Replacement head

The replacement head Berlin 16455

The replacement head is a special form of ancient Egyptian sculpture that was used exclusively as part of grave equipment during the Old Kingdom . Most of the known replacement heads originated in the middle 4th dynasty beginning with the reign of Cheops .

Designations

In the scientific literature, this group of objects is listed under numerous names, of which “Ersatzkopf” is the most common in German-speaking countries. In addition to their equivalent "reserve head", there are also occasional terms such as "portrait head", "portrait head", "Seelenweiserkopf", "head bust", "special head" or in general "head". In French-speaking countries, besides “tête de remplacement” and “tête de réserve”, the terms “tête magique” and “tête votive” are widespread, which particularly emphasize the magical aspect of the heads. In the English-language literature, the term “reserve head” dominates, but the term “magical head” is also used.

Temporal and spatial classification

Locations of the replacement heads from Giza (red)

The occurrence of replacement heads is very limited in terms of both space and time. Their distribution area is limited to the Memphite region and especially to the core cemeteries of the necropolis of Giza (G 2100, G 2400, G 4000, G 7000 and Cemetery én echelon). Individual specimens also come from the necropolises of Abusir , Dahshur and possibly Saqqara . Their first appearance seems to fall during the reign of Cheops. A head from Dahshur is often dated to the time of its predecessor Snofru , but can also be more recent due to its manufacture (ears not designed). The majority of the heads were made during the reigns of Cheops and his immediate successors Radjedef and Chephren . The youngest pieces, which can be clearly referred to as replacement heads, come from the 5th dynasty . A previously unpublished find from Lischt , which dates to the 12th dynasty , could possibly represent the youngest replacement head discovered to date.

Characteristics

The replacement head Vienna KHM 7787 with traces of a severed ear

The replacement heads usually represent a life-size human head with a neck without a shoulder. The neck ends in a flat base. The preferred material was limestone , but Nile mud was also used in two specimens. Two younger specimens consist of a plaster shell with a core. Some pieces have remains of an original painting. The following four features are typical of the replacement heads, which can appear either alone or in combination and are not found in any other statue type of the Old Kingdom:

• A circumferential line on the neck, just above the base.
• a groove running from the crown to the neck.
• An accentuation of the hairline through subsequent incisions
• Ears not present or chopped off. The younger specimens either do without ears at all or have sockets for separate ears.

List of known replacement heads

The exact number of known replacement heads is difficult to determine. 33 objects can currently be clearly identified as replacement heads. But there are also pieces for which it is not clear whether they are actually to be classified as a replacement head or a statue head. In addition, there are individual ears, which can either belong to already known or unknown replacement heads. The replacement heads are distributed among the following museums:

• National Museum , Alexandria (loan from Cairo)
• Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology , Berkeley , California
• Egyptian Museum , Berlin
• Museum of Fine Arts , Boston
• Ackland Art Museum , Chapel Hill , North Carolina
• Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum , Hildesheim
• Egyptian Museum , Cairo
• Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archeology , London
• Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York
• San Antonio Museum of Art , San Antonio , Texas (on loan from Boston)
• Museum of Egyptian Antiquities , Swansea , Wales
• Kunsthistorisches Museum , Vienna

