Undergraduate Journal of Anthropology 1: 73-79 (2009)

Cultural Interaction and Funerary Art in GraecoRoman Egypt.

By: Kelly-Anne Pike*
*Kelly-Anne Pike is a 3rd Year Undergraduate Student Studying Archaeology at the University of Toronto.

Abstract This paper expands upon the idea that funerary art and architecture in Graeco-Roman Egypt were creations of the cultural syncretism experienced by the Egyptian and nonEgyptian peoples through religion, myth, and beliefs in the afterlife. Although differences in socio-economic status and traditions existed in this period due to the division of the different ethnic groups, funerary motifs show all groups shared with each other the belief that the dead were sacred. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to prove that although ethnic groups are by no means unified in their approach to everyday political, social, or educational matters, death binds them together, allowing for interaction in the funerary sphere. The examination of various material artifacts (coffins, masks, wooden portraits etc.) and combinations of different architectural styles, along with depictions of gods and goddesses used for mortuary rites, relay that ethnic boundaries were put aside in order to honour and protect the dead. Society in Egypt during the Ptolemaic and Early Roman Periods was made up of many different ethnic groups who each had their own traditions, institutions, and customs. However, because of administrative and political agendas, the people of Egypt were not looked upon as a truly unified society, but one that was plagued by barriers related to the many distinct peoples that lived there. Cultural integration between Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians has been at the forefront of new studies pertaining to this ancient time. Yet some scholars believe that even if such evidence were found to suggest cultural integration it would not accurately reflect the realities of a divided population. Through the archaeological evidence found within the funerary sphere such doubts can be put to rest, for artistic and religious motifs found in Greek, Roman, and Egyptian burial contexts clearly showcase that cultural interaction did indeed take place between these cultures living in Ancient Egypt. The first indication of funerary cultural integration between Greek, Roman, and Egyptian peoples comes to us through the wide variety of artifacts that are directly connected to the burials of deceased persons who lived in Graeco-Roman times. It should be noted that many of these artifacts come from the burial places of specifically Greek individuals, who lived in predominantly Greek populated cities in Egypt, such as Naucratis, Memphis, and Alexandria.

