Early Dynastic Votives as Source for Late Middle Kingdom Iconography: An Archaeological Discovery at the Time of the Pharaohs?

Abstract

The material culture of the late Middle Kingdom is marked by an increased presence of figurines in different materials, pooled together by a common range of forms, types, and iconographic or stylistic motifs. The subjects and variety of these figurines do not find any precedent in the recent past, while – unexpectedly – the closest comparanda go back to the early/mid-third millennium BC, in the votive material of the so-called Early Dynastic temples with a gap of over half a millennium. The figurines from the Early Dynastic Period overlap with the corpus of the Middle Kingdom to a considerable and unexpected extent, so much that they could be possibly considered their forerunners or, indeed, their prototypes. During the late Middle Kingdom, royal initiatives to preserve and restore Early Dynastic sites and structures are well documented. This practice may have led to the rediscovery and absorption (by copying and reinventing) of earlier images and motifs into contemporary material production, as might be the case of the late Middle Kingdom figurines. [Formula: see text]