| Original Message: Melons in Ancient Egypt |
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Hi Juel, I agree. I think a lot of the beads we call "melons" look much more like real melons, especially musk melons, than poppy seed pods. There was in fact a huge variety of melons in the ancient world, many of them with different ritual and food functions. In Egypt the melon was said to have sprung from the seed of the god Set (or Seth), who spilled it on the ground while in pursuit of Isis, who had assumed the form of a bitch in heat (Set, the god of storms and confusion, was the bad boy of the Egytian gods, and had to be propitiated with regular offerings from the human world.) Melons were important to ordinary mortals because they grew so easily and prolifically and were great thirst-quenchers in a hot, arid climate. They appear frequently on the walls of Pharaoh's tombs, presumably for that reason. I think that ancient bead and amulet makers were very skilled at conveying an image. So, when they wanted to represent poppy seed pods they carved or moulded them with the typical flat top we see in carnelian and faience beads; on the other hand, when they made objects that resembled melons, I'd guess that that's what they intended them to be. I'll append a nice, mouth-watering image of a musk melon, and a small picture (the only one I could find) of a so-called chate melon which is supposed to have been one of the original Egyptian varieties. And in the next post, I'll add an image of the fond blanc melon which seems very similar to me to the sort of "squashed melon" form of some early Southeast Asian beads, particularly from Funan. Finally, an old Russian photograph of a melon vendor in Samarkand (Uzberkistan) - which is where I ate huge quantities of the most beautiful melons I've ever tasted! Cheers, Will All rights reserved by Bead Collector Network and its users |
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