<em>Serrated Tool with Handle</em>, ca. 1539–1292 B.C.E. Bronze, wood, 5/8 x 3 11/16 in. (1.6 x 9.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Egypt Exploration Fund, 14.633.3. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: , CUR.37.287E_14.633.2-.3_34.1186_erg456.jpg)

Serrated Tool with Handle, ca. 1539–1292 B.C.E. Bronze, wood, 5/8 x 3 11/16 in. (1.6 x 9.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Egypt Exploration Fund, 14.633.3. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: , CUR.37.287E_14.633.2-.3_34.1186_erg456.jpg)

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Serrated Tool with Handle

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

On View: Egyptian Orientation Gallery, 3rd Floor

Tools

Egyptian workers, including artisans, farmers, and fishermen, required a wide variety of specialized tools.

Woodworkers employed axes that had copper or bronze blades lashed to wooden handles with leather.

Carpenters produced smooth surfaces with copper chisels, often with serrated edges.

Tanners used broad, flat knives to cut strips of leather for sandals, harnesses, and whips, which they then pierced with metal awls.

Field hands cut grain with curved sickles fitted with small flint blades.

Fishermen relied on metal hooks with tiny barbs, much like their modern-day equivalents.

Officials used siphons to inspect the liquid contents of vessels without breaking through the protective mud seals.

MEDIUM Bronze, wood

Place Excavated: Sawama, Egypt

DATES ca. 1539–1292 B.C.E.

DYNASTY Dynasty 18

PERIOD New Kingdom

DIMENSIONS 5/8 x 3 11/16 in. (1.6 x 9.4 cm) handle: 2 1/4 in. (5.7 cm) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 14.633.3

CREDIT LINE Gift of the Egypt Exploration Fund

CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Small bronze tool with serrated end of unknown use but probably a cutting implement set in long wooden handle. Condition: Handle slightly decayed at each end, bronze corroded but intact.

EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in Egyptian Orientation Gallery, 3rd Floor

CAPTION Serrated Tool with Handle, ca. 1539–1292 B.C.E. Bronze, wood, 5/8 x 3 11/16 in. (1.6 x 9.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Egypt Exploration Fund, 14.633.3. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: , CUR.37.287E_14.633.2-.3_34.1186_erg456.jpg)

IMAGE group, CUR.37.287E_14.633.2-.3_34.1186_erg456.jpg.

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RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY

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