Professional Documents
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MEMRIAS
FENCIOS E PNICOS,
POR TERRA E MAR 2
Ana Margarida Arruda, ed.
ESTUDOS &
MEMRIAS
Resumen
La aparicin de un creciente nmero de guras masculinas de bronce en pose y atuendo egipcios
en el Sur de la Pennsula Ibrica, favorece abordar el estudio de conjunto de este grupo e intentar
establecer algunas de sus caractersticas fundamentales, as como vericar su extensin como serie
de produccin homognea a lo largo del Mediterrneo fenicio, adscribindole otros elementos que
inicialmente se haban relacionado con tradiciones artesanales distintas. En estas zonas se producirn,
adems, imitaciones locales bien diferenciables de los productos propiamente fenicios. La denicin de
este grupo, aparte de establecer criterios ms rmes a la hora de valorar algunas guras ya conocidas
y de incorporar otras nuevas, permite aproximarnos a algunos aspectos relacionados con la artesana,
la iconografa y la religin fenicias.
Abstract
The emergence of an increasing number of bronze male gurines of Egyptian posture and
outt in the South of the Iberian Peninsula has favoured the study of this group and the denition
of some of its fundamental characteristics. Moreover, it has enabled us to conrm its extension as a
homogenous production series throughout the Phoenician Mediterranean and to ascribe to this group
a number of elements which had been related to separate crafts traditions. In the areas concerned,
local imitations were produced which were quite diferentiable from the truly Phoenician products.
The denition of this group, as well as establishing stronger criteria for the assessment of some of
the known gurines and the incorporation of new ones, enables us to approach particular aspects of
Phoenician craftsmanship, iconography and religion.
Bronze male deities: elements for the identiication of a phoenician group in Mediterranean
The emergence of an increasing number of bronze male gurines of Egyptian posture and
outt in the South of the Iberian Peninsula has favoured the study of this group and the denition
of some of its fundamental characteristics. Moreover, it has enabled us to conrm its extension
as a homogenous production series throughout the Phoenician Mediterranean and to ascribe
to this group a number of elements which had been related to separate crafts traditions. In the
areas concerned, local imitations were produced which were quite diferentiable from the truly
Phoenician products. The denition of this group, as well as establishing stronger criteria for the
assessment of some of the known gurines and the incorporation of new ones, enables us to
approach particular aspects of Phoenician craftsmanship, iconography and religion.
763
764
With all of these elements, we already have a suiciently large collection on the basis of
which to put forward a basic characterisation and to try to locate the existence of more gurines
of this type throughout the Mediterranean.
If there is something that characterises these gurines, it is their poor iconographic xation. This can be conrmed by the examination of the combinations that take place between their
most signicant distinguishing elements: the head dresses that cover their heads and their corporal poses, both of which are imbued with strong Egyptian traits as we mentioned above.
The head dresses correspond to three basic formats: 1) the White Crown of Higher Egypt,
well known and characterised by its globular nish; 2) a bulbous crown, related to but diferent
from the former, which I have named Mitre; 3) the Atef Crown, the head dress of Osiris par
excellence, which is the result of adding two ostrich feathers to either side of the White Crown.
On the other hand, the corporal poses of these gures correspond to four basic stereotypes
which are fundamentally achieved through the position of the arms: 1) the arms fall alongside the
body, a formula traditionally called the Egyptian posture; 2) the arms are held out, slightly bent,
in front of the subject, sometimes holding weapons or other belongings, in a position named
smiting (Collon, 1972); 3) with one arm folded across the chest and holding an object in a ritual
attitude; 4) showing the palm of the right hand open in a posture that we now identify with
actions of greeting or blessing.
Apart from these stereotypical traits, the decoration, the schenti, the presence or not of
pectorals, beards, etc, provide this group with great iconographic variety.
However, the most remarkable and interesting point, as I mentioned earlier, is the enormous variability that can be observed in the breakdown of the possible combinations of basic
traits (head dresses and postures) as shown in Figure 1 which includes gurines from both the Iberian Peninsula and other areas of the Mediterranean and that can be associated with this group
as we shall see below.
Practically all of the possible combinations are represented and when not, as is the case of
the combinations between [mitre + Egyptian posture] or [mitre + ritual posture], their absence
can be traced to the scarceness of a particular trait in the global assemblage. For instance, we
have only 2 mitres associated with known postures and both correspond to distinct patterns.
This disinterest in iconographic xation appears to be a fundamental character of this
group of Phoenician gurines, and lies in contrast with the rigour observed, for example, in Egyptian imagery in which the identication of the diferent deities according to their formal attributes
constitutes an almost automatic inference. This characteristic is much more alike to the SyrianPalestinian representations of the Second Millennium and to the Phoenician production itself of
the First Millennium, in which many deities whose specic traits enabled their identication in
their original pantheons underwent a process of iconographic transformation which prevents
their clear identication when they are found in Phoenician contexts.
