Preparing and Cooking Cakes, Tomb of Rekhmire 1504 BC

Nina de Garis Davies created "Preparing and Cooking Cakes, Tomb of Rekhmire," a watercolor facsimile, to document ancient Egyptian life. Davies' meticulous approach to copying tomb decorations provides a lens through which to consider the lives of those often marginalized in historical narratives. In this scene we witness the labor involved in preparing food, specifically cakes. The figures, rendered in a conventional Egyptian style, are shown engaged in various stages of baking, from mixing ingredients to shaping the dough. These tasks, likely performed by enslaved people, offer a glimpse into the socio-economic hierarchies of ancient Egypt. Davies’ work invites us to consider the emotional and physical experiences of the cooks, whose identities remain largely unrecorded. Through her rendering, we can reflect on the nature of labor, and the ways in which food preparation is often gendered and undervalued. In this image we see not just a depiction of baking, but a meditation on the human condition.