image	Location	Repository	Dating	Remarks
	Abusir, mastaba of Kahotep near the pyramid district of Niuserre	Berlin, Egyptian Museum 16455	5th Dynasty (Niuserre)
	Dahshur, Mastaba No. 5	Cairo, Egyptian Museum CG 519 On loan from the Alexandria National Museum	4th Dynasty (Sneferu)
	Giza, Westfeld, G 1203	Berkeley, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology 6-19767	4th dynasty (Cheops)
	Giza, Westfeld, G 2110	Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 06.1886	4th Dynasty (Chephren)
[1]	Gizeh, Westfeld, G 2230	Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 39-2-7		only eyes and forehead preserved, classification as a replacement head uncertain
	Gizeh, Westfeld, G 4140	Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 14,717	4th dynasty (Cheops)
	Gizeh, Westfeld, G 4140A	Cairo, Egyptian Museum JE 46217	4th dynasty (Cheops)
	Giza, Westfeld, west of G 4160	Hildesheim, Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum 2158	4th dynasty (Cheops)
	Gizeh, Westfeld, G 4240	Cairo, Egyptian Museum JE 46215	End of 4th Dynasty
	Gizeh, Westfeld, G 4260	Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum 9290	4th dynasty (Cheops)
	Gizeh, Westfeld, G 4260	Hildesheim, Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum 2657	4th dynasty (Cheops)	only got two ears
	Gizeh, Westfeld, G 4340	Cairo, Egyptian Museum JE 46218	4th Dynasty (Cheops or later)
	Giza, Westfeld, G 4350	Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum 7787	4th dynasty (Cheops)
	Gizeh, Westfeld, G 4360	Cairo, Egyptian Museum without a number	4th Dynasty (Cheops, Chephren)	left ear only received
	Gizeh, Westfeld, G 4430	-	4th Dynasty (Chephren)	not received
	Giza, Westfeld, G 4440	Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 14,718	4th dynasty (Cheops)
	Giza, Westfeld, G 4440	Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 14,719	4th dynasty (Cheops)
	Giza, Westfeld, G 4460	Cairo, Egyptian Museum without a number	4th dynasty (Cheops – Chephren)
	Gizeh, Westfeld, G 4510A	Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 15-12-34		only got right ear
	Giza, Westfeld, G 4540	Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 21,328	4th dynasty (Cheops)
[2]	Gizeh, Westfeld, G 4560	Cairo, Egyptian Museum JE 44974	4th dynasty (Cheops)
	Gizeh, Westfeld, between G 4560 and G 4660	Cairo, Egyptian Museum No. 19/11/24/5	4th dynasty
	Gizeh, Westfeld, G 4620A	?	5th dynasty	left ear only received
	Giza, Westfeld, G 4640A	Cairo, Egyptian Museum JE 46216	4th dynasty (Cheops)
	Giza, Westfeld, G 4650	Hildesheim, Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum 2384	4th dynasty (Cheops – Chephren)
	Giza, Westfeld, G 4710	Cairo, Egyptian Museum without a number	5th dynasty	only got right ear
	Giza, Westfeld, G4840	Cairo, Egyptian Museum JE 44975	4th / 5th dynasty
	Gizeh, Cemetery en echelon, G 4940	Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 31,329	4th / 5th dynasty
	Gizeh, Cemetery en echelon, G 5020	Cairo, Egyptian Museum JE 67569	4th / 5th dynasty
[3]	Gizeh, Steindorff Necropolis, D 38	Cairo, Egyptian Museum JE 47838	4th / 5th dynasty
[4]	Gizeh, Ostfriedhof, between G 7650 and G 7660	Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 47.1716	4th Dynasty (Chephren)
[5]	Giza, Ostfriedhof, G 7560B	Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 2010 on loan from the San Antonio Museum of Art	End of 4th Dynasty
	Giza, Ostfriedhof, G 7560	New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art 48.156	End of 4th Dynasty
	Gizeh, near Ostfriedhof	Cairo, Egyptian Museum JE 47838	4th dynasty
	Giza, Central Field	Cairo, Egyptian Museum without a number	4th Dynasty (Chephren)
	Saqqara, near the funerary temple of the Djedkare pyramid	Cairo, Egyptian Museum without a number	End of the 6th dynasty	Statue head?
[6]	unknown (Memphis region)	Swansea, Museum of Egyptian Antiquities W164	4th dynasty
	unknown (probably Giza)	Cairo, Egyptian Museum JE 89611	4th dynasty
[7]	unknown	Ackland Art Museum 70.17.1	4th dynasty
	unknown (Giza?)	London, Petrie Museum UC 15988	4th / 5th dynasty
	unknown	Private ownership, Belgium	5th / 6th dynasty

