Through the Eras

MusicWomen playing the harp, lute, and tambourine. Wallpainting. Nineteenth Dynasty. WERNER FORMAN/ART RESOURCE NY.hunting scenes. A third Roman period relief showswomen beating tambourines to scare birds out of the undergrowth.Such scenes suggest possibilities for the useof music in hunting that cannot be fully confirmed withthe present state of the evidence.SOURCESHartwig Altenmüller, “Bemerkungen zum Hirtenlied des AltenReiches,” Chronique D’Egypte 48 (1973): 211–231.T. G. H. James, Pharaoh’s People: Scenes from Life in ImperialEgypt (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985).Lisa Manniche, Music and Musicians in Ancient Egypt (London:British Museum Press, 1991).MALE AND FEMALE MUSICIANS INTHE OLD KINGDOMGENDER DISTINCTIONS. Men and women bothworked as musicians during the Old Kingdom. Whilesome instruments—such as the harp and certain formsof percussion—could be played by either men or women,other instruments were gender-designated. Only menplayed single and double flutes and oboes, while womenplayed the shoulder harp, frame drums, clap sticks, andthe sistrum. Singing, another musical expression open toeither sex, was so fundamental to almost every performancethat the instrumentalists functioned either as accompaniststo other singers or to themselves if they weresinging. The singers and the instrumentalists were largelyprofessionals, though there is evidence that women entertainedmembers of their family as amateur musicians.In the Sixth Dynasty, for example, a tomb drawing showsthe high official Mereruka and his wife Watetkhethorlounging on a bed while she played the harp. In othertombs there are examples of wives, daughters, or granddaughtersof the deceased playing the harp for the deceased.The first known professional singer, named Iti,performed with the harpist Heknut during the Fifth Dynastyaccording to a depiction of the pair on the tombof Nikawre in Saqqara. Since they do not appear to berelatives of Nikawre, Egyptologists assume that they wereprofessionals.ENSEMBLES. Though all-male ensembles predominatedin the Old Kingdom, all-female and mixed-genderensembles are represented in tomb scenes of music mak-164 Arts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.)