Ceremonial Sickle of the "Fieldworker of Amun" Amunemhat
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Object Label
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.
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) Blade Channel: 3/16 × 1/8 × 6 11/16 in. (0.5 × 0.3 × 17 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 48.27. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 48.27_SL3.jpg)
Title
Ceremonial Sickle of the "Fieldworker of Amun" Amunemhat
Date
ca. 1479–1425 B.C.E.
Dynasty
Dynasty 18
Period
New Kingdom
Geography
Possible place collected: Thebes, Egypt
Medium
Wood, pigment
Classification
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)
Credit Line
Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
Accession Number
48.27
Rights
Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
Frequent Art Questions
I was wondering: what's the meaning of the hieroglyphs written here?
The inscription on this sickle translates to “the cultivator of Amun, Amunemhat, repeating life.” The inscription and its materials indicate that this is a ceremonial representation of the tool that was meant to be included in the tomb of a man named Amunemhat. It could relate to an official role he had in his life related to cultivation, but more likely relates agricultural responsibilities his soul will have in the afterlife.Oh, great. Thanks.
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