The Egyptian historian Bassam Al-Shamagh answers this question, saying, “The ancient Egyptian knew winter, winds, hurricanes, and snow, and mentioned them in his hieroglyphic writings, where he divided the year into three seasons, the “Akht” season, which is the flood season and its duration was 4 months, the first season of the year. Then the “brit” season, and some used to liken this word to the current word cold, and the third season was the “shammo” season, and each season was 4 months to complete the months of the year 12 months.
He added, “People’s vision of the ancient Egyptian in light and transparent clothes, in the drawings in ancient Egyptian temples and tombs, made some wonder why he did not wear winter clothes and why it was always hot in ancient Egypt.”
The historian confirmed that the ancient Egyptian actually wore heavy winter clothes, which is evident in a pharaonic drawing showing 4 women wearing heavy clothes with a “shawl” of a brownish-red color, and another with light brown clothes that tend to yellow, and these dark colors are suitable for winter, and he was not wearing All season light transparent linen.
And he indicated that “pictures of wearing winter clothes appear in the tomb of a man named “Emin im Int”, and the owner of this tomb is a priest, in the “Ptah-Sukar” temple of King Amenhotep III in the 18th dynasty, and he is the father of “Akhenaten” and the grandfather of “Tutankhamun”. The cemetery is on the western bank of Luxor, and the wife of this priest is called Nefertiri, and she is a religious chanter to the god “Amen.” In her pictures in the cemetery she wore long, covered clothes, the color of which tends to red.
The Egyptians invented socks to warm the feet
Al-Shamagh continued by saying: “If you go to the Luxor Museum, you will find ancient Egyptian socks that were designed so that the thumb of the foot is separate from the rest of the sock, so as to give freedom to wear it as a “slipper” – a light shoe, without a heel, that can be worn and removed easily. The socks are made of thick fabric, which indicates that it was worn in cold weather and is more than 3300 years old, and it is in a very good state of preservation, and there are many examples of winter clothes that were worn by the Egyptians.
Why don’t we see pictures of the Pharaohs in winter clothes?
On the reason for not seeing the Egyptians on the walls of the temples in winter clothes, Al-Shemagh asserts that “what happened is that people visit famous tombs. Perhaps not visiting the tombs in which winter clothes appear is the reason why the viewer is accustomed to seeing only light clothes, and there is another factor, which is that we did not We discover only 1% of the ancient Egyptian antiquities, as stated by the scientist, “Sarah Barcak,” who works with NASA and relies on satellite images to produce antiquities and put statistics. It’s only 1 percent.”
He pointed out that “the images on the tombs embody the image of the ancient Egyptian plowing the land in light linen clothes with his wife, for a reason he believed that he was working in the fields of paradise, but these clothes do not reflect his clothes in his normal daily life, and there is evidence of the existence of winter clothes from The highest level, such as the skins of cattle, the skins of mountain goats, antelopes of various kinds, oxen, and horse hair, and the images of these animals are drawn in ancient tombs with distinction. Also, the ancient Egyptian wore different layers of linen that were enough to warm him.
Al-Shmagh added: “A large number of waistcoats worn by men and women were discovered and were embellished with gold inscriptions and precious and semi-precious stones, which made them heavy, and were hung on the shoulders like underwear at the present time, and they are used to warm the chest area greatly, as it is found in a museum Liverpool is something like a belt, made of linen, more than 5 meters long. It belongs to King “Ramses III” and is in excellent condition. Scientists believed because of its length that it was a military belt, and because of its length it could be wrapped from the abdomen to the chest, which makes it provide protection and heating for the body at the same time. the time”.
Climate change in Egypt
The historian pointed out that “thousands of years ago, Egypt underwent great climatic changes. The weather continued for hundreds of years, rainy, where savanna grass grew, and some animals such as giraffes, ostriches, lions, tigers, leopards and elephants appeared in the rock inscriptions where the ancient Egyptian hunted them. Using the arrow and the bow, the occurrence of climate change and desertification made these animals withdraw from ancient Egypt and head south, where water and greenery are available, and the flamingo and ostrich have disappeared due to climate change.”
And the Egyptian historian continued by saying: “The ancient Egyptian knew hurricanes, and they are present in the prophecy of “Nefertiti”, in which I mentioned the presence of a cloud that covered the sun, just as there were hurricanes.”