literature

• Dana Bisping, Christian Winter: Replacement heads. A special group of objects in the grave cult of the Old Kingdom. In: Sokar. No. 4, 2002, pp. 16-20.
• Andrey Bolshakov: New Observations On the Functions of the So-called 'Reserve Heads.' In: Christopher Eyre (Ed.): Seventh International Congress of Egyptologists, Cambridge, September 3-9, 1995, Abstracts of Papers. Oxbow Books, Oxford 1995, pp. 21-23 ( PDF; 1.8 MB ).
• Elzbieta Dubis: Some remarks on Egyptian reserve heads. In: Studies in Ancient Art and Civilization. Volume 4, 1992, pp. 19-25.
• Andrea Eberle: The replacement heads of the Old Kingdom. Catalog, general presentation and consideration from the point of view of the local and temporal appearance, the portrait and the function. Unpubl. Master's thesis, Munich 1984.
• Andrea Eberle: The replacement heads of the Old Kingdom. An overview of facts and guesses. In: Imago Aegypti. International magazine for Egyptological and Coptic art research, image theory and cultural studies. Volume 2, 2008, pp. 18-32.
• Martin Fitzenreiter: Statue and cult. A study of funerary practice on non-royal tombs of the residence in the Old Kingdom. Volume I: Text (= Internet articles on Egyptology and Sudan archeology. Volume 3). Berlin 2001, pp. 87-99 ( PDF; 2.37 MB ).
• Martin Fitzenreiter: Statue and cult. A study of funerary practice on non-royal tombs of the residence in the Old Kingdom. Volume II: Tables (= Internet articles on Egyptology and Sudan archeology. Volume 3). Berlin 2001, pp. 20-25 ( PDF; 1.29 MB ).
• Zahi Hawass : A Group of Unique Statues Discovered at Giza / 2: An Unfinished Reserve Head and a Statuette of an Overseer. In: Art of the Old Kingdom. Symposium at the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo on October 29 and 30, 1991. German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department. Special font. Volume 28, 1995, pp. 97-101 ( PDF; 7.4 MB ).
• Friedrich Junge : Hem-iunu, Ankh-ha-ef and the so-called "replacement heads". In: Art of the Old Kingdom. Symposium at the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo on October 29 and 30, 1991. German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department. Special font. Volume 28, 1995, pp. 103-109.
• Peter Lacovara: The Riddle of the Reserve Heads. In: KMT. A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt. Volume 8/4, 1998, pp. 28-36.
• Nicholas B. Millet: The Reserve Heads of the Old Kingdom. In: William Kelly Simpson (Ed.): Studies in Ancient Egypt, the Aegean, and the Sudan. Essays in honor of Dows Dunham on the occasion of his 90th birthday, June 1, 1980. Department of Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 1981, pp. 129-131 ( PDF; 1.9 MB ).
• Massimiliano Nuzzolo: The Reserve Heads: some remarks on their function and meaning. In: Nigel Strudwick, Helen Strudwick (Eds.): Old Kingdom, New Perspectives. Egyptian Art and Archeology 2750-2150 BC. (Proceedings of the Old Kingdom Art and Archeology Conference, held May 20-23, 2009 at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge). Oxbow Books, Oxford 2011, ISBN 9781842174302 , pp. 200–215 ( PDF; 1.0 MB ).
• Nicholas S. Picardo, "Semantic Homicide" and the So-called Reserve Heads. The Theme of Decapitation in Egyptian Funerary Religion and Some Implications for the Old Kingdom. In: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt. Volume 43, 2007, pp. 221-252.
• Catharine H. Roehrig: Reserve Heads. An Enigma of Old Kingdom Sculpture. In: Christiane Ziegler (Ed.): Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1999, ISBN 0-87099-906-0 , pp. 73-81 ( online version ).
• Heike C. Schmidt: On the determination and iconography of the so-called replacement heads. In: Studies on ancient Egyptian culture. Volume 18, 1991 pp. 331-348.
• Roland Tefnin: Art et Magie au temps des Pyramides. L'énigme des têtes dites "de remplacement" (= Monumenta Aegyptiaca. Volume 5). Fondation Egyptologique Reine Elisabeth, Brussels 1991.
• Roland Tefnin: Les Têtes Magiques de Gizeh. In: Bulletin de la Société Française d'Egyptologie. Volume 120, 1991 pp. 25-37 ( online version ).
• Roland Tefnin: Reserve heads. In: Donald B. Redford (Ed.): The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. Volume 3. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2001, ISBN 0-19-513823-6 , pp. 145-147.
• Dietrich Wildung : Technological remarks on the art of the Old Kingdom. New facts about the replacement heads. In: Les critères de datation stylistiques à l'Ancien Empire. Bibliothèque d'étude. Volume 120, 1998, pp. 399-406.

Web links

Commons : Replacement head  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ D. Bisping, C. Winter: Replacement heads. P. 16; Tefnin: Reserve heads. P. 145.
2. ↑ Fitzenreiter: Statue and cult I. P. 88.
3. ^ Tefnin: Reserve heads. P. 145.
4. ↑ Fitzenreiter: Statue and cult I. P. 87.
5. ^ Tefnin: Reserve heads. P. 145.
6. ^ Tefnin: Reserve heads. P. 145.
7. ↑ http://www.flickr.com/photos/flagman00/4405526820/in/set-72157605153383187