Arnold, Dorothea: The Royal Women of Amarna Images of Beauty from Ancient Egypt (original) (raw)
Female figurines" are small statuettes representing women, most of the time naked and possibly accompanied by a child. Known since Predynastic times, they are found in houses, inside or in the vicinity of sacred spaces, or in graves (of men, women and children). Of course, many of them also come from secondary contexts, i.e. trash pits. They were long taken for "concubines of the deceased", for dolls, or for images of goddesses, until Geraldine Pinch, in her book Votive Offerings to Hathor, presented these objects as being linked to rites promoting fertility, and also defined a first typology. More recently, Elizabeth Waraksa proposed, in her thesis Female Figurines from the Mut Precinct, that the use of the figurines would in fact be much broader: it seems that they were used and broken ritually in contexts that go far beyond a supposedly female universe, including for instance medico-magical healing processes. IFAO keeps a very important collection of this type of statuettes, most of them being unpublished. It is about 650 fragments, most of them coming from Deir el-Medina. I am in charge of their publication, in the form of a catalogue (DFIFAO) and an analytical synthesis. Some of these female figurines respond to the types found in New Kingdom Theban ensembles (Medinet Habu, Temple of Mut), but many present very rare characteristics, or bear features that have attracted little attention: dressed figurines, kneeling or seated statuettes, pregnant women, various bodily marks (paintings, tattoos, scarification marks), etc. I propose to present these objects at the AUC's conference "Women in Ancient Egypt", paying particular attention to the practices and beliefs that surround them, and to the very specific iconography they show. Belonging to popular practices and folk art, some of the figurines kept at the IFAO are diametrically opposed to the female canons found in official art: they reveal different norms, and in so doing, reflect a different approach to the female body, which is well worth studying.
Introduction to Ancient Egyptian Art
This brief introduction, prepared as a companion piece to accompany a lecture series in 2024, was drawn from lecture notes and from my five-part series Read Like an Egyptian: Art and Architecture in Ancient Egypt, published in www.Academia.edu, in 2018.
Royal Sculpture of the Predynastic and Archaic Periods
Knowledge of the beginnings of the Egyptian Empire is severely limited by a lack of both inscrip-tional material and architecture. Little survives from this time other than mortuary constructions, mostly tombs, and enclosures for celebrating the heb-sed ceremony. Nevertheless, a number of mostly small representations of early monarchs survive, providing important evidence for the role played by the kings of the earliest days of a newly established realm as well as the increasing development of portraiture as a method of achieving immortality and being worshipped. We also offer our opinion that the duration of the Archaic Period is from Dynasty 0 to the end of Dynasty 2, and that the onset of Dynasty 0 is approximately 3250 BC and that it ends between 100 and 150 years later. Furthermore, we analyze two statues from Dynasty 2, one of which has been incorrectly called modern, and the other mistaken for a later king because of a usurper's re-inscription. For many, particularly laymen, the history of Egypt begins with Dynasty 4, the so-called " Age of the Pyramids, " but a recent renewal of interest in the Predynastic and Archaic Periods, largely sparked by excavations in Abydos, Hierakonpolis, Tell el-Farkha, and other early sites in Upper and Lower Egypt, has largely altered this conception. The discovery of many elite tombs, along with numerous artifacts, has made it evident that while our knowledge of that era is growing apace, much remains for us to learn. Although some historians have attempted to establish a chronology for the earliest rulers of ancient Egypt, we are unaware of any comprehensive study of their three-dimensional images. Because these objects divulge important information about the status of the subjects, as well as the social history at the beginning of the empire, we believe it important to catalogue as many as we can identify and attempt to determine the meaning of their poses, garb, headdresses, and attributes. In some cases, they are depicted with a female companion—a valuable source of information about the role of women at the beginning of an organized Egyptian society. We are certain that our list is incomplete, with many of the potential candidates unpublished or unrecognized. The beginning of the Fourth Millennium BC witnessed the onset of two parallel and sophisticated civilizations, the Naqada Culture in Upper Egypt, and a lesser known, but probably equally complex society in Lower Egypt. 1 The latter area is relatively unexplored since intensive agricultural development, building activities, and a high water table have made excavation difcult in much of the Delta. Highly organized and rened, the Naqada Culture's achievements include the development of writing needed to support a newly born administration, and superlative examples of art such as decorated pottery, intricately carved ceremonial ivory knife handles, and commemorative greywacke palettes. These objects