Egyptian Models and Scenes

Egyptian models and scenes are frequently mistaken by the public for children's toys, particularly the model boats. But these often crude and charmingly naive figures have a much more serious prupose, namely to provide the staple diet of bread and beer for the tomb owner in the afterlife. This book follows the development of models from their origins in human servant burials at Abydos during the First dynastic and in Old Kingdom tomb decoration, through the stone figures from Old Kingdom mastabas and wooden models of the Eleventh and early Twelfth Dynasties, to their final demise in favour of shabtis in the New Kingdom. Chapters are devoted to single figures or groups which perform a variety of tasks associated with the production of foodstuffs, its storage and its transport by offering bearer and boat. This book discusses where models are found, who owned them, what purpose they served, where abouts in the tomb they were placed and how they relate to tomb scences. An analysis of the types of models found from region to region, along with regional style, is also included.