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Kelly-Anne Pike According to Christina Riggs (2002), funerary art varied both stylistically and regionally. Between the 2nd century B.C. and 3rd century A.D. the funerary art being produced included: portraits, painted shrouds, decorated tombs, mummy cases, wooden coffins, plaster masks, funerary stelae, and tomb sculptures (Riggs, 2002). Like any other material culture many of these types of funerary artifacts went in and out of style. However, it can be said that because of the many different kinds of funerary art that existed, the choice made by the deceased prior to their death, may reflect either personal or familial identity. An example of a wooden coffin (Fig. 1) whose designs showcase both Egyptian and Greek visual elements can be best described through the documentation of C.C. Edgar. The coffin is four-sided with a flat lid, and housed the mummified remains of two individuals, one who was a young adult and the other a small child (Edgar, 1905). Winding around the sides of the coffin are three patterned bands, one of which looks like afloral design. Jewels, of different sizes and colours, are located within the patterning of these bands as well as elsewhere on the coffin. Edgar (1905) describes the two painted panels found at the head and foot of the coffin as showing clear Egyptian influence. The head of the coffin depicts a human figure kneeling between two large birds who both lift one of their wings and lower the other. The foot of the coffin shows the Egyptian god Anubis, protector of the dead and mummification rites, wearing a wig and loincloth and holding a cup in his right hand. He is possibly standing in front of a small shrine, perhaps dedicated to the god of the Egyptian underworld, Osiris. These paintings, while emulating Egyptian relief painting techniques, look to be the likely handiwork of local Greek craftsmen (Edgar, 1905), but using Egyptian mortuary practices, and accompanying this with highly decorated funerary art, may itself signal that the people thus memorialized were particularly involved with native cults and temples (Riggs, 2002, p.106). This indicates the growing respect Greek, and later the Romans, had for native Egyptian religious beliefs. A second example of an artifact type commonly used in the early Ptolemaic Period, known as a Medusa Mask (Fig. 2), may have been placed over the face of a mummified individual or simply a part of their grave goods. Edgar describes the mask as reddish-brown in colour because it was made of terracotta, flat-backed, and plastered with stucco (Edgar, 1905). The white rounded face of the Medusa figure has a worried expression with thick slightly parted pink lips, sad eyes, and contracted brow. Its hair is wavy and gilded, with green and blue snakes throughout the hair. The general shape and features of the face again point to a Greek origin, as does the myth of the gorgons itself. Artifacts such as these shed light on the complex cultural context in which they were often made. Reactions pertaining to the variety of artifacts used in the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods, and what this meant socially and demographically, differ accordingly. While many scholars believe that economic matters did not play into what type of funerary art was used by people, for there were often many combinations used, most agree that a certain amount of wealth was possessed by a person or their family in order to afford these goods (MacCrimmon, 1945). It is also agreed upon by most authors that because Greek citizens were more likely
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Cultural Interaction and Funerary Art to hold higher job or official positions than native Egyptians due to Greek, language and education becoming more then ever the technical support for administration, marriage, and preservation of social privilege (Bingen, 2007, p. 229), that Greeks were the ones who had the money to buy such things. This evidence is backed up by Edgar (1905) that many of the pieces of artwork he catalogued were found in major Greek cities in Egypt. However, it is here that a conflict between views arises. Not all Greeks were a part of the aristocratic or middle class. Many lived in the countryside alongside the poorer native Egyptians. If one believes in the idea that wealth was needed to buy splendid burial goods, then these less wealthy Greeks clearly could not have contributed to the innovations in funerary art of the time. Some authors, such as Bingen (2007), believe that amongst the Egyptians and Greeks of the countryside there was an even more serious distinction between the two cultural units than in the cities, for he states the most evident feature in the relations between the two co-existing communities is a marked reciprocal opaquness which sometimes goes as far as rejection of the other, (p.243). Yet, others like Riggs believe that although the lower Greek and Egyptian classes did not participate as much in producing mixed heritage funerary art it was not because of clear-cut cultural divisions between the two, but the mere fact that they could not afford such materials (Riggs, 2002). Riggs (2002) also suggests that because of inadequate funds smaller burials were performed overall, whether individuals were mummified, inhumated, or in traditional Greek funerary rites, cremated. Such findings may well be underrepresented, or overshadowed by luxurious grave good and burials, in the archaeological record. One form of funerary art that overshadows all others and shows the greatest combination of Egyptian and Greek visual traits are the famous plaster masks and wooden portraits of the Late Ptolemaic and Early Roman Periods. The popularity of masks and portraits has been attested by the modern day public, which flocks to see such exhibitions at museums all over the world. The idea of knowing the body of a person, which was once very much alive, is behind a mask can instill curiousity, emotion, and sometimes even fear into the everyday person (Bierbrier, 1997). The following examples of masks and portraits show the transition from strongly Egyptian influenced funerary artworks to more abstract, Graeco-Roman in style, portrait pieces. A typical Early Ptolemaic plaster mask (Fig.3) documented by Edgar shows some of the earliest combinations of Greek and Egyptian physical features and afterlife iconography. The mask is made of canvas and plaster and is well preserved. The female figure wears a chiton, a typical Greek ladys garment, but her face has purely Egyptian features; an oval face and defined kohl rimmed painted eyes and eyebrows (Edgar, 1905). Her hairstyle is in the common Egyptian fashion and resembles the wig styles of the period. Both the ears and the neck of the mask have small holes drilled in them, where jewellery for the deceased could be placed. On the bottom of the plaster mask, below the female figures face, there appears to be a mythical scene of various Egyptian deities approaching one of the symbols of Osiris known as the Vulture of Lower Egypt (Edgar, 1905, p.24). These figures on the left side of the mask, depicted in
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Kelly-Anne Pike the illustration provided, approaching from left to right are: Sis, Bastet and Anubis (Edgar, 1905). They are portrayed in the traditional Egyptian style, and were probably placed on the mask to protect the deceaseds body from any disturbance, as well as guide her into the afterlife. Plaster masks such as this were placed over the mummified, and usually shrouded, remains of the deceased. These masks were quite large, and could measure from the top of the head down to the middle of the torso. Moving forward into a time of growing Graeco-Roman influence and style is the mummy and gilded mask of a woman named Sambathion (Fig.4). She hails from Hawara, and has been dated to sometime in the Late Ptolemaic or Early Roman Period (Edgar, 1905). It has been suggested that the reason the mask was made of gold was not only to signify the wealth of the individual, but that it was religiously symbolic as well; The ancient Egyptians believed that the flesh of the gods was made of gold and their bones of silver, gold thus became a symbol of eternity and immortality, (Rozenberg, 1997, p.112). Her name is written in Greek on the top of her mask, just above her hair, which is coiffed in tight ringlets. The right arm is bent, an Egyptian pose, and holds a wreath of flowers. She is dressed in a chiton, and a mantle that drapes over her shoulders with realistic folds. Snake bracelets adorn both of her arms, winding their way from just beneath her elbows to the middle of her hands, and some of her fingers also have rings on them. Her other jewellery consists of