Mourning Activities

ca. 1380 BCE

Image

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.

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