Egypt
These old kingdom reserve heads as they are known appear to be funerary in nature. Nearly all are carved of white limestone but at least one is made from Nile mud.
Many appear to be actual portraits while some are too idealized to be portraits of the tomb owners in which all the heads were found.
Harvard Egyptologist Dr. George Reisner found most of the heads in tombs from the fourth dynasty at Giza relating to courtiers of Pharaoh's Khufu and Khafre. One was found by Jacques de Morgan in 1894 at Saqqara.
One of the heads was undisturbed since the day of burial and was found in the burial chamber next to the sarcophagus. The other heads were found scattered around the tombs and in their shafts discarded by ancient robbers.
One of the heads which came from Giza tomb G4940B and now in the Boston museum of fine arts has a heavily plastered attachment to its face and holes indicating the ears were in another material.
Some have suggested the heads were created as molds for funerary masks.
The heads show that the royal court of this dynasty contained members of a number of races.
The practice of mummification at this period was not perfected and these heads may be an early form of Ka statue for this nearly three dozen courtiers of the fourth dynasty.
- Taking But Not Giving In New Zealand
New Zealand Herald (Brian Rudiman) Over the past decade, Te Papa's headhunters have been steadily working their way through a list of 120 institutions - mainly European museums - seeking the repatriation of toi moko. They are the mummified heads that...
- Exhibition: Hearst Museum Offers Media Preview
UC Berkeley News A media preview of “The Conservator’s Art: Preserving Egypt’s Past,” a new exhibit opening Thursday, April 29, at the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. The exhibit features...
- Living Images Book Launch - Comment On Phrenology
Otralala The authors of “Living images – Egyptian funerary portraits in the Petrie Museum” each spoke, giving context to the writing of the book and to the portraits themselves. The portraits were discovered while Flinders Petrie was looking for...
- The Ancient Nobles Of Armant
Archaeologists working at the temple of Montu at Armant have had good pickings recently with the discovery of five heads with crowns, said to be of Middle Kingdom period and now two statues of nobles though without their heads. The first is of an 18th...
- Conventions Of Egyptian Sculpture
Where did these reserve heads come out of and why did they not integrate into the conventions of Egyptian funerary sculpture? What had been the need for limestone heads with their features in plaster? Could it have been part of the death rituals, the...
Egypt
Functionality of Reserve Heads
These old kingdom reserve heads as they are known appear to be funerary in nature. Nearly all are carved of white limestone but at least one is made from Nile mud.
Many appear to be actual portraits while some are too idealized to be portraits of the tomb owners in which all the heads were found.
Harvard Egyptologist Dr. George Reisner found most of the heads in tombs from the fourth dynasty at Giza relating to courtiers of Pharaoh's Khufu and Khafre. One was found by Jacques de Morgan in 1894 at Saqqara.
One of the heads was undisturbed since the day of burial and was found in the burial chamber next to the sarcophagus. The other heads were found scattered around the tombs and in their shafts discarded by ancient robbers.
One of the heads which came from Giza tomb G4940B and now in the Boston museum of fine arts has a heavily plastered attachment to its face and holes indicating the ears were in another material.
Some have suggested the heads were created as molds for funerary masks.
The heads show that the royal court of this dynasty contained members of a number of races.
The practice of mummification at this period was not perfected and these heads may be an early form of Ka statue for this nearly three dozen courtiers of the fourth dynasty.
- Taking But Not Giving In New Zealand
New Zealand Herald (Brian Rudiman) Over the past decade, Te Papa's headhunters have been steadily working their way through a list of 120 institutions - mainly European museums - seeking the repatriation of toi moko. They are the mummified heads that...
- Exhibition: Hearst Museum Offers Media Preview
UC Berkeley News A media preview of “The Conservator’s Art: Preserving Egypt’s Past,” a new exhibit opening Thursday, April 29, at the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. The exhibit features...
- Living Images Book Launch - Comment On Phrenology
Otralala The authors of “Living images – Egyptian funerary portraits in the Petrie Museum” each spoke, giving context to the writing of the book and to the portraits themselves. The portraits were discovered while Flinders Petrie was looking for...
- The Ancient Nobles Of Armant
Archaeologists working at the temple of Montu at Armant have had good pickings recently with the discovery of five heads with crowns, said to be of Middle Kingdom period and now two statues of nobles though without their heads. The first is of an 18th...
- Conventions Of Egyptian Sculpture
Where did these reserve heads come out of and why did they not integrate into the conventions of Egyptian funerary sculpture? What had been the need for limestone heads with their features in plaster? Could it have been part of the death rituals, the...