Ramesses III prisoner tiles

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Tiles in the Egyptian Museum catalogued in 1911 Ramesses III prisoner tiles from Medinet Habu, catalogued in 1911 by Georges Daressy.jpg
Tiles in the Egyptian Museum catalogued in 1911
Tiles catalogued in 1908 by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Ramesses III prisoner tiles from Tell el-Yahudiya, catalogued in 1908 by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.jpg
Tiles catalogued in 1908 by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

The Ramesses III prisoner tiles are a collection of Egyptian faience depicting prisoners of war, found in Ramesses III's palaces at Medinet Habu (adjacent to the Mortuary Temple at Medinet Habu) and Tell el-Yahudiyeh. [3] Large numbers of faience tiles have been found in these areas by sebakh-diggers since 1903; [4] the best known are those depicting foreign people or prisoners. [5] Many were found in excavated rubbish heaps. [4]

Contents

They are considered of significant historical and ethnographical interest, given the representation of neighbouring populations during the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt (1189 BC–1077 BC). [6]

Most are in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, as well as the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. [4]

Description

Location and size

Doorway at Medinet Habu showing the original location of the tiles at the bottom of either side. Doorway at Medinet Habu showing location of Ramesses III prisoner tiles.jpg
Doorway at Medinet Habu showing the original location of the tiles at the bottom of either side.

Tiles were found in 1870 at Tell el-Yahoudieh and in 1903 in Medinet Habu. Those of Tell el-Yahoudieh are larger, with a width of circa 10.5 centimetres (4.1 in), whilst those are Medinet Habu fall into two groups 30 by 7 centimetres (11.8 in × 2.8 in) and 25 by 6.5 centimetres (9.8 in × 2.6 in). All the tiles are rectangular, with a base thickness of 1.0–1.2 centimetres (0.39–0.47 in), and together with the relief sculpture of the people, the total thickness is 1.8–2.0 centimetres (0.71–0.79 in). [7]

The Medinet Habu prisoner tiles were originally located in three rectangular cells on either side of the palace doorways, each of 30.5 centimetres (12.0 in) in height and 8 centimetres (3.1 in) in width. [8]

In all the tiles, the prisoners are shown standing up. In some tiles, the soles of the prisoners' feet rest on the ground; in others they may be interpreted as running or hanging. The prisoners' arms are often tied, and in other tiles a white and black rope with acorns at the ends is shown around the neck. [9]

Identification and provenance

In his 1911 paper on the tiles, French Egyptologist Georges Daressy, of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, noted that the tiles have no inscriptions, so identification of the peoples shown required a comparison of the drawings with previously known temple bas-reliefs or tomb paintings, giving some uncertainty:

Unfortunately, there is no inscription on these tiles fixing the name of the peoples represented; we are forced to compare with the bas-reliefs of the temples or the paintings of the tombs to find a similar type and we are sometimes perplexed. [10]

Formal excavation work at Medinet Habu by the Egyptian Antiquities Service (EAS) ended in 1899, but work continued by local fellahin sebakh-diggers (sebakh is the nitrogen-rich remains of ancient mud brick, dug up to be used as fertilizer). [11] In 1903, the fellahin discovered remains of overturned doorways, still partly covered with their original decoration in enamelled tiles. Some pieces disappeared, but most were collected by the "ghafirs" and sent by Howard Carter, then Chief Inspector of the EAS in Upper Egypt, to the Cairo Museum, together with four of the pillars and an overdoor to which they had belonged. [12] The Egyptian Museum tablets are numbered JE 36261 a-b, 36271, 36399, 36440 a-c, 36441 a-c, 36457 a-k, as well as one prior to the 1903 accessions numbered JE 27525. [13]

The Boston Museum of Fine Arts noted in 1908 that the tiles' "provenance is a matter of question". [14] They were purchased in 1903 on behalf of the museum by Albert Lythgoe from Luxor-based antiquities dealer Mohamed Mohassib; the purchase was made as part of a group (03.1566-03.1577; 03.1578a-i). [14] [15]

