Ostracon Depicting an Egyptian Dancer (Museo Egizio Torino)

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Ostracon depicting an Egyptian dancer
Female topless egyption dancer on ancient ostrakon.jpg
material limestone
Dimensions H. 10.5 cm; W. 16.8 cm;
origin unknown, perhaps Deir el-Medina
time New Kingdom , 19th Dynasty , around 1300 BC Chr.
place Turin , Museo Egizio , Turin 7052

An ostracon depicting an Egyptian dancer is in the Museo Egizio in Turin . The representation from the New Kingdom goes back to the 19th Dynasty and around 1300 BC. Dated.

Ostracas have come down to us in large numbers from ancient Egypt . Mostly they are described with texts, depictions with pictorial motifs are rarer. An ostracon from Thebes with a particularly high quality drawing is now kept in the Museo Egizio in Turin. It shows a young woman flipping backwards. Apart from a small apron around the hips, which shows almost more than it covers, she is not clothed. The long, flowing and curly hair was considered an ideal of beauty at the time. Such dancers appeared, for example, at religious festivals, for example at the festival-like celebrations of the annual journey of the goddess Hathor from her temple in Dendera to Edfu , where her husband Horus had his domicile.

Such representations of dancers were known from ancient Egyptian high art, although they were not among the common motifs. A similar representation can be found in the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut in Deir el-Bahari, 250 years older . The petite young woman depicted on the Turin ostracon is shown in a very erotic way, however, as it probably does not appear in the more discreet high art. Thus the representation represents a borderline case. The influence of the art of the Amarna period with its more realistic representations is obvious. The reason for the representation is unclear; a preliminary drawing for a larger picture is possible. The ostracon on a limestone sliver has a size of 10.5 x 16.8 cm.

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