DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0284
232 THE MYCENAEAN AGE
For proof we are referred to certain weapons found in
1860 with the wonderful jewels on the mummy of the
Egyptian queen Aah-hotep (circa 1600 b. c). In this
queen's funeral armory — which appears to show that even
women had to go armed into another world that was peo-
pled with foes — we find two poignards and a war-hatchet,
whose blades are, in fact, adorned somewhat after the My-
cenaean fashion.
One of the dagger-blades is thus described :1 " The edges
of the blade are of massive gold j the centre of black bronze
damascened with gold. On one side is the solar cartouche
of Ahmes, below which a lion pursues a bull, the remaining
space being filled in with four grasshoppers in a row. On
the other side we have the family name of Ahmes and a
series of full-blown flowers issuing one from another and
diminishing towards the point." It will be seen from this
description that the technique is not that of the Mycenaean
inlayer, and the difference has been already observed by
Schuchhardt.2 In the Egyptian work, the centre only is
of black bronze, while the edges of the blades are of solid
gold, and the designs are outlined by fine strips of gold set
in grooves in the Damascene style.3
Inlaying or incrustation, in general, may be regarded as
one of the oldest arts. Indeed, so few and simple are the
employed materials it requires to start with that even the
fake^weil- prehistoric lake-dwellers of Switzerland are found
inlaying earthen vessels with tin-foil. For in-
stance, an earthenware dish or plate about 16 inches in
diameter, found in the pile dwellings of Cortaillod, in Lake
Zug, is thus described :4 " The ornamentation consists of
1 Maspero, Egyptian Archaeology, p. 319.
2 Sckliemann's Excavations, p. 308, 2d German ed.
3 Cf. Ennan, Ancient Egypt, 461 f.
4 Ferd. Keller, Lake Dwellings, ed, Lee, p. 144.
For proof we are referred to certain weapons found in
1860 with the wonderful jewels on the mummy of the
Egyptian queen Aah-hotep (circa 1600 b. c). In this
queen's funeral armory — which appears to show that even
women had to go armed into another world that was peo-
pled with foes — we find two poignards and a war-hatchet,
whose blades are, in fact, adorned somewhat after the My-
cenaean fashion.
One of the dagger-blades is thus described :1 " The edges
of the blade are of massive gold j the centre of black bronze
damascened with gold. On one side is the solar cartouche
of Ahmes, below which a lion pursues a bull, the remaining
space being filled in with four grasshoppers in a row. On
the other side we have the family name of Ahmes and a
series of full-blown flowers issuing one from another and
diminishing towards the point." It will be seen from this
description that the technique is not that of the Mycenaean
inlayer, and the difference has been already observed by
Schuchhardt.2 In the Egyptian work, the centre only is
of black bronze, while the edges of the blades are of solid
gold, and the designs are outlined by fine strips of gold set
in grooves in the Damascene style.3
Inlaying or incrustation, in general, may be regarded as
one of the oldest arts. Indeed, so few and simple are the
employed materials it requires to start with that even the
fake^weil- prehistoric lake-dwellers of Switzerland are found
inlaying earthen vessels with tin-foil. For in-
stance, an earthenware dish or plate about 16 inches in
diameter, found in the pile dwellings of Cortaillod, in Lake
Zug, is thus described :4 " The ornamentation consists of
1 Maspero, Egyptian Archaeology, p. 319.
2 Sckliemann's Excavations, p. 308, 2d German ed.
3 Cf. Ennan, Ancient Egypt, 461 f.
4 Ferd. Keller, Lake Dwellings, ed, Lee, p. 144.