Egyptian Dreams

anneke · Queen of Egypt Joined: 23 Jan 2004 Posts: 9305

I was recently reading an interesting article by Arielle Kozloff called "Chips off Old Statues: Carving the Amenhotep IV Colossi of Karnak" in KMT Journal (Fall 2012).

The colossal statues show evidence of being recarved form other colossal statues. Some of the statues show 2 belly buttons, there are khat headdresses that do not reach the shoulder (as they normally do), one of the bust fragments clearly shows another hand underneath the left hand.

There are more details regarding the polish of the statues and hack signs that add to the overall evidence that these statues are recarved from earlier statues.

The obvious question is: who did they depict before the change? There is a series of photographs that shows how one of Amenhotep III's statues can be morphed into Akhenaten's image. This requires narrowing the face and slightly remodeling the mouth (etc).

Kozloff speculates that the colossal Osiride statues of Amenhotep III may have taken from the Sun COurt of the Luxor temple and then recarved to represent Akhenaten.

Statue JE 55938 is a colossus that is often brought up in discussions about thesse colossi because it looks feminine. There is no evidence of a kilt, the figure is shown in a striding pose (left foot slightly forward) and the head is relatively small.

There is a colossal statue of a Queen at Tell Basta which is 9.2 meters (30 ft) high. It is now reinscribed to mention Osorkon, but it may have originally depicted Tiye (and I have seen it ascribed to Merytamen - daughter of Ramesses II as well). Kozloff points out that if one removed the large wig and recarved the body, one would end up with something like the JE 55938 colossus.

It's an interesting read Very Happy

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Math and Art: http://mathematicsaroundus.blogspot.com/

kylejustin · Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 3:42 am Post subject:

sounds fascinating anneke. and much easier to recarve someone else's than to create your own! how do they know they came from luxor originally?
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Lutz · Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 9:32 am Post subject:

The most comprehensive presentation to the colossi undoubtedly offers

Lise Manniche : The Akhenaten Colossi of Karnak. - Cairo : American University in Cairo Press, 2010. - ISBN : 977-416-349-4; 978-977-416-349-4. - X, 182 p., with a full detailed catalog of all known colossi or parts of them.

The re-carving theorie is in short mentioned here on page 97 ff. Officially published it was as

Arielle P. Kozloff : Chips off the Old Block - Amenhotep IV's Sandstone Colossi, Re-Cut from Statues of Amenhotep III. - In: Millions of Jubilees - Studies in Honor of David P. Silverman - 1. - Annales du Service des Antiquités de l'Égypte - ASAE - Supplement - 39. - Cairo : General Organisation for Government Printing Offices, 2010. - ISBN : 978-977-704-084-6. - ISSN : 1687-4951. - pp. 279 - 294.

Greetings, Lutz.

anneke · Queen of Egypt Joined: 23 Jan 2004 Posts: 9305

Kozloff actually refers to Rita Freed from the Boston Museum of Fine arts as someone who sparked her interest in this question.

Freed had noticed and published remarks about the recarving of the statues in the 1990s.

The article in Millions of Jubilees - Studies in Honor of David P. Silverman is an abbreviated version of the article that appears in the KMT Journal.
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Math and Art: http://mathematicsaroundus.blogspot.com/

Lutz

Lutz · Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 7:34 pm Post subject:

Montuhotep88

anneke · Queen of Egypt Joined: 23 Jan 2004 Posts: 9305

Yes, it's the very latest issue of KMT.

And thanks for the biblio Lutz. Smile

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Math and Art: http://mathematicsaroundus.blogspot.com/

burlgirl

Montuhotep88 · Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2012 1:26 pm Post subject:

Heads-up! Interesting reply article in this issue of KMT, proposing that, instead of being recarved from Amenhotep III statues, that they were recarved from early-style Amenhotep IV statues.

burlgirl · Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 9:05 pm Post subject:

Montuhotep88,
Is it the Winter Issue or the Fall? I was at the book store yesterday and I only saw the Fall issue.
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To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which
he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

Thomas Jefferson

Montuhotep88 · Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 9:24 pm Post subject:

It's the Winter issue; got it a couple of days ago. Smile

burlgirl · Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 11:07 pm Post subject:

Well,that's certainly something to be thankful for, and to look forward to!
_________________
To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which
he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

Thomas Jefferson

Lutz · Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2015 4:21 am Post subject: