Biblical Hebrew Forum

[MarianneLuban AT aol.com]

In a message dated 8/17/2004 10:57:30 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
mattfeld12 AT charter.net writes:


> The url provided earlier had "four" pictures of  "chest-like" Egyptian
> carrying chairs the first two are ca. 6th century BCE the latter two are
> Marianne's Amenhotep I (ca. 1551-1524 BCE), as a line drawing and then
> again, in color. One needs to scroll all the way down to the bottom to pick
> them all up.
> 
> http://www.bibleorigins.net/AmonReportableThrone.html
> 
> 

Sorry, Walter--I was in a hurry and didn't look well enough.  I should have 
known you wouldn't miss the portable shrine of Amenhotep I in your study.  
Anyway, this drawing gives a good perspective of the size of the ark.  If it 
measured two cubits and a half in length, a cubit and a half in breadth, and 
a 
cubit and a half in height, it would have corresponded pretty much with those 
others. The "Royal Cubit" varied somewhat at times but was supposed to be a 
measure the length of a man's forearm from the tip of his middle finger.  So, 
if you 
look at the arms of the men carrying the shrine of Amenhotep I, that is about 
the dimension of  the object they carry. The golden crown or rim ran around 
it is the cavetto cornice, as I mentioned before, many times consisting of a 
continuous row of uraei (serpents)--the same as the crown shown on the heads 
of 
some Egyptian queens and also certain crowns of the pharaohs were decorated 
in 
this fashion.  The golden rings held the carrying poles.  The canopy 
surrounding this ark was also a well-known item.  Normally, it would surround 
the beds 
of the wealthy and was nothing more than a frame on poles over which would be 
draped very fine gauze-like linen--almost like a mosquito net.  An example of 
this was discovered in the tomb of Queen Hetepheres along with her bed and 
other furniture.  But one could drape over this frame anything one liked, I 
suppose, depending on how visible one wished the object inside the frame to 
be.