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http://www.oocities.com/zoser8/03-1052a.jpg
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I've always been fascinated by the ancient Egyptians, for as long as I can remember. My mother instilled it in me at a very young age. When the traveling King Tut's mummy and his exhibit went to the Field Museum (in Chicago, where I'm from), my mom bought tickets and took me right away to see it and even bought me a T-shirt and several books. We would always go to the Egyptian exhibit that's already there anyway. I have my mom to thank for getting me into: art, the paranormal, ancient Egyptians, geology, archaeology and much more. Hi mom! Love you! :)
Anyway, after watching a documentary on the History channel today, my interest piqued that much more in regards to the ancient Egyptians. As if it needed to be piqued that much more! The documentary was about what is known as the Turin Erotic Papyrus. The papyrus may perhaps be the world's oldest "pornographic magazine", if you will. The first few pictures above are pictures of the actual papyrus scroll. It is in somewhat tatters, but scientists have put it together and the sketches below the actual photos are of what it must have looked like.
According to Wikipedia, the papyrus scroll was crafted around 1150 B.C.E. It was discovered in the 19th century. It is "8.5 feet (2.6m) by 10 inches" and "consists of two parts, one of which contains twelve erotic vignettes depicting various sex positions", as stated on it's Wiki article. The other section contains animals performing human tasks and is regarded as satire. It is currently in a museum in Turin, Italy.
Wikipedia describes it as:
"Not conforming the convention of bodily perfection in ancient Egyptian art, the men depicted on the papyrus are "scruffy, balding, short, and paunchy" with exaggeratedly large genitalia.[5] In contrast, the women are nubile and appear with canonical erotic images of convolvulus leaves, Hathoric imagery, lotus flowers, monkeys and sistra.[5] Overall, the artistic merit of the images is high, suggesting that the Erotic Papyrus had an elite owner and audience.[1]"
The text says (according to Wiki):
"The text appears to have been hastily written in the margins and would seem to express enjoyment and delight:
Experts, scientists have tried to figure out the PURPOSE of these scrolls but have not come to a conclusion. My conclusion is that it was probably a piece of commissioned art for a very horny person or persons! Haha.
You can watch the same documentary in parts here. The documentary goes into details of certain images, which is something I won't do here to keep it somewhat PG. Watch it for yourself and come up with your own conclusions!
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http://www.thekeep.org/~kunoichi/kunoichi/themestream/turin_sketch.jpg
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Also, if you're interested, I found this website to be very helpful when it came to the ancient Egyptians and sex.
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Sex is a sacred, beautiful and meaningful act. It is sharing love. (In my eyes, anyway) And many ancient cultures and civilizations viewed it as a sacred thing as well. I hope this little look into something different showed you although explicit in this scroll, sex was something special and sacred.
With warm regards,
Christina Pietrowski.