Notwithstanding, and despite these ailiations, the truly Phoenician gurines, that are
those of the First Millennium, are generally diferentiated from the earlier forms through the
increase of Egyptian traits and a greater frequency of gures in pacic attitudes.
It is also impossible to conclude as to whether the Phoenician deomorphs represent any
particular deity. There are some very specic iconographic formulae, as for example the tripartite
beard of one of the gurines from Cdiz, of which a surprisingly similar correlate can be found
on a Eastern ivory head from Samos (Freyer Schauenburg, 1966), that suggest that we are faced
with representations of the same mythological gures. But the lack of iconographic xation must
without doubt be added to the diiculties of identifying specic deities and which have marked
the study of these gurines since their earliest recovery.
Bronze male deities: elements for the identiication of a phoenician group in Mediterranean
765
Fig. 1. Phoenician Bronze Male Deities. Correlation Between the diferent types of postures and crowns
766
The evidence is becoming a little more solid in Cyprus where the existence of similar
representations is suggested by the presence of some sculptures which, whilst undoubtedly of
local production, can be related to our series. However, for the purpose of the present study,
the mention of a bronze torso held in the Museum of Nicosia and identied as number 1449 is of
more interest. This gure, of unknown provenance, was published in the 1950s by P. Dikaios who
related it to the period of Egyptian inluence in the island during the Saite period (Dikaios, 1953).
Although incomplete, its main distinguishing traits are quite visible, such as its ritual posture and
the advancing of the left foot. In the light of the nds of the Iberian Peninsula, this torso can
be considered as a Phoenician sculpture belonging to the same series as the Iberian examples
and thus with a date prior to the 6th century, as had been suggested. The identication of this
sculpture as a Phoenician production of the 8th or 7th centuries BC could explain the imitations
mentioned above that appear across the island and it could even be that the production of these
bronze gures may have played some role in the development of the grand stone sculptures that
are so characteristic of the Cypriot art of the following centuries.
In this same line of gures belonging to the Phoenician group, we also nd a bronze gure
recovered from the ruins of the Heraion of Samos and catalogued by U. Jantzen among the
Egyptian products of this Greek sanctuary (Jantzen, 1972). The gure represents a male deity in the
smiting posture and with an atef crown (Fig. 3). From an iconographic point of view, it is diicult
to identify this gure with any of the divinities of the Egyptian pantheon: whilst the atef crown is
the head dress of Osiris par excellence, this gure certainly does not represent Osiris. The smiting
position is in Egypt characteristic of the Assyrian god Reshef, but neither does this gure display the
typical characters of Reshef in Egypt, such as the rear infulae or the gazelle protomes of its White
Crown. It thus proves diicult to identify this gure through the application of the semiological
criteria of Egyptian production. On the contrary, from the perspective of a Phoenician product,
this deiform sculpture is much more understandable, given that we have already established the
lack of iconographic xation as one of the basic characteristics of this group.
The gure from Samos is of particular importance in establishing the chronology of these
products since it appears in a well which became sealed at the end of the 7th century, thus provided
an ante quem date for the existence of the group. In this Well G, a series of bronze gurines related
to the Phoenician group were recovered, although generally of smaller size, alongside the famous
ivory combs with incised decoration similar to those produced in the Phoenician workshops of
the Iberian Peninsula and also dated to the 7th century BC (Walter and Vierneisel, 1959).
Finally, and in the light of these news nds, the controversial gure known as Melqart of
Sciacca or Reshef of Selinumte (Fig. 3), recovered from the Sicilian Sea and held in the Museum
of Palermo, must also be included in the Phoenician group. The cultural and chronological
assessments derived from this famous gurine are broad and span from the Second Millennium
up until the Phoenician period (Chiappisi, 1961; Bisi, 1967; Tusa 1973; Seeden, 1980; Falsone, 1988;
Jimnez vila, 2002). In fact, there are few elements to suggest that this gurine corresponds
to the Bronze Age series. The Egyptian-style outt is a poorly represented characteristic of the
products of Biblos and Ugarit (for example, the atef crown only appears on 0.3% of the Bronze
Age gures recorded by H. Seeden), as are the large size and proportions of the gure, which are
closer to those of the Spanish nds. A distinguishing trait of this gurine is the hollow working
of the eyes in order to inlay a substance that would generate an impression of wealth or realism,
and which is common for Second Millennium representations. While it is true that none of the
other gurines of this series possess these facial applications, it is also so that a good part of the
female deities dated to the Phoenician period (Qualat-Faqra, Ginebra, Samos...) display hollow
eyes, thus showing that this technical resource was still used commonly in the First Millennium
(Jimnez vila, 2002).
