Page 76 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

64 History and Science of Knots

Fig. 30. Schematic drawing of the wreath found at Qasr Ibrim. The wreath is
made from one palm leaf, which is split in the middle. The two halves have been
tied in two circles, and connected by knotting the the leaflets with ZS-reef knots

Fig. 31. Small knotted ring, and schematic drawing of the knot (Grass Knot,
#1490)

Knots in texts and images

References to knotting occur regularly in ancient hieroglyphic texts. Usually
the context is religious or magical, a division which would have been mean-
ingless to the people of ancient Egypt. The world of the gods was a world
like ours, and magic was a means to communicate with the other world. Sim-
ilarly there was no difference between depictions of knots as a symbol and
the magic use of knots, because to the ancient Egyptians all pictures had a
magical reality.
The best known example of-what we would consider-a symbolical knot,
is the uniting of the two countries (Fig. 32). Two Nile-gods, wealthy fat-bellied