Bibliography

General sources

Medinet Habu tiles

Tell el-Yahoudieh tiles

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References

  1. ↑ Daressy 1911.
  2. ↑ LER 1908.
  3. ↑ Hölscher 1941, pp. 42–44.
  4. 1 2 3 Hölscher 1941, p. 42.
  5. ↑ Hölscher 1941, p. 40.
  6. ↑ Daressy 1911, p. 51a: In the original French: "Ce sont ces représentations de prisonniers qui olfrent le plus grand intérêt au point de vue historique et ethnographique, en nous montrant les types des populations étrangères voisines de l'Egypte au xii^ sièle avant notre ère."
  7. ↑ Daressy 1911, p. 51b: "In the original French: "Ces plaquettes sont analogues à celles trouvées en 1870 à Tell el-Yahoudieh mais un peu moins grandes, car les premières ont 0 m 105 mill de largeur tandis que celles de Médinet-Habou peuvent se classer en deux séries, les plus grandes ayant 0 m. 30 c. sur 0 m. 07 c. et les autres environ 0 m. 25 cent, sur 0 m. 065 mill. La fabrication de toutes est la même. Sur un fond rectangulaire de 0 m. 01 cent, ou 0 m. 012 mill d'épaisseur s'enlève en relief le personnage, si bien que l'épaisseur totale est 0 m. 018 mill. ou 0 m. 02 cent."
  8. ↑ Daressy 1911, p. 51c: In the original French: "Enfin, à la partie inférieure trois alvéoles rectangulaires de 0 m. 305 mill. de hauteur et 0 m. 08 cent, de largeur étaient garnis de plaquettes représentant des prisonniers étrangers. Sous la porte la décoration du pilier, épais de 0 m. 29 cent, rappelait celle de la façade, mais avec suppression de l'image du roi. On avait donc en haut des rainures encadrant la légende de Ramsès III, puis une plaque large de 0 m. 18 cent, avec des oiseaux rekhitou, et dans le bas deux prisonniers sur des plaquettes larges seulement de 0 m. 065 mill."
  9. ↑ Daressy 1911, p. 51d: In the original French: "Tous ces étrangers sont debout; tantôt la plante des pieds pose à terre, tantôt la pointe seule touche le sol comme s'ils couraient ou étaient suspendus. Les bras sont liés dans les positions les plus étranges et souvent au cou est passé une corde émaiilée blanc et noir terminée par des glands."
  10. ↑ Daressy 1911, p. 52: In the original French: "Il n'y a malheureusement sur ces plaques aucune inscription nous fixant sur le nom du peuple représenté; on est donc forcé de comparer avec les bas-reliefs des temples ou les peintures des tombeaux pour retrouver le type figuré et l'on est parfois embarrassé pour l'assimilation."
  11. ↑ Teeter, Emily; Hölscher, Uvo; Anthes, Rudolf (2010). Baked Clay Figurines and Votive Beds from Medinet Habu. Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. ISBN   978-1-885923-58-5.
  12. ↑ Daressy 1911, pp. 51–52: In the original French: "L'encadrement du balcon du côté de la cour avait été orné de plaquettes d'émail incrusté dont plusieurs fragments avaient été recueillis pendant le déblaiement, ce qui m'avait fait penser qu'une ornementation semblable pouvait avoir été employée dans l'édifice annexe; ce temple étant de Ramsès III, tout comme l'édifice d'où proviennent les émaux de Tell el-Yahoudieh, il y avait des probabilités pour qu'on ait eu recours au même mode de décoration. Mais le déblaiement de l'intérieur du temple et de son extérieur immédiat étant terminé, les travaux directs du Service des Antiquités furent arrêtés en 1899, et on laissa aux cultivateurs des environs le soin de dégager, par l'enlèvement du sébakh sous la surveillance de nos gardiens, tout le reste de l'aire comprise dans le grand mur d'enceinte. C'est en 1903 que des fellahs mirent au jour dans la partie correspondant à l'édifice annexe, des restes de portes renversées, encore munies en partie de leur décoration primitive en plaques émaillées. Quelques morceaux disparurent [Note: Plusieurs de ces tablettes sont au Musée des Beaux -Arts de Boston et ont élé publiés dans son Bulletin, vol. VI, n° 36 (décembre 1908)] mais la majeure partie fut recueillie par les ghafirs et envoyée par M. Howard Carter, alors inspecteur en chef des antiquités de la Haute-Egypte, au Musée du Caire, ainsi que quatre des piliers et un dessus de porte auxquels ils avaient appartenu."
  13. ↑ Daressy 1911, pp. 53–63.
  14. 1 2 LER 1908, p. 47.
  15. ↑ "Tile with Nubian chief". Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. January 23, 2018.
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