round-shaped earrings and a necklace, as well as a longer chain that extends down her chest in a rosettes pattern (Edgar, 1905). Her facial features consist of a smaller but rounder face, with large eyes, fine eyebrows, straight nose, and tiny lips which show a hint of a smile. The mask extends over the deceaseds face and down the chest. She is wrapped intricately in linen, which forms a diamond-shaped pattern over the rest of the body. There is no arguing that she represents a fusion of Egyptian and Graeco-Roman elements. This beautiful mask must have cost quite a bit of money, making Sambathion most likely a woman of wealth and prominence who was decorated in the aristocratic ideal of the afterlife of the Greeks and Romans living at this time in Egypt. The Royal Ontario Museum is home to two unusual portraits which showcase the further developments in funerary art made after the Ptolemaic Period (Fig.5). These portraits look overwhelmingly more Greek than Egyptian in the way the face and body of the deceased is portrayed. However, there is still one highly symbolic feature of these masks which clearly link them to the Egyptian god of the underworld, Osiris. Both faces of each individual are drawn in an almost cartoon-like fashion with thick heavy outlines of the deceaseds head, hair, ears and facial features. While this sets them apart from the masks already previously described, the other component that makes them unique from both earlier masks and portraits from the same time is that their skin is painted a striking greenish-blue (MacCrimmon, 1945). The skin colour of both the portraits, in MacCrimmons opinion (1945), was deliberately painted the greenish-blue hue in order represent these individuals as being dead and in the afterlife like the Egyptian god Osiris. Osiris, in traditional Egyptian art, is depicted as having greenish-blue skin to mark him as the god of the underworld.
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Cultural Interaction and Funerary Art The mummy masks and portraits described have shown the transitional art techniques used from the beginning of the Ptolemaic Period and into the Roman Period in Egypt. However, the actual artwork also signifies a shift in Greek religious beliefs and the adoption of Egyptian deities and funerary rites. Mummification was written about by Greek and Roman authors who lived before Graeco-Roman times as a disturbing and unnatural way to bury the dead (Bagnall, 1997). Yet, from the evidence presented, it is clear that Greeks and Romans who moved into Egypt began using the practice of mummification on a fairly wide-spread scale. The Egyptian belief that, the soul could remain immortal as long as it had a body in which to dwell (Bagnall, 2004, p.23) appealed to the newly arrived Mediterranean peoples, as did the protection of the exotic foreign gods. Also, animal worship and mummification was performed by Greek and Roman populations of Egypt regularly, even though in their native lands it was considered one of the most unfavourable conceptions of Egypt, as propagated by non-Egyptian authors (Bagnall, 2004, p.33). Both the Graeco-Roman and Egyptian populations understood that the dead needed to be cared for in this lifetime and in the next, and that no matter where certain burial beliefs came from, personal losses of friends or family, or even the death of a pet or sacred animal, should be treated with the utmost respect. In this way, the many social classes and cultural groups that lived in the Ptolemaic and Early Roman Egypt could relate to one another. Lastly, the tombs of both Egyptian natives and Greeks living in GraecoRoman Egypt also share features that tie them to a growing cultural interaction between the two cultures. One such example is the well-known Tomb of Petosiris, located at the site of Tuna el-Gebel. According to the man that excavated the tomb, Gustave Lefebvre (1923), Petosiris was a popular high priest of the Egyptian god Thoth at Hermopolis, and his tomb, dated to around Early Ptolemaic times, attests to his fame. Modern day Egyptians living at the site call the tomb The Temple because of its highly decorated doorway and columns (Lefebvre, 1923). Architecturally, the first room that one would enter in the tomb is called a pronaos (Lefebvre, 1923), which incidentally was the first room entered in a Greek Temple before the inner sanctuary (cella). Here the pronaos functions as the place of the family funerary cult and comes before the inner burial chamber. On the walls of this first room graffiti has been written, not in Egyptian but in Greek (Lefebvre, 1923), which attests to the fact that the Greeks recognized the importance of Petosiriss funerary cult. The graffiti ranges from the simple Hello to series of names of Greeks who had visited the spot (Lefebvre, 1923). There is also a short sentence written in Greek which reveres Petosiris as a brilliant man; I invoke Petosiris, whose body is the ground, but whose spirit resides in the company of the gods: this wise man has been reunited with the wise ones (Lefebvre, 1923, p.24). Reliefs painted on the walls of tombs can also indicate the exchange of ideas in the Greek and Egyptian funerary sphere. Petosiriss tomb has reliefs on its walls which do not resemble the static Egyptian scenes usually found, but instead replaces them with Greek influenced reliefs of natural day-to-day living.
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Kelly-Anne Pike Some of these depictions include men working in the fields, Petosiris and his family making offerings to the gods, and labourers taking care of livestock (Lefebvre, 1923), all of which can be found in the tombs of many deceased Greeks who lived and were buried in Memphis. Two tombs from Alexandria also showcase a fusion of Greek and Egyptian deities said to be the protectors of the dead; the Stagnai Painted Tomb and the Tomb of Tigrane Pasha Street. In the Stagnai Painted Tomb two exterior piers which flank a sarcophagus niche show a small, naked, petal-winged boy who is assumed to represent the god Greek god Eros (Venit, 1999). Eros accompanies the Greek goddess Aphrodite, as well as the Egyptian god Anubis who, stands garbed as a Roman soldier (Venit, 1999, p.650). By using these two motifs the owner of the tomb harkened back to his Greek and Roman heritage as well as displaying his respect for Egyptian gods and funerary beliefs. The Tigrane Pasha Street Tomb similarly depicts Graeco-Roman and Egyptian visual techniques in the form of a funeral procession (Fig.6). Its central sarcophagi niche shows, a mummy wrapped in the Graeco-Roman style with its head to the left, supine on a bier, attended by two female figures (Venit, 1997, p.704), who are again assumed to represent Isis and her sister Nepthys who commonly decorate Egyptian sarcophagi and tombs. It can be seen from these examples that GraecoRoman and Egyptian iconography was used in a variety of combinations that lent to the overall dynamic of funerary artwork. Through each of the artifacts discussed within this work, interpretations and conclusions can be made about how the funerary art produced in this period reflects upon this past multiethnic society. Although it has been argued by some that the divisions between the cultural units of people in Egypt were strict, not only because of political issues but due to prejudice among each of the groups, it is evident that cultural exchange occurred nonetheless. Though administration of the major cities of Egypt favoured Greek, and later Roman culture, it would have been extremely difficult and ignorant for any Greek or Roman to not notice the ways of the native Egyptians. Even if in public the population was divided because of their heritage, it cannot be known what peoples thoughts or actions in private were. However, in the religious and funerary sphere all cultures came together. Death did, and still does not, favour any one ethnic group. By borrowing customs from each culture an individual not only exchanged knowledge of the afterlife with others, but also tried to be protected in any which way or form for the unknown journey ahead. Knowing that death would eventually prevail led the Greek, Roman, and Egyptian populations to see each other as just people, as mortals. They all realized that perhaps there were greater forces at work. This belief may have inspired them to ask for protection from many deities, as well as preserve themselves in the thoughts of others through mummification, portraits, and tomb reliefs. The artistic style that developed from this interaction proved to be unique and clearly defined a time period of cultural flux and social change. In the end only death was certain, and that is why cultural exchange is so evident within the funerary record of Graeco-Roman Egypt.

