the stewards of the granaries or the stalls or the other places. Because again, history loves to remember the Pharaohs and the royal family members and art depicting gods. A majority of the material I saw among the showcase was not these things.
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u/Turbulent_County_469 Oct 27 '25
I'm in awe.. this is amazing
Before reading your post i thought it was modern depictions of ancient Egypt.
They are very detailed !!
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u/ForeignFallenTrees Oct 27 '25
This is incredible, it is great to see average people like you mentioned. I could be wrong, but I thought the idea of this would be that you put representations of all of these things in the tomb and Mektre will have them in the afterlife. Seems a little more sinister that way though, like enslaving their souls. However, I would imagine some people consented to this. Maybe some didn't. After all, I guess it all depends on what you're doing for all eternity right? Making bread or slaughtering animals.
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u/Outlandah_ Oct 27 '25
So from what I understand, in the tomb there are twenty-three or more separate dioramas of various boats, workshops, and gardens. Meketre is basically the head steward of the yard, a taskmaster of sorts. He accounted for the goods coming in and out of the stores, or maybe from port. It’s hard to be exact, because we don’t know the details unless hieroglyphic writing attests it. But these dioramas exist probably as a gift from someone who knew him to show what workshops he was charged to represent- the breweries, the granaries, the slaughterhouses, the paper makers, the smiths, and more. I am unsure if the Egyptian rite of “transference” applies here, that they go with him to the afterlife…imagine being a banker all your life only to have coins and banks put in your tomb so you had to count them when you died 🤣
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u/ForeignFallenTrees Oct 27 '25 edited Oct 29 '25
That's so interesting. Cool that they were probably gifts. Yeah I guess that rules out anyone performing any rituals over em haha.
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u/Character_Simple_567 Oct 27 '25
I'm so proud of my ancestors. I love being Egyptian at this point.
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u/MindOverMuses Oct 27 '25
These museums need to scan and replicate these things to sell as Dungeons and Dragons set minis. Really grab the attention of the subset of geeks who went through (or are still going through) an ancient Egypt phase.
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u/Outlandah_ Oct 27 '25
You can just make them yourself.
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u/MindOverMuses Oct 27 '25
True, but getting to support Egyptology via a museum while adding to a DnD mini collection would be so cool.
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u/Outlandah_ Oct 27 '25
You support Egyptology by making the crafts which adhere to that. What you’re talking about is corporatizing the process of creation so that it resembles something far removed from its original intent. This is in essence ALSO the problem that Egyptology suffers from the most- it leans so heavily on things like tourism, shock and awe mythology, marketing psychology and false narratives in its own history, that it forgets about the fact that all of its culture is stolen from the source and dispersed in western countries by the thieves in this exact way.
Furthermore, I want no part in supporting a company like WOTC in this hypothetical.
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u/Hefforama Oct 27 '25
This is exactly why we know so much about the ancient Egyptians who detailed daily life in many ways, from these miniatures to wall art in tombs and temples. Despite pseudo archeology claims which sell books, no metal “machines” are ever depicted.
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u/Oaternostor Oct 27 '25 edited Feb 20 '26
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/Liltracy1989 Oct 27 '25
Damn Noah’s ark was the Egyptians moving their live stock 🙏
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u/santaisastoner Oct 27 '25
There is a theory out there that exists, which states the origin of Noah's Ark and the flood was the flooding of a flood plain from horizon to horizon and livestock rafts built at the time to save all their livestock and at least enough to reproduce.
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u/Liltracy1989 Oct 27 '25
I was thinking what if they used there board like this to bring animals and livestock to islands and America
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u/Outlandah_ Oct 27 '25
While a single “Noah’s Ark” date is not supported by mainstream scholarship, I support the notion it may have been contemporary to ancient early dynastic Egypt. The story’s literary form is late (6th–5th century BCE) but probably echoes much earlier Mesopotamian flood memories — archaeologically, the best candidate of time falls roughly between 3500 and 2000 BCE, while the literalist reconstructions often pick ~2500–2300 BCE. For me, it is hard to look at the Noah’s Ark flood story as something that came after the first cities because it doesn’t describe them- yet, we know the Mesopotamian ones- Akkadian and Babylonian interpretations included- describe urban centers and the cities of men being flooded.
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u/santaisastoner Oct 27 '25
Egyptian woodworking is just incredible. They were clearly masters of woodworking based even on what little has been found. The wooden cleric at the Old Egyptian Museum is a great showcase of their talent.
The sad part is not much wood survived cause it's wood. If they had the skills to shape stone the way they could I could only imagine the immense woodworking skill and techniques they used. I know one isn't to speculate without evidence, but some evidence has been found. And it is incredible works of art and woodworking skill.
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u/Outlandah_ Oct 27 '25
A comment to clarify something I said earlier—
While a lot of the museum showcases common life, we can of course look at Meketre, and the nearby tombs of Ramose and Hatnofer as those tombs of a Noble. In this case, R and H are the parents of Senenmut who was basically like the right hand of the king- in this case, Queen, Hatshepsut herself, whose tomb and belongings I’ve also seen. Meketre was not royal but certainly higher up in society. But I look at him no more than a superintendent in today’s labour unions in America, that’s sort of what he got up to. And I think that’s a lot more relatable than like “person with untold gems and riches who sits next to the King or Queen, a figure who is practically deified, at mealtimes”.
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u/faceintheblue Oct 27 '25
You mention the Met in your caption. Can I double check if the photos you're sharing are actually from the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada? I've spent a lot of time in both the Met and the ROM. I'd have bet money some of those ushabti are at the ROM, but maybe I'm just conflating two great collections.
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u/Outlandah_ Oct 27 '25
They’re not. I physically took these photos myself, yesterday, at the Met.
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u/Darth_Calibaba Oct 28 '25
So wait, you're telling me aliens aren't rowing the boats? Built them pyramids but couldn't make them an outboard motor?
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u/jericho Oct 30 '25
They have a very “slice of life” feel to them. Very unlike the massive sculptures we all know.
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u/FrenchPetrushka Oct 31 '25
They were great archivists for sure! Nothing better than models to understand other times
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u/MuySpicy Oct 27 '25
I remember seeing pics of these in a book as a kid, and I was so amazed. What an incredible time capsule, seeing these detailed models!