Per Mesut: For Younger Readers

Gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrr

Temple and funerary rituals in ancient Egypt centred on the presentation of gifts to the gods, to gain their favour, or to the dead, to provide for the afterlife. Temple and tomb walls show parades of servants carrying baskets, trays and jars of food and drink, but some scenes, especially in the tombs of high-ranking officials or senior priests, depict deliveries of non-edible goods. Most often these show the arrival, from what we now call Nubia, of valuable raw materials and luxury items, usually described as tribute, tithes or taxation, paid by the Nubian peoples to their Egyptian overlords. Most important among these gifts was gold, represented as circular ingot rings (sometimes apparently linked in chains), basketwork trays piled high with gold nuggets, or linen bags filled with gold dust (see above and left and also opposite, top left). In the Tomb of Huya, Viceroy of Nubia under Tutankhamun, deliveries of large quantities of gold are shown being weighed and recorded (see a similar scene, depicted in the tomb of Benia, opposite top right). Some of this precious material was destined to be turned into fine jewellery for the kings and the gods, or user for the inlay on statues and temple and palace furniture, as well as for the manufacture of the vases, basins and ewers used in religious rites. But perhaps the largest amount of gold would have been set aside to pay for materials which had to be imported from lands which were not always or not completely under Egyptian control, such as timber from the pine and cedar forests of Lebanon and Syria.