Archaeology Magazine - March 1958 - 67

portant is Mylonas' conclusion that
there was no cult of the dead in
Middle or Late Helladic times. Shaft
graves, tholos and chamber tombs
alike were family graves, and in all
of them considerationwas shown only
for the latest burial; earlier skeletons
were brushed aside and their grave
gifts scattered or removed; the latter
were intended to sustain and comfort
the dead only during the journey to
the other world, the time taken for
the dissolution of the flesh. The female figurines found in many Late
Helladic tombs are explained as divine
nurses, buried with young children to
guide and succor them on their long
journey. The continuity in practice between Middle and Late Helladic burials is rightly stressed; the suggestion
that the tholos tomb was evolvedfrom
the grave circle (itself traceable back
to Early Helladic times) merits prolonged examination.
The book is pleasingly produced,
with generous illustrations of the new
finds.The language is occasionallyobscure and there are a few misprints,
the only serious one being 486 b.c. for
468 B.c. on pages 17 and 23.
Helen Thomas Waterhouse
Birmingham, England

Egyptian history. Around 2052 B.c. the
reunificationof Egypt by a king of the
Eleventh Dynasty ended the First Intermediate Period, but some of its typical features persisted, including the use
of models. Those of Meket-Re, made
around 2000 B.c., are among the last
of their kind and also, coming as they
do from an age of renewed vigor,
among the finest.
Winlock's book, prepared for publication after his death by Charlotte R.
Clark, presents a comprehensive account and catalogue of the Meket-Re
models, which he divided into those
representing the estate, the offering
bearers and the boats. They unroll before us typical occurrences in the life
EGYPTof a country estate and its owner:
MODELS
OFDAILY
LIFEIN ANCIENT
THETOMB
OFMEKET-Rl®
ATTHEBES,herdsmen driving the cattle for inFROM
by H. E. Winlock. xv, 106 pages, 86 spection past the canopied platform
plates and frontispiece. Harvard Uni- sheltering their master, boat voyages
versity Press for the Metropolitan with Meket-Re entertained by musiMuseumof Art, Cambridge1955 (Pub- cians in front of the cabin where the
lications of the Metropolitan Museum steward squats besidebed and traveling
of Art Egyptian Expedition, Vol. 18) lockers, fishing boats trailing nets, the
$7.50
work of butchers, bakers, brewers,
A great nobleman of the Eleventh carpenters and weavers. The wealth of
Dynasty, Meket-Re, prepared for his information yielded by the models is
tomb twenty-four painted wooden frequently of explicit clarity becauseof
models,which were discoveredin 1920 their three-dimensionalcharacter.
Excellent plates of line drawings
by the Egyptian Expeditionof the Metdetails of the models, but the
Such
models
Museum
of
Art.
give
ropolitan
developedwhen small statues of indi- photographic plates are disappointing.
vidual servants, often deposited in the They are hazy, sometimes so much so
tombs of their masters in the Fifth and that many features are lost. Frequently
Sixth Dynasties, were combined onto darker elements fuse together and
one baseboard to form a scene. They lighter portions tend to disappear into
have a rather brief range. Appearing the background, as (to give one exin a troubled time of rival dynasties, ample) in the case of the incense
the First IntermediatePeriod (ca. 2258- burner held by a man on Plate 50.
2052 B.C.), they show the various Since the original photographs were
occupationson which the life and com- made by Harry Burton, the shortcomfort of landowners depended, and sub- ings of the plates presumably result
stitute for the many scenes depicted on from the quality of the offset reproductomb walls in more stable periods of tion on matt paper. Whatever the

cause, after striving in vain to see on
the plates details vividly described by
Winlock, one becomes convinced that
no budgetary pressures can excuse the
presentation of such magnificent material in such inadequate reproduction.
But it would be unjust to the work of
Winlock and his collaborators to end
on a note of complaint. This volume is
a major addition to Egyptologicalliterature. Winlock's lucid exposition of
the Meket-Re models recreates for us
many aspects of Egyptian life in the
twenty-firstcentury B.c.
Helene J. Kantor
Oriental Institute
Universityof Chicago
OF JERUSALEM,
THETEMPLE
by ANDRÉ
Parrot. Translated by B. E. Hooke.
112 pages, 25 figures, 7 plates. Philosophical Library, New York 1955
(Studies in Biblical Archaeology,No.
5) $2.75
Readers of Archaeology have been
introduced to Studies in Biblical Archaeology by Professor Wright in the
Summer 1957 issue, page 146, as "excellent books, models of their type,
which deserve an excellent sale in this
country." In this volume of the series
Professor Parrot, the editor, has written conciselythe most recent and, archaeologically, the most fully documented account of the Jewish temples
of biblical Jerusalem. The "vision"
Temple of Ezekiel,the SecondTemple
and the Haram esh-Sherif are given
brief chapters. The longer treatment of
Herod's Temple is enriched by use of
the second volume of Père L. H. Vincent's Jérusalem de l'Ancien Testament
(Paris 1956).
"The Temple of Solomon" is the
longest chapter, the evidencefor it be67

Archaeology Magazine - March 1958

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - March 1958