Stephen Quirke

Pharaohs and mortals : Egyptian art in the Middle Kingdom

Written as a catalogue for an exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum in June 1988 this book is also an introduction to the sculpture, painting, jewellery, ceramics, calligraphy, literature and metalwork from the Middle Kingdom period of Ancient Egypt 2023-1650BC. Every item is illustrated.

Practice-Based Comparison of Imaging Methods for Visualization of Toolmarks on an Egyptian Scarab

3D representations were made of a small Egyptian scarab with a gold band by a number of methods, based on photogrammetry and photometric stereo. They were evaluated for colour fidelity and spatial detail, in the context of a study of toolmarks and manufacturing techniques of jewellery in ancient Egypt. It was found that although a 3D laser scanner gave the best geometric accuracy, the camera-based methods of photogrammetry and photometric stereo gave better representation of fine detail and colour on the object surface.

Mechanical reproduction in the age of the artwork? Faience and 5000 moulds from 14th-century BC Egypt

The excavations in the ancient city of Akhetaten at Tell El-Amarna in Egypt produced countless artefacts and fragments of brightly coloured material, known in Egyptology as ‘faience’, in addition to thousands of terracotta moulds for their production. These moulds provide direct evidence for technologies of mechanical reproduction in visual arts of the Late Bronze Age. The experimental recreation of moulds, as well as faience objects created from them, offers a significant advance in understanding perhaps the most crucial issue in faience production: the archetype behind the prototype. Despite the huge number of surviving moulds and faience products, there is no archaeological evidence that shows which material was used for the ‘master’ — the archetype required for the making of a mould. This article discusses faience production and its potential for reconsidering the specific trajectories of archetype to prototype and the distribution of the prototype.

Creation Stories In Ancient Egypt

This chapter approaches the sum of written and visual sources for ancient Egyptian creation motifs as an applied religious poetry imbued with views specific to that culture on matter, body, embryo, and the nature of the divine. The perception of creation as emergence of sun, sky, earth, and society is not the only means by which the ancient Egyptian sources express the mysteries of first life. Several other deities are prominent in the surviving record across Egypt, in addition to the generations unfurling from Ra to Horus. The visual imagery is not only as important as the written sources in the surviving record from ancient Egypt; at the most formal level of expression the written and visual are intricately interwoven to create a single horizon of eternity. Keywords: ancient Egyptian creation motifs; Horus; Ra; religious poetry; visual imagery

Book ReviewHieratische Papyri aus Tebtunis, I. By OsingJürgen The Carlsberg Papyri 2. 2 volumes. Pp. 310, pls. 30. Copenhagen, Museum Tusculanum Press, 1998. ISBN 87 7289 280 3. Price £238.Papiri Geroglifici e leratici da Tebtynis. By OsingJürgen and RosatiGloria2 volumes. Pp. 219, pls. 23. Florence, Istituto Papirologico ‘VitelliG.’, 1998. No ISBN. Price not stated.

provided in this chapter. The authors err in saying that Gebel Dokhan is the only known source of Imperial Porphyry. There are at least two others, both with modern quarries, 35 and 70 km north-west of Hurghada. A comparison of the Mons Porphyrites and Mons Claudianus quarries, based on the information in the two volumes published by Peacock and Maxfield, shows that there are many more similarities than differences between the two sites. Among the few notable differences are the following. First, Mons Claudianus was founded a little later (mid-first century AD) and abandoned much earlier (late third century AD) than Mons Porphyrites. Only three other Eastern Desert quarries, all smaller but still of substantial size, were first worked by the Romans, as Mons Porphyrites was, during the reign of Tiberius in the early first century AD: Wadi Barud.t Wadi Umm Wikala,s and Wadi Hammamat.? Of these, the mountainous Wadi Umm Wikala quarry is especially similar to Mons Porphyrites in its sprawling layout and elaborate infrastructure. Second, Mons Claudianus produced primarily large monolithic columns (up to 18 m) whereas Mons Porphyrites, because of the smaller fracture spacing in the porphyry bedrock, supplied a variety of smaller items. Third, although the ruins of Mons Porphyrites were later reoccupied by Christian hermits in the early Byzantine Period, during the same time Mons Claudianus saw the construction of a large monastic community with hundreds of stone huts. Fourth, Mons Claudianus has only two distinct quarrying areas with separate facilities whereas Mons Porphyrites has six. This difference is attributable to the more rugged terrain at Mons Porphyrites and also to the erratic geological distribution of the porphyry. The deficiencies noted above aside, this volume represents an invaluable and unrivalled reference on Mons Porphyrites. Together with the upcoming second volume, it will remain the definitive work on this site for a long time to come and, if the natural and man-induced destruction continues, may well become the last word on many of the sites features. This volume will be useful not only to those with an interest in Mons Porphyrites or its porphyry, but also to anyone with a general interest in Roman quarrying operations.