Birth tile
| Mesechen in hieroglyphics | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mesechen Msẖn place of birth |
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Birth brick ( Egyptian Mesechen , also Meschen, Mes-chen ), also Gebärziegel , refers to an ancient Egyptian clay brick on which a woman let her legs rest when giving birth to a child. In practical application, therefore, the birthing tile was always used in pairs as an early form of the birthing chair. Birth bricks are mainly known from Egyptian texts.
background
In Egyptian mythology , the naming of the birth brick often appears in connection with the determination of fate. In the Westcar Papyrus , the mythological background in the “Tale of the Three Sons of God” becomes particularly clear. Isis , Nephthys , Mesechenet , Heket and Khnum assist in the birth of the sons of God, who are each placed on four bricks after the umbilical cord has been cut. Then Mesechenet proclaims the fate of life. In other texts, Thoth also appears in this function , who mentions the path of life and the date of death at birth.
After death, the birth tile takes on the function of “speaking of fate in a duat ”, if the decision of the court of death decides on the further path. In the context of the Egyptian astronomical texts , the sun god Re has to make his way through “the gate of birth” or “the place of birth” of Nut every day at sunrise .
Relation of the birth brick in everyday life of the Egyptians
Since the birth of a child was a critical moment in the life of a woman and a child - the death rates of mother and child are very high in all pre-industrial societies - the birth of a child was under the protection of deities, especially the Mesechenet. The birth bricks represented a form of this goddess. In representations, she often appears as a brick with a human head.
Archaeological finds
A birth brick was found in a large house in Wahsut (near Abydos ) in 2002 . It was originally painted on all sides, but the depictions on the top were completely gone, probably because it was the surface on which the woman sat her legs. The scenes preserved show mother and child as well as deities. Wild animals are also shown, which certainly also had protective functions for mother and child. The brick dates to around 1700 BC. BC ( 13th Dynasty ).
literature
- Alexandra von Lieven : Floor plan of the course of the stars - the so-called groove book . The Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Ancient Eastern Studies, Copenhagen 2007, ISBN 978-87-635-0406-5 , pp. 133-134