Le cabinet de curiosités de Thoutmosis III

Abstract

The Thutmosis III' « cabinet de curiosités ». Pharaoh Thutmosis III had the walls of two rooms in the Amon-Rê temple at Karnak decorated with reliefs representing different animals, but above all numerous vegetables. Almost all these plants have been identified : 64, called «foreign », must have been observed during the expeditions led by the pharaoh in the Near East, but 265, called «extraordinary », come from the exotic areas of Africa and Asia : 64,5 9c belong to a teratologic type, whereas 29 % are characterized by a mode of reproduction considered as exceptional by the Egyptians. Placed in a particularly holy place of the temple, these non-narrative reliefs are a tribute to the divinity : they show the diversity of the Creation under its rarest aspects. Thus, they foreshadow the 16th and 17th centuries « cabinets de curiosités ».