Mourning Activities

ca. 1380 BCE

Mural of crouching woman with hand on her head next to upright mummy held up by figure in tunic, as another figure in tunic raises arms above woman, with hieroglyphic text in background.
Mourning activities, Thebes, Egypt, ca. 1380 BCE. Sitting on the ground and putting dust on the head are expressions of mourning, as in this mural showing a widow with the mummy of her husband. Biblical depictions of personal grieving include Job’s mourning for his children in the book of Job, chapter 2 and King David’s adoption of mourning practices during the mortal illness of Bathsheba’s newborn son.

Credits

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Rogers Fund, 1930. www.metmuseum.org. CC0 1.0 Universal, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 1.

Engage with this Source

You may also like

Terra-cotta figurine of women with long hair playing frame drum.
Tooltip info icon

Woman Playing Frame Drum

The drumhead of this Phoenician-style terra-cotta figurine from Shikmona (south of Haifa) is recessed, suggesting that the drum had only a single head. Figurines like this are typically found in…
View Source

Aaron Hart and His Children

Dear Mo: I se no way for you to keep Pesah at William Hanry thear fore you had batter come over hear the Sunday before than you neat not due any thing to your house to git the hamez out of your house…
View Source