Throwstick

Throwstick


 * Egyptian Name:**

//Gme//

Beginning during the Old Kingdom, scenes of kings and commoners hunting birds in the marshes decorated tomb and temple walls. To bring down their prey ancient hunters would use throwsticks, which resemble the modern boomerang. Actual wooden examples, undoubtedly used in hunts, have been found in the tombs of Tutankhamen and Amemhotep II. Like the boomerang, Egyptian throwsticks returned: "the stick returns to the feet of the thrower and is ready at hand for the next flight of ducks." Other throwsticks made of blue faience had ritual meanings, and were decorated with symbols like the Eye of Horus and shaped like the head of a snake, dog, jackal, or bird.

In ancient Egyptian art and religion, marshes had highly erotic connotations. The Egyptian word for throwstick was very similar to the word for "beget" or "create," so the fowling scenes were intended to insure procreation and fertility after death. Masses of birds also stood for chaos, and thus a hunter with a throwstick also represented order, or Ma’at.

Magical Objects