Bronze male deities: elements for the identiication of a phoenician group in Mediterranean
Local imitations
In all of the areas in which the existence of these Phoenician male gurines has been
documented, the presence of imitations of these gures presenting similar traits and postures,
although with specic characteristics which lead us to consider them as local products, has been
detected. In Cyprus, for instance, some of the gurines from the sanctuary of Idalion stand out
(Fig. 2.1), given that they show a transformation of the anatomical canon, as well as being more
roughly shaped as is typical of some of the islands own products (Karageorghis, 1967). The
presence of Egyptian elements on these gures breaks with the local traditions of the bronze
gures of the Bronze Age, illustrated by gurines such as those of Enkomi (Seeden, 1980, 124 ss.),
and can thus be considered as a Phoenician inluence.
In the Central Mediterranean, there are some gures that, on the basis of their aspect,
could equally be related to these local products, such as the Sardinian bronzes of Flumenlonghu
or Galtelli, contrary to the way in which they have generally been dened as oriental products
(Bisi 1977, 1980, 1986; Tore, 1981; 1983; Lo Schiavo, 1983). However, in the case of Sardinia, the
issue is not so easy, since the gures stray from the habitual traits of the nuragic gurines, and
their condition of local imitations can therefore only be suggested as a hypothesis.
Finally, a number of recent nds, such as the Bronze of Entrerros (Badajoz) (Fig. 2.2) or a
recently published gurine of the Gmez Moreno Collection, can be added to the list of gurines
from the Iberian Peninsula recorded by M. Almagro in 1980 and which included the votive bronzes
of the Iberian period (Jimnez vila, 2002; Garca Alfonso, 1998). Both of these new nds present
suicient similarities with the Phoenician group and suicient elements of diferentiation for
them to be considered as imitations of those produced in the local sphere, although that of the
Gmez Moreno Collection was initially considered as a Phoenician product. Indeed the general
treatment of the gurine, its size (only 6 inches), the independent working of the head dress, the
volute decoration of the robe, etc are unusual elements in gurative Phoenician bronzes. These
peninsular imitations also appear to be later in date.
Fig. 2. Regional imitations. 1. Cyprus (s. Karageorghis 1967); 2. Entrerros (Spain) (s. Jimnez vila 2002)
767
Conclusions
768
In the Mediterranean, there is a group of bronze gurines representing male deities that
can be considered as the work of Phoenician craftsmen and can be related to the Semitic colonial
expansion of the 8th and 7th centuries BC. This group has thus led us to the study of its geographical distribution throughout all of the areas of Phoenician presence and of its iconographic characteristics. Among the latter, the lack of xation of the formal traits is remarkable. Moreover, these
traits often appear combined in such a way that it is diicult to recognise particular gures, unlike
the case of the distinguishing attributes of other iconographic traditions such as that of Egypt.
These gurines can be distinguished from there Second Millennium ancestors by their
more careful manufacture, their regular size and the increase of Egyptian traits which appear
in the clothing that they bear: crowns, pectorals and robes. In this aspect they are also diferent from the other artistic groups that developed in the East during the First Millennium, such
as those documented in Israel which follow the giblite tradition, or the Neohitite and Aramaic
sculptures which reproduce the roughness of the local stone sculptures (Moorey & Fleming 1984;
Spycket, 1981).
The most numerous group is that recovered from Cdiz, associated with the temple of
Melqart. Other parts of the Iberian Peninsula such as Huelva or the lower Guadalquivir have also
yielded gurines of this same group.
On the basis of the characteristics of the Spanish gurines, examples belonging to the
same series can be identied in Lebanon, Cyprus, East Greece and the Central Mediterranean.
Despite the small number of gurines currently individualised, it can be hoped that future nds
and bibliographic or museographic inspections will soon add to this list.
In the areas of Phoenician presence these representations were the object of local
imitations which display specic characteristics in each region.
Although in this paper I have limited my discussion to the denition of this craft group and
its extension throughout the Mediterranean, it has proved necessary to present some indications regarding their origin and their historical and cultural signicance. The diferences that
are established between the original group and the local imitations thus suggest the oriental
production of these gurines. In the Iberian Peninsula, we can observe how these gurines are
found in the areas of Phoenician presence. This in turn contrasts with the patterns displayed by
the set of Western-Phoenician bronze production, composed of jugs, bowls, incense burners etc.,
that tend to be consumed by part of the local inland aristocracies. These imported gurines are
thus diferentiated from the purely colonial products and their phenomenology.
Bronze male deities: elements for the identiication of a phoenician group in Mediterranean
769
Fig. 3. Phoenician Bronze Male Deities Group in Mediterranean (s. Falsone 1988, Dikaios 1953,
Jantzen 1972, Seeden 1980, Jimnez vila 2002 and Saez et al. 2005). Unequal Scales
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