File:Ibscha relief of Khnumhotep II.jpg

Summary

Ibscha Relief Khnumhotep II (Egyptian governor) illustrating events that occurred during the 6th Year of Sesostris II.

The painting evidently registers an actual event which Knumhotpe felt worthy of eternal repetition. It depicts a group of thirty-seven Semites in full size in the act of paying customs duties to the nomarch's officials. A bold hieroglyphic text states that these Asiatics are supplying him with such important items as stibium, a mineral required for eye makeup acquired in Mesopotamia. Knumhotpe evidently feared that the place he would occupy in the hereafter might lack the mineral, as was the case in Egypt. The date given is the fourth year of Sinusert II's rule, or about 1892 B.C.E. The leader of the caravan of tradesmen and artisans is named Abushei, a distinctly Hebrew name. It was, for example, the name of a top general under King David.

What is most remarkable about the rendering was the depiction of advanced tools and instruments as yet foreign to Egypt. Middle Bronze Age metal-smithing is one of the crafts practiced by the Abushei group, readily deduced from an anvil and a bellows loaded on the backs of the donkeys. An Egyptian artist thus presents evidence of metalworking technology that had not yet been employed by Egyptians. Curvilinear, laminated bows are being carried by members of the troupe. At the time, the bows of Egyptian soldiers were made of simple arched twigs. A 12-string harp or lyre borne by another member would likewise be unknown to Egypt until new forms of music, games and dance were introduced in the Second Intermediate Period. Most striking in the great expanse of the mural were intricately woven fabrics of the clothes worn by both the men and the women. They were produced on an upright loom, another mechanism as yet unknown in Egypt, as were the vivid colors of the dyes employed, colors faithfully reproduced by the anonymous painter of the mural.[1]

Copyright status:

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Source:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ibscha.jpg