Nicolas Reeves: A Rare Mechanical Figure From Ancient Egypt

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It is not uncommon for archaeologists to find artifacts from the ancient world, but it is uncommon for them to find an artifact from the past in decent condition and that once moved. In Nicolas Reeves ' article “A Rare Mechanical Figure from Ancient Egypt”, he discusses how the moving statuette generated interest because of its unique qualities. This interest lead to the question of how old this statuette actually is and, through various tests and comparisons myth, Reeves not only comes up with a conclusion on how old the artifact is, but also what its purpose might have been. Chemistry Chemistry is a section of science that discusses what minerals or elements compose an object. Archaeologists use this science to figure out when and where …show more content…

It is often used to entertain people. As previously stated, Reeves ' believes the statuette could be used to entertain and it was manipulated by a person to produce movement. Reeves relates the statuette to images mentioned by Herodotus who describes several other string-operated objects in his depiction of the Egyptian festival of Dionysus. From this depiction, Reeves ' is lead to believe “ancient Egyptian objects with movable parts are not always to be regarded as childish playthings” and this mechanical figure may fall into this category.14 The statuette might have been professionally used to retell the story of Hathor and Re and its purpose could have been “deeply meaningful”, especially if the statuette symbolizes Hathor as she was “intended to entertain and appease the supreme deity, Re-Harakhty, and so ensure the continued functioning of the cosmos”.15 If this the statuette was created to replicate this scene for Egyptian religion, the show and thus its 'puppets ' would hold a lot of significance and probably be treated with care. But Reeves ' was unsure of this conclusion and specified this by saying for whatever reason “Hathor 's mechanical image” was wielded, no matter who it was used by – priest for religious reasons or puppeteer for an audience – “the reenactment of the goddess 's sexual exposure went far beyond ordinary

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