Reuniting Fragments of an Amarna Statue?

On the 23 December 1931, exactly 88 years ago today, a fragment of sandstone (excavation number 31/511) was uncovered at Amarna. This fragment (W154) is currently on display in the Amarna Case in the House of Life gallery and has recently been used during a handling session on the Amarna Period. The fragment is carved on two sides, with a table of offerings on the top and the remains of a hand underneath (fig. 1). It is thus clear that the fragment was part of statue of the king holding an offering table, a well-known style during the Amarna Period (Bosse-Griffiths 2001). The excavations at this time were directed by John Devitt Stringfellow Pendlebury (1904–1941) under the auspices of the Egypt Exploration Society (Bierbrier 2019, 421–22). According to the excavation report (Pendlebury 1951, 102) and object card (fig. 2), the fragment was found in the magazines of the “Priests’ Quarters (P. 43.1)”, which lay just to the south of the Small Aten Temple (Kemp 2013, 86–87).

Fig. 1: Statue fragment (W154)

The archives in the Wellcome Library reveal that W154 was transferred to the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum in August 1932, as part of the distribution of EES finds (Frankfort & Pendlebury 1933, 119). The transfer of objects was in receipt of the financial contribution made by Sir Henry Wellcome to the Society. The Egyptian material collected by Wellcome (approximately 20,000 objects) was distributed in 1971 to five main institutions: The Petrie Museum, The Oriental Museum (Durham), World Museum (Liverpool), Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, and Swansea University (now housed in The Egypt Centre). A substantial quantity of material transferred to Swansea originates from the EES excavations at Amarna. In total, the Egypt Centre has over 300 objects from the site, including a large quantity of pottery and some painted plaster.  

Fig. 2: EES object card for W154 (TA.OC.31-32.511)

While researching W154 for my handling class, I came across a fragment in the World Museum in Liverpool that looked quite similar to our piece. 1973.1.475 is a small sandstone fragment containing the carved fingers of a person, also from a statue (fig. 3). The EES object card (fig. 4) and publication (Pendlebury 1951, 88) indicate that it was discovered on the 3 January 1932, less than two weeks after the Swansea fragment was excavated. The find spot is recorded as P. 42.1, which relates to the king’s house to the north of the Small Aten Temple (Kemp 2013, 123–35; Pendlebury 1951, 86–89). Like the Swansea fragment, 1973.1.475 was transferred to the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum in August 1932.

Fig. 3: 1973.1.475 (World Museum, Liverpool. Courtesy of Ashley Cooke)

Fig. 4: EES object card for 1973.1.475 (TA.OC.31-32.584)

New photographs and measurements of 1973.1.475 were kindly supplied by Ashley Cooke, the Senior Curator of Antiquities at Liverpool. With the help of Photoshop, I attempted to virtually join these two fragments (fig. 5). Excitingly, they line up fairly well along the crack lines. However, the differences in measurements suggests that they do not belong together. In order to check for sure, a resin cast of W154 will be produced by the Engineering Department at Swansea University to send to Liverpool. While it seems unlikely at this stage that they do join, a recent article published in Horizon, the newsletter of the Amarna Trust, describes the potential of matching statue fragments through 3D printing (Anonymous 2019). In addition to W154, the Egypt Centre possesses around twenty statue fragment from Amarna, most originating from the EES excavations, which may join with fragments in other collections!

Fig. 5: Photoshop join of the two statue fragments

At the end of January, I’ll be starting a new Egypt Centre course on the Amarna Period, which will include weekly handling sessions (fig. 6). As with the history course, the students will write guest blog posts on the objects in the Egypt Centre collection!

Fig. 6: Flyer for new Amarna course

 Bibliography:

Anonymous (2019) ‘Matching statue fragments by means of 3D printing’. Horizon: The Amarna Project and Amarna Trust Newsletter 20: 5–7.

Bierbrier, M. L. (2019) Who was who in Egyptology. London: The Egypt Exploration Society. 5th edition.

Bosse-Griffiths, K. (2001) ‘Incense for the Aten’. In Amarna studies and other selected papers, ed. J. G. Griffiths. Freiburg (Schweiz); Göttingen: Universitätsverlag; Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. 131–134.

Frankfort, H. and J. D. S. Pendlebury (1933) The city of Akhenaten. Part II: The north suburb and the desert altars. The excavations at Tell el Amarna during the seasons 1926–1932. Excavation Memoirs 40. London: Egypt Exploration Society.

Kemp, B. J. (2013) The city of Akhenaten and Nefertiti: Amarna and its people. London: Thames & Hudson.

Pendlebury, J. D. S. (1951) The city of Akhenaten. Part III: The central city and the official quarters. The excavations at Tell el-Amarna during the season 1926–1927 and 1931–1936. 2 vols. Excavation Memoirs 44. London: Egypt Exploration Society.