Model of a Granary

The annual grain harvest was stored in granaries, to ensure that there was enough to eat throughout the year. This wooden model of a granary was buried in the tomb of a man called Antef, to magically provide him with an eternal supply of food in the Afterlife. If you look closely, you can see a seated scribe on the roof recording the amounts of grain brought in and taken out. A doorway painted reddish brown gives access to a walled courtyard that is peaked at the corners. Along the back wall are four flat roofed silos which are painted with sliding doors. Access to the roof is via stairs on the left side. There are four holes in the roof through which grain was introduced into the silos. A seated scribe sits on the roof with a reed pen in his right hand and a scribal palette in his left hand. On a writing board he records the amounts of grain being stored or issued. A man climbs the stairs carrying a sack of grain. From the cemetery below the Middle Kingdom rock-cut tombs at Beni Hasan excavated by Professor John Garstang for the Liverpool Institute of Archaeology, 1902-1904: the intact rock-cut shaft tomb of Antef (tomb no. 1).