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Object Label

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.

Caption

Knife, ca. 1353–1329 B.C.E.. Bronze, 1 15/16 x 10 5/8 in. (5 x 27 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Egypt Exploration Society, 29.1557. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

Title

Knife

Date

ca. 1353–1329 B.C.E.

Dynasty

Dynasty 18

Period

New Kingdom, Amarna Period

Geography

Place excavated: Tell el-Amarna, Egypt

Medium

Bronze

Classification

Tool

Dimensions

1 15/16 x 10 5/8 in. (5 x 27 cm)

Credit Line

Gift of the Egypt Exploration Society

Accession Number

29.1557

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