Knife
Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art
On View: Egyptian Orientation Gallery, 3rd Floor
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.
MEDIUM
Bronze alloy
DATES
ca. 1539â1292 B.C.E.
DYNASTY
Dynasty 18
PERIOD
New Kingdom
DIMENSIONS
1 5/8 x 5/16 x 13 1/4 in. (4.1 x 0.8 x 33.7 cm)
(show scale)
ACCESSION NUMBER
05.329
CREDIT LINE
Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
PROVENANCE
Archaeological provenance not yet documented; before 1905, acquired by an unidentified dealer; 1905, purchased in Egypt from an unidentified dealer by W. M. Flinders Petrie for the Brooklyn Museum.
Provenance FAQ
CAPTION
Knife, ca. 1539â1292 B.C.E. Bronze alloy, 1 5/8 x 5/16 x 13 1/4 in. (4.1 x 0.8 x 33.7 cm) . Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 05.329. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.29.1557_05.329_erg456.jpg)
IMAGE
installation,
CUR.29.1557_05.329_erg456.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2015
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