Casondra's Adventures: July 2017: Timna Park, Chariot Area

Friday, January 5, 2018

July 2017: Timna Park, Chariot Area

This area of Timna Park is a treasure trove of petroglyphs. The carvings on the rock faces are ancient, and they are pharonic Egyptian. The carvings at the interpretive pavilion are casts, and they are a mix of Egyptian and Nabatean.

I find these Egyptian petroglyphs to be fascinating because they are the only surviving art I have seen by ordinary Egyptians. We say Deir el Medina in Luxor shows us the lives of "ordinary people," but they really were not so ordinary. They were not nobility or royalty, but they were trained artisans and scribes who created the art for the high classes. So the art they made was highly skilled.

By contrast, at Timna this art, or graffiti, depending on why it was there, is made my miners [and/or anyone else living at the mining camps].

Click on any image for a larger view.