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Material : Limestone
Acquisition : Gift of Sherman E and Ruth Lee (1992)
| Item 29 on 40
Ancient Egypt
Sculpture
Vitrine : 3 (Ref. 1)
Area related
Amarna (Egypte)
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| Description |  |
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Although marked by violence, the fragments in this case remain strongly evocative of the beauty and drama of the statuary that stood in the Great Temple of the Aten at Amarna. When the temple was demolished, after the Amarna period, statues from the Sanctuary were broken up, useful masses were carried away, and the rest was discarded in a dump outside the wall at a spot near the Sanctuary.
The dump area, conveniently known by the Latin term "favissa", was escavated in 1891-1892 by Flinders Petrie and Howard Carter, and most of the sculpture fragments from the excavation were acquired by the Museum. The Aten's name occurs frequently on these fragments but only in what is called its early form, which ceased to be used sometime between Years 8 and 12. The Sanctuary statuary was, therefore, essentially finished between Years 5 and 6, when Amarna was founded, and Years 8 and 12. The favissa fragments provide information about the types of statuary created for the Sanctuary and about the evolving scuptural styles from the early part of the king's reign at Amarna.
Across the top of the case are head fragments. This one has the elactic features associated with the earliest, or Theban, style, but it is less austere, a development that occurred after the capital moved to Amarna.
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