Fowling in Marshes

Nebamun's tomb painting
Nebamun was a official in ancient Egypt. Around his tomb was a large wall painting.This scene showed Nebamun with his family hunting birds in the marshes of the River Nile. This type of scene, showing the deceased doing something they enjoyed, was very common in tombs. Nebamun wanted this wall painting in tomb so that he could have lots of birds and fishes to hunt in his after life, a place for the dead yo live.






This Painting shows the life of the people of Ancient Egypt and the small details in it. Some of the details are-

1. The eyes and shoulders of Egyptian figures were shown facing the front, but all other parts of the body were shown side on.
2. Can you see the cat balancing on to reeds trying to catch birds? Cats were family pets in ancient Egyptian times but also used as hunting partners.
3. The artists of this wall, Nebamun have managed to show the scaly and shiny skin of the fish.    
4. If a scribe though an illustration needed more explanation then hieroglyphs would be used such as these. Hieroglyphs literally means "sacred carving ". Each symbol represents a different letter or sound. In this painting such symbols are shown which represents different meanings

• The Horned Viper represents the letter F.
• The Egyptian vultures represent the letter A.
• The Eye is said to mean the word I.
• The Quail Chick represents the letter W or U.