Invention and ingenuity

Particularly skilled or intelligent artists possess the ability to invent completely new versions of known objects and often they display ingenuity in doing so — perhaps the quail chick just mentioned can be considered such an example. We have a number of Akhmim hieroglyphs displaying these

29c; id., El-Hawawish V, Fig. 25c.

21  Examples are redrawn from Kanawati, El-Hawawish IX-Fig. 30c; idem., El-Hawawish V-Fig. 28d respectively.

22  Kanawati, El-Hawawish V, Fig. 25d.

Qualities, the most extraordinary representative of which must surely be the next example92

Here is no recognisable hieroglyph parallel to the literally fantastic sign in Fig. 2.8, which was used among official titles for a man named Seni. Moreover, not one Egyptologist I asked was able to correctly identify the hieroglyph represented: one could only unravel the meaning by referring to the text in which this sign appears, on the coffin of the Overseer of Fields and Apportionments. Upon discovering this sign, Percy Newberry interpreted it as the head of a hippopotamus (#) and claimed that it was a title for the highest ranking member among the priesthood of the Stolists of Min.93 his was an ingenious explanation, but it was not correct, although Newberry had come very close to the essence of the hieroglyph.

When the sign is correctly interpreted (it represents the forepart of a lion $ and is part of the title hity-a) one could see what had been in the artist’s mind at the time of its composition. He had combined the signs of hippopotamus and crocodile to imply tremendous force and strength. he implication was either, that Seni possessed such impressive qualities, or, that the use of this sign would confer such strength upon the coffin owner in the Afterlife, enabling him to stand out among his fellow hity-a officials. his hieroglyph surely had magical intentions. One might also add that, by this time, the Akhmim artist was probably unaware of the true nature of a lion and preferred to paint a creature made up of the most powerful creatures he knew, the crocodile and the hippopotamus.

He depiction of offering tables and stands on tomb walls and in signs painted on coffins was also a fertile field for the Akhmim artist. he standard sign A was nearly always replaced with something more exotic, such as Fig. 2.9—11. he imagination of the Akhmim artist seems to have been boundless in these instances. But there is also a realism in this: the items expressed what he actually saw — as we know from both tomb paintings and actual objects94 95 discovered in tombs of this period. he first offering table of the above examples shows a wooden stand with three jars upon it. he item in the second has only one jar and probably two cone-shaped bread loaves or cakes on its table, whilst the third hieroglyph features the same type of jar as the other examples, with two conical loaves crammed in on either side. In these hieroglyphs the artist is showing his creativity and originality—basic elements in an artist’s skill.

From the earliest dynasties until the latest periods of Egyptian writing, the standard determinative (or signiier) for a town, village or city l changed little.95 It is thought that this sign represented a circular walled communal site with two intersecting main streets forming an x, rather than a + sign in the centre of the circle. he town signs from Akhmim most frequently take that form, but, on one coffin27 the signs take the + form for the streets (Fig. 2.12). Painters of other coffins took even greater liberties with this sign and we see such variations as Fig. 2.13, a town with three streets intersecting at what might be an Egyptian midan. his then received more inventive treatment in Fig. 2.14, a town with a more realistic enclosure wall that has a dip in one side (presumably, where the gate of the town could be found). his model in turn developed into an even more inventive example (Fig. 2.15).

With economy of line, this later version gives a more impressionistic version of a walled Egyptian town which conveys (deliberately or not) a plan view of the haphazard nature of towns which one can find anywhere. hese signs are examples of originality and skill, and one should not miss the deliberate opening left in the wall to suggest a gate: once again, evidence of the artist’s observation. he Akhmim artists were not the only ones to use this shorthand sign, however: at Dendera, similar depictions of this last form of sign can be found. he question is: which area developed this idea first?