One
of the glories of Medinet Habu is the well preserved wall paintings. It is difficult
to realise that they are over 3000 years old.
I wish I knew more details
of the story behind the paintings. I've altered the colour balance slightly
using PaintShop Pro 7, to emphasise the colours.
Here,
Ramses III is receiving details of how many of the enemy were killed. Scribes
followed his armies - although it is thought that he did not have many campaigns
- and accounted for
the
dead, in order to work out the army's pay or share of the loot. To do this,
originally the right hand of the dead soldier was cut off and counted - top
of detail picture, but some wise soldier realised that the dead have 2 hands,
and overclaimed! To counter that, it was necessary to devise a fairer system
- so it was decreed that the enemy's penises should be removed, as they usually
only had one of those! So, the lower detail shows a heap of penises.
