The Corporation of Craftsmen Plasterers played a significant
role and had a high status in Ancient Egyptian society. The Egyptians compared
the white paste with which they made their blocks to the dough used in bread-making.
Both had the same name (dough = ta, earth = ta, bread = ta). Potter's loam
was called earth-bread.
Blocks and bread were made in a similar way: the earth (ta) was mixed, kneaded
and moulded. Bread (ta) was made following the same procedure.
Ta was also the name given to a potter's kiln. The plaster used as cement
was called semay (that which binds). If we take a careful look at the many
frescoes depicting building work we see that they often show the moulding
of reconstituted stone and not the making of unburnt brick.
In many of the pictures, the blocks shown are white or grey, and not black
as the mud from the Nile.
The hieroglyph representing earth evokes a "loaf" of potter's
loam. In Egypt, loam, dough and bread were all called ta. The sign was almost
always accompanied by three grains of sand which signified the plural, the
dough being made of a multitude of grains. A disc was also used to represent
the pupil of an eye or a pharmaceutical pill.
This hieroglyph represents the sound t, an abbreviation of ta. It is also
a round loaf of bread (ta) and a rounded belly representing fecundity. |
Wall paintings in the Tomb of Rakhmira, the man in charge of the
craftsmen responsible for the building work (mer kaout) during the
reigns of the pharaohs Thoutmosis III and Amenophis II.
On the walls of his chapel there are numerous painted scenes showing
the transformation (processing) of materials. We also see mounds of
paste being used to make bricks and reconstituted stone. |
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Kad : Work
