Casondra's Adventures

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.

Egyptian, replica

Woman birthing, Egyptian, replica

Camel caravan, Nabatean, replica

Camel suckling, replica

Egyptian cartouche, replica

Egyptian, naming site manager, replica

Egyptian, ancient

Crocodile rock

Egyptian, ancient

mountain lion rock

July 4, 2017: Timna Park, Israel: Hathor Chapel and Surrounds

Copyright Casondra Sobieralski. Permissions requests welcome.

I went to Timna as an alternative to going to Egypt this year since it is an exceptionally dangerous time to go to Egypt if you look like you might be a journalist (because of film and audio equipment).

Timna is a place in the Negev where the Egyptian mined copper under 5 pharaohs, starting with Seti I, about 3200 years ago. It is known as "the Pittsburgh of the Ancient Middle East," the park staff told me.

There is a Hathor chapel at this site because Hathor, in her guise as Goddess of the Mountain, was the patron diety of miners. They sought her protection when mining.

Hathor was also the goddess of sensuality, sexuality, motherhood, music, and beer. Sistrums and menat necklaces were rhythm instruments sacred to her priestesses and musicians. So I took a sistrum, handcrafted in Luxor, out there to the desert to record the acoustics of this oblong metal rattle in aspects of the landscape that featured different types of rock formations and copper mines.

Click on any image for a larger view.