We also expect artists to be recorders of their times, and so it is with the Akhmim painters. In the figures showing the R hieroglyph (see above) there is a series of witty depictions of a man’s profile with variations in the length of his wig and variations on the beard that senior officials customarily wore (if we are to take the engravings and paintings in Egyptian monumental art at face value). Atypically, however, the strap to the beard is only depicted on the faces of officials during the First Intermediate Period and the Middle Kingdom—see, for example, the cartonnage masks from sedment and other First Intermediate Period sites. Perhaps this fashion was an attempt to make the beards of the officials similar to the false beards worn by the king, for the local nomarchs of many provinces took upon themselves the responsibility for the protection of their regions at this time and — perhaps to bolster their authority—they usurped elements of royal privilege, as we saw with the ruler determinative, and as we see with this strap to the beard. he examples from Akhmim, therefore, are very early records of a fashion of these times, and once again, such a detail can provide a chronological clue for dating the art in which it appears.
First Intermediate Period perhaps come indications of the warlike times that are encountered in monumental inscriptions (Ankhtyfy of Mo‘alla, Nefer-yu from the Denderah region, Indy from the Thinite nome,96 and others97). Following are three separate examples of Gardiner’s D45 hieroglyph, but these (and others from Akhmim) have replaced the nhbt sceptre with an Egyptian war club (Fig. 2.16) or even a spear (Fig. 2.17).
His last adaptation is particularly intriguing and perhaps reveals how the daily life of the Akhmim artists injected itself into the work that they produced. In nearby Assiut, where the painted hieroglyphs on local coffins were profuse, however, there are no weapon-replacements such as these for this hieroglyph on the coffins being made in the same period.98 his again adds emphasis to the originality of the painters from Akhmim.
Having thus demonstrated that these skilful technicians do deserve the label of ‘artist’, I now would like to highlight some of the more subtle aspects of their art.
World History
