Mastaba of Kagemni, Egypt
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Kagemni was the vizier of King Teti of Egypt's Sixth Dynasty, c. 2340 B.C. His wife was a daughter of the king. When he died, Kagemni was buried in an elaborate mastaba, or tomb, in Saqqara, Egypt. Above, an image of Kagemni on the wall of his tomb, wearing the odd Egyptian kilt that projects forward like a triangle.
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The tomb contained multiple chambers whose walls were covered with carved and painted artwork, much of it depicting the daily life of the common people of Egypt. The common people wore considerably less clothing than the king and the nobles. Above, two fishermen.
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Here are some more fishermen.
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This interesting carving depicts a hippopotamus hunt. At least one of the hunters is unashamed.
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Milking a cow that has extremely long, pointy horns. Interestingly, the figure on the right is wearing a cloth around his loins, but it's open at the front, so it was not intended to preserve modesty.
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We end with what is the most interesting image to me. While a naked man holds a jar as if pouring from it, another man appears to be kissing a pig, and that's a serious French kiss (click to enlarge image). Some commentators say that he's not kissing it, he's force-feeding it. Others say it's not a pig; it's a dog, citing its feet which appear to have claws, but still others say that the claws might have been added later, because otherwise the animal looks like a pig.
Apparently in the ancient Egyptian religion, one way of showing respect for the dead was to decorate his tomb with a man French-kissing a pig. Who knew?
4 comments:
Reading your post, I wondered if ancient Egyptian ordinary people (not pharaohs or priests) were naked most of the time because of the heat. It turns out nudity was not unusual for very young children and laborers. However most ordinary people wore basic garments like the a men's linen kilt or a woman's linen sheath dress, not just walked around naked. But I think the basic garments were minimal and probably revealed male genitalia like the guy in the milking the cow carving. Thanks for showing this interesting aspect of ancient life.
Yes, Larry, thanks for sharing these fascinating images.
In ancient Egypt clothing was worn to connote your rank and social standing in their society, and the way the clothing was worn. The use of jewelry, makeup and perfumes also connoted social standing in ancient Egypt.
-Rj
Daily life looks to be somewhat sex-segregated due to roles, which would allow nudity because it was not normally a sexual environment. I expect naturists would say that daily life isn't normally sexual, but relegated to certain circumstances, however we have extended it to daily life because we have fetishised the appearance of flesh as signifying sexual interest instead of indicating sexual interest by communicating sexual interest and not using symbolism.
The egyptians certainly seem to use more normal physical proportions in their art, except when it shows differences in rank or status, unlike the ancient Greeks or Romans.
I have always wondered whether that triangular extending loincloth was meant to conceal erections in a similar way to the penis gourds of certain tribes.
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