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Ceremonial Sickle of the "Fieldworker of Amun" Amunemhat

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

Tools

Egyptian workers, including artisans, farmers, and fishermen, required a wide variety of specialized tools.


Woodworkers employed axes that had copper or bronze blades lashed to wooden handles with leather.

Carpenters produced smooth surfaces with copper chisels, often with serrated edges.

Tanners used broad, flat knives to cut strips of leather for sandals, harnesses, and whips, which they then pierced with metal awls.

Field hands cut grain with curved sickles fitted with small flint blades.

Fishermen relied on metal hooks with tiny barbs, much like their modern-day equivalents.

Officials used siphons to inspect the liquid contents of vessels without breaking through the protective mud seals.
MEDIUM Wood, pigment
  • Possible Place Collected: Thebes, Egypt
  • DATES ca. 1479–1425 B.C.E.
    DYNASTY Dynasty 18
    PERIOD New Kingdom
    DIMENSIONS Exterior: 9 × 13 1/2 × 2 in. (22.9 × 34.3 × 5.1 cm) Blade Channel: 3/16 × 1/8 × 6 11/16 in. (0.5 × 0.3 × 17 cm)  (show scale)
    ACCESSION NUMBER 48.27
    CREDIT LINE Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
    EXHIBITIONS
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    CAPTION Ceremonial Sickle of the "Fieldworker of Amun" Amunemhat, ca. 1479–1425 B.C.E. Wood, pigment, Exterior: 9 × 13 1/2 × 2 in. (22.9 × 34.3 × 5.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 48.27. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 48.27_SL3.jpg)
    IMAGE overall, 48.27_SL3.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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    RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
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