Silk king tut papyrus4/6/2023 Part of the reason for the ostrich’s fascination was its peculiar nature. There is even evidence that some birds may have been raised domestically. And since the earliest times, ostrich hunting had been a favourite pastime of pharaohs. They appear to have been concentrated mostly in southern Egypt, the kingdom of Kush (Nubia) and Punt, a rather shadowy region, probably extending down to the Horn of Africa. In itself, there was nothing particularly unusual about a pharaoh hunting ostriches, or having an ostrich feather fan. But of all the finds in Tutankhamun’s tomb, the fan has proved to be among the most revealing. Well pleased with his success, Tutankhamun rides at a leisurely pace, carrying a bunch of wing feathers under his arm and preceded by two attendants carrying the ostriches he has just felled.Ĭompared to the great funerary mask, or the Anubis shrine, of course, this might seem like nothing more than a curiosity. The pharaoh is in his chariot, drawing his bow to shoot a pair of startled-looking birds while his faithful sloughi hound runs beside the galloping horses. A pair of decorative scenes embossed on the palm commemorate the hunt. What made this fan unusual, however, was that, according to the inscription, the feathers had come from an ostrich killed by Tutankhamun himself. As was usual in fans of this type, the handle culminated in papyrus and, around the edge, 30 brown and white feathers had once been arranged. Just over a metre long, it was made of wood and ‘covered with sheet gold’. As Carter noted, it was the sort of fan you could find being wafted at pharaohs in any number of paintings and reliefs. But there, on the ground between the second and third shrines, it lay – the ostrich feather fan.Īt first glance it didn’t seem anything out of the ordinary. There were funeral beds in the shape of exotic animals, chariots, statues, vases, jewelled necklaces, leopard-skin cloaks and everything from food and mirrors to walking sticks and loincloths. So many extraordinary objects had been found that Carter might easily have missed it. By then, the antechamber had been largely cleared, the burial chamber had been opened and work had already begun on disassembling the huge golden shrines enclosing the sarcophagus. It was not until several months after the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922 that Howard Carter spotted it. The ostrich feather fan (c.1370-52 BC) found in the tomb of Tutankhamun.
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