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25ЕГИПЕТ И СОПРЕДЕЛЬНЫЕ СТРАНЫ
EGYPT AND NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES
Электронный журнал / Online Journal Выпуск 2, 2019 Issue 2, 2019
DOI: 10.24411/2686-9276-2019-00017
An unusual storage jar with a face from Deir el-Banat (Fayoum oasis)
V. I. Yarmolovich
Junior research fellow of the CES RAS vikapottery@gmail.com
The article is devoted to investigation of a fragment of a vessel decorated with a face depiction. It was found during archaeological excavations at Deir el-Banat (Fayoum oasis). The site is divided into three parts — the northern necropolis, the southern necropolis and the 'convent'. The fragment was found on the surface in the 'convent's territory. It is a shoulder of a big vessel. The depiction of a face (two eyes and a nose) is made with lumps of clay and applied to the outer surface of the vessel. A thin bulge is above the eyes. The vessel is made of Nile silt fabric.
An analogy for the vessel from Deir el-Banat was found in Tebtynis situated in the Fayoum oasis as well. This neckless storage jar has sloping shoulders, a conical body and a base with a ring foot. Its shoulders are divided into two parts: the upper part has a relief surface, while the lower one bears a depiction of a face and wave-like ornaments. Loop handles are fixed on the lower part. This vessel is also made of Nile silt fabric. This allows us to reconstruct the vessel from Deir el-Banat and date it to the 8th century CE.
Keywords: pottery, Fayoum oasis, figure vessel, medieval Egypt, necropolis, convent.
A site of Deir el-Banat, which is situated on the south-eastern edge of the Fayoum oasis, is divided into three parts — the 'convent', the northern and southern necropoles \ Since 2003 the Centre for Egyptological Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (CES RAS) has been conducting archaeological excavations on this site 2. A lot of pottery was found on the surface and in graves. The complex research of the pottery is in process; however, some preliminary results can be already presented.
1 I am grateful to Dr. Galina A. Belova and Dr. Sergej V. Ivanov for the opportunity to work with the ma-
terial from Deir el-Banat. I also would like to thank Dr. Elena Yu. Chepel for proofreading the text of this article.
2 Белова 2012; 2017; Васильев, Боруцкая 2009; Ор-финская 2015; 2016; Орфинская и др. 2017; Толмачева 2017a; 2017b; Фридманн 2015; Belova, Ivanov 2019; Ivanov 2017; 2019; Krol 2005; Tolmacheva 2017, etc.
This article deals with one of the vessels' fragments that comes from the surface in the 'convent's territory (fig. 1-2). The orientation of the sherd allows me to suggest that it was a shoulder of a vessel. The diameter of this vessel was approximately 55,8 cm. A face — two eyes and a nose — is depicted on its outer surface They were made with lumps of clay. Above the face application a thin bulge is located.
The vessel is made of Nile silt fabric. It contains medium quantity of common and coarse vegetable temper, medium quantity of fine mica 3. The break is homogeneous GLEY1 2.5/N (black) 4. Both the outer and inner surfaces of the fragment are eroded.
As this fragment comes from the surface in the 'convent's territory, its dating is complicated. The 'convent' functioned in 6th-11th centuries CE 5. P. Grossmann investigated its ruins and assumed that its territory had been occupied with a church and a number of buildings used for living 6. The church was built of fired bricks, while other buildings were made of mud bricks 7.
In Egypt a tradition of decorating pottery with various images has a long history. This practice has existed since the Predynastic period 8. In her paper on New Kingdom (18th-20th Dynasties; 1550-1070/1069 BCE) figure vases J. Bourriau pointed out that they fall into two broad classes according to their technological features. The class A includes vessels with three-dimensional elements (as the vessel from Deir el-Banat); the class B is represented by 'sculptural vases' (i. e. these vases are made in the shape of something) 9. Egyptian potters used various motifs — human depictions (both men and women), animals, gods, fruits, etc.10
As the fragment from Deir el-Banat is rather small and has no diagnostic features, it is difficult to judge the shape of the vessel it belonged to. So far I have found only one analogy that can give us an idea of how this vessel could look. A storage jar with similar face was found in 2000 during archaeological excavations of IFAO (Institute français archéologie orientale, Cairo) in Tebtynis in the south of the Fayoum oasis 11.
The face on this storage jar (French jarre de stockage) is made with lumps of clay applied to the outer surface of the jar. It also has a semi-oval frame (perhaps brows) and a mouth. The neckless jar has sloping shoulders, a conical body and a base with a ring foot. Its shoulders are divided into two parts: the upper part has a relief surface, while the lower one bears a face depiction and wave-like ornaments. Loop handles are fixed on the lower part. In the middle of the body there are three lines made with red paint. The jar from Tebtynis is made of Nile silt clay with vegetable temper and covered with white slip 12.
