FermenteaWhere food goes to change
Equipment · Historical object · Jars, pots and crocks
Met 544258
The Meketre tomb model depicts brewing at Thebes: a mixing vat, fermenting crocks and round jugs for the finished beer.
The Meketre model brings a brewery into the tomb as a compact, roofless workshop. The Metropolitan Museum of Art dates it to about 1981–1975 BCE and records its findspot in the tomb of Meketre at Thebes, Upper Egypt. Painted figures work in separate spaces among basins, tubs, tall crocks and rounded jugs. The object is a model of a combined bakery and brewery; it preserves a visual arrangement, not a full-scale installation.
The museum's description assigns distinct jobs to the containers. A tall vat receives water and dough-like mash after the grain has been processed. The resulting liquid is placed in four tall crocks to ferment, then poured into round jugs. The round jugs have black clay stoppers in the museum's account. This sequence makes the basin, fermentation crock and finished-beer jug different parts of a workflow rather than interchangeable examples of one generic jar.
The scene is especially useful for seeing how manual labor and vessels are arranged together. Its low, partitioned rooms keep workers close to the containers they handle, while the vessel forms vary with the operation described by the museum. The four crocks are identified as fermentation vessels by the collection interpretation; the model itself should not be treated as direct proof of every detail of an actual brewing procedure.
The museum gives the model's dimensions as 73 by 55 by 29 centimetres and describes its own medium as wood, gesso, paint and linen. Those measurements belong to the miniature, not to the represented vats or jars. The record does not provide full-size vessel dimensions, capacity, manufacture or maintenance details. The model also combines bakery and brewery rooms, reflecting their relationship in ancient Egyptian food production without making every basin a fermenter.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art dates the model to ca. 1981–1975 BCE, early Dynasty 12, and identifies its findspot as the tomb of Meketre at Thebes.
The tomb model is a representation of a bakery and brewery, not a complete technical plan or recipe. It does not establish the dimensions, capacities, materials or exact construction of full-scale vessels.
Source →The Met records the model's findspot as the tomb of Meketre at Thebes, Upper Egypt; this locates the model, not a verified brewery installation.
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The Metropolitan Museum of ArtObject identity · Date · Geography · Depicted equipment roles · Image reference
Model Bakery and Brewery from the Tomb of MeketreThe model dates to ca. 1981–1975 BCE and comes from the tomb of Meketre at Thebes, Upper Egypt.
The Met describes a tall vat in which water is worked into the mash, four tall crocks where the resulting liquid is set aside to ferment, and round jugs into which beer is poured after fermentation.
The Met labels the collection image Public Domain and offers Open Access use.
Cited in: A workshop shown in miniature; What the model can tell us