Generalforsamling og The Meketre models

Mødedato: Tirsdag d. 28/1 2025 kl. 18.00 – Lokale: 23.0.49

Først generalforsamling fulgt af foredrag ca. kl. 19.

A new view on the Meketre models v. Adela Oppenheim, Curator, Department of Egyptian Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The models from the tomb of Meketre in Thebes are among the most beloved items of the Egyptian collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The serdab of Meketre’s tomb as found

Meketre lived in the early Middle Kingdom during the reign of Mentuhotep Nehepetre and to the beginning of Amenemhat I. Herbert Winlock, head of the excavations for Metropolitan Museum and his team, discovered the tomb in 1920. It was situated high up on the cliff close to the Deir el Bahri Temple of Mentuhotep.

The burial chamber had been robbed in ancient times, and tomb models are normally found in the burial chamber on the coffin and next to it. In Meketre’s tomb they were luckily kept in a so-called serdab that had not been touched. Following the regulations of the time the finds were divided between the Metropolitan Museum and Egypt where they are now displayed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation.

Winlock published the models as ’Models of daily life in ancient Egypt’ and this is how they have generally been understood. Adela Oppenheim presents an alternative interpretation in connection with the burial and the burial rituals.