The storage jar comes from the domestic context dated to the 8th century CE 13. S. Marchand mentioned that there are no analogies for this jar on their site 14. The jar from Tebtynis allows me to reconstruct the vessel from Deir el-Banat (fig. 3) and preliminary date it to the 8th century CE.
3 The fabric description was made with a 10x hand lens during the work on the site.
4 The colour descriptions are made using the 'Munsell soil color charts' (New Windsor, 2000).
5 Krol 2005: 215.
6 Grossmann 1991: 788b.
7 Grossmann 1991: 788b.
8 Bourriau 1981: 30-39; Bourriau 1987: 81-82.
For further reading on some types of ancient Egyp-
tian figure vases see Yarmolovich 2015; Ярмо-лович 2017.
9 Bourriau 1987: 81-82.
10 Bourriau 1981: 30-39; Bourriau 1987: 81-82.
11 Rousset et al. 2001: 432 (fig. 20), 435.
12 Rousset et al. 2001: 432 (fig. 20), 435.
13 Rousset et al. 2001: 432 (fig. 20).
14 Rousset et al. 2001: 435.
Fig. 1 (upper). Fragment of the vessel from Deir el-Banat (DeB 08/123). Drawn by V. I. Yarmolovich and O. V. Vingoltc
Fig. 2 (lower). Fragment of the vessel from Deir el-Banat (DeB 08/123). Photo by S. V. Ivanov
Fig. 3. Reconstruction of the vessel from Deir el-Banat (DeB 08/123). Based on a vessel published in Rousset et al. 2001: 432 (fig. 20). Not to scale
To conclude, it is possible to date the fragment with the face application to the 8th century CE. Interestingly, while there are only two jars with similar depictions of such a face, other decorations (the wavy-like ornament, lines made with red paint and usage of white slip) 15 are typical of Coptic and Islamic periods 16. Another interesting question is the purpose of placing face depictions on storage jars. In Pharaonic period potters created various figure vessels 17. One of the most widespread categories was Bes-vessels, which first appeared in the New Kingdom and were manufactured until at least the Graeco-Roman times. A depiction of Bes on the vessels can be certainly connected with his functions. He was an apotropaic deity, a protector of various aspects of daily life. Obviously, his depictions were believed to be important for protection of commodities kept in these vessels 18. However, the fragment from Deir el-Banat cannot be identified as belonging to a Bes-vessel because of its dating. The future research perhaps will help us understand the function of this vessel.
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Глиняный сосуд с изображением лица из Дейр-эль-Баната (Фаюмский оазис)
В. И. Ярмолович
В статье представлены предварительные результаты изучения фрагмента керамического сосуда с изображением лица. Этот фрагмент обнаружили в ходе комплексных исследований памятника Дейр-эль-Банат в Фаюмском оазисе. Памятник условно делится на три части — северный некрополь, южный некрополь и «женский монастырь». Датировку фрагмента сосуда затрудняло то, что он был найден на территории «монастыря» вне археологического контекста. Судя по ориентации фрагмента, это было плечо достаточно большого сосуда, однако диагностические признаки (венчик, донце и т. д.) у него отсутствуют. Изображение лица (два
глаза и нос) выполнено с помощью фигурных налепов. Над глазами проходит тонкий валик. Сосуд выполнен из нильской аллювиальной глины (Nile silt).
Аналогичный банатскому фрагменту сосуд был найден во время исследований Французского института восточной археологии (IFAO) в Тебтюнисе, тоже расположенном в Фаюмском оазисе. Он имеет валикообразный венчик, разделенный неглубоким желобом, достаточно широкие плечи, коническое тулово с кольцевым поддоном. На его плече изображено лицо, а также закреплены ручки-ушки. Сосуд из Тебтюниса датирован VIII в. н. э. Это позволяет реконструировать сосуд из Дейр-эль-Баната и предварительно отнести его к VIII в. н. э.
Ключевые слова: керамика, Фаюмский оазис, фигурный сосуд, средневековый Египет, некрополь, монастырь.
Reffering / ссылка для цитирования:
Yarmolovich V. I. An unusual storage jar with a face from Deir el-Banat (Fayoum oasis) // Egypt and neighbouring countries 2 (2019): 57-63. DOI: 10.24411/2686-9276-201900017. DOI: 10.24411/2686-9276-2019-00017.
