Image Details

BPK BILDAGENTUR/AEGYPTISCHES MUSEUM, STAATLICHE MUSEEN, BERLIN, GERMANY/SANDRA STEISS/ART RESOURCE, NY

DRAWING THE LONG STRAW. Painted on a limestone funerary stele, this scene shows a Syrian mercenary and his wife, Terura and Arbura, enjoying beer or wine. Terura drinks from an amphora through a long straw. Although both have foreign names, only Terura looks foreign. His clothes, facial features, hairstyle, and beard all follow the Egyptian style of depicting Semitic peoples. The stele most likely comes from el-Amarna (ancient Akhetaten), Egypt, and dates to the 14th century B.C.E., when Syrian mercenaries were attested in the Egyptian army.