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Cultural Interaction and Funerary Art References Cited Bagnall, Roger S. (2004) Egypt: From Alexander to the Early Christians. London: British Museum Press. Bagnall, Roger S. (1997) The People of the Roman Fayum. Portraits and Masks: Burial Customs in Roman Egypt. ed. M.L. Bierbrier. London: British Museum Press. Bierbrier, M.L. (1997) Portraits and Masks: Burial Customs in Roman Egypt. London: British Museum Press. Bingen, Jean. (2007) Hellenistic Egypt: Monarchy, Society, Economy and Culture. Los Ageles: University of California Press. Edgar, Campbell Cowan. (1905) Graeco-Egyptian Coffins: Masks and Portraits. Cairo: Institut Francais DArcheologie Orientale. Lefebvre, Gustave.(1923) Le Tombeau de Petosiris. Cairo: Institut Francais dArcheologie Orientale. McCrimmon, Mary. (1945) Graeco-Egyptian Masks and Portraits in the Royal Ontario Museum. American Journal of Archaeology 49, (1), 52-61. Riggs, Christina. (2002) Facing the Dead: Recent Research on the Funerary Art of Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt. American Journal of Archaeology 106 (1), 85101. Rozenberg, Silvia. (1997) Earlier Plaster Masks from Sinai: Forerunners to the Roman Plaster Masks. Portraits and Masks: Burial Customs in Roman Egypt. ed. M.L. Bierbrier. London: British Museum Press. Venit, Marjorie Susan. (1999) The Stagnai Painted Tomb: Cultural Interchange and Gender Differentiation in Roman Alexandria. American Journal of Archaeology 103 (4), 641-669. Venit, Marjorie Susan. (1997) The Tomb from Tigrane Pasha Street and the Iconography of Death in Roman Alexandria. American Journal of Archaeology 10 (4), 701-729.

Undergraduate Journal of Anthropology, Volume 1, 2009. pp. 73-79. http://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/uja/index This Article 2009 Kelly-Anne Pike Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canadian Version

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