A torso of a Strategos in Kom-Oushim Storeroom, El-Fayoum

This paper examines a torso of a male figure, currently housed in the Kom-Oushim storeroom, El-Fayoum (Inv.no.307). Unfortunately, it was confiscated, and nothing is known about its provenance.

This male figure is standing in a full-frontal pose, with a left advanced leg, a characteristic feature of Egyptian statuary. This feature continued well into the Ptolemaic period.[1] His right arm is stretching along the body, while the left arm is bent at the elbow at an oblique angle, resting over the abdomen and holding the edge of a fringed mantle (fig.1,a). The man is dressed in two tight garments; a tight round-shaped-neck tunic, with short sleeves, banded with a deep line carved from the neck to the edge of the sleeve on the forearm (fig.1,b). The second garment is a fringed mantle, crossed beneath the right armpit, covering the left shoulder and muffling the left arm, with a diagonal-grooved roll on the chest (fig.1,c).[2] The folds of the fringed mantle are realistically sculpted and reflect the body pose. It is diagonally rendered on the left arm and the chest, vertically on the advanced left leg, and circular on the right leg. The body treatment shows a well-built structure, round shoulders, round arms, and a lightly-protruding chest.

THE SUBJECT AND ITS OWNER 

The main challenge in studying this torso is the lack of information about its archaeological context, the missing head, and the bad condition of the back pillar (fig.1,d).

This statuary type dressed in the fringed mantle represents high officials, mostly strategoi. These officials were acting as governors of the district (nomoi). They were responsible for all the temples located in their district.[3] All the inscribed examples show military, administrative, and priestly titles.[4]

ARTISTIC STUDY 

In studying this statuary type, the dressing style is the main criteria to attribute pieces with unknown provenance to specific sites thanks to similar statues from Fayoum. 

The most significant example is a headless basalt statue, kept in the Cairo Museum Basement (N4257). It is thought to be an unknown strategos from Fayoum. The man is dressed in a fringed mantle, characterised by a grooved-diagonal roll on the chest, and a round-shaped-neck tunic with short sleeves. The shoulder is banded with three deeply grooved lines carved from the neck to the edge of the sleeve on the forearm. The most important feature is the circular folds on the right leg, which establish a stylistic parallel between the two pieces. This statue is dated to the end of the 1

^st

 century BC to the beginning of the 1

^st

 century AD. The statue of Cairo Museum N4257 shows close stylistic features to the studied torso.[5]

The statue (CG 27495), currently kept in The Egyptian Museum of Cairo, is the keystone among the parallel examples. The statue is carved in the same pose and wears a tight tunic with a round-shaped neck and short sleeves. The fringed mantle runs from the bottom of the right arm, falls to the left shoulder, and covers the left arm. The back pillar is inscribed with a hieroglyphic inscription mentioning the crocodile god Sobek. The statue dates to the 1

^st

 century BC or the early 1

^st

 century AD.[6] 

The statue of Erinaious the strategos, preserved in the Greco-Roman Museum of Alexandria (Inv.no.3192), was found in the temple of Soknopaiounesos at Dimeh. It depicts a man in the same pose with an advanced left leg. The two arms were sculpted in the same manner. He is dressed in the same way; a short-sleeved tunic with a round-shaped neck, and the fringed mantle which passes beneath the right arm and over the left shoulder, held by the left hand over the thigh. The most important feature is the absence of fringes on the Dimeh statue, similarly to the Kom Oushim torso. The Erinaious statue dates to the Augustan period.[7]

The statue of an unknown strategos from Dimeh kept in Berlin (Inv.no.11633) shows the combination of the Egyptian and Greek traditions. The most important feature is the diagonal edge of the sleeve on both statues' left forearms, in addition to the style of execution of the mantle edge on the left wrist. The Dimeh statue dates to 50-20 BC.[8]

The headless statue of a man kept in the Museo Archeologico of Milan (Inv.no E. 0.9.40006). The left leg is fractured just below the knee, while the right is preserved up to the middle of the calf. He is dressed in a short-sleeved tunic and a fringed mantle in the same manner as the others (fig.2). The folds were carved in three lines on the right side of the body and descend from the waist making three smaller folds. They finally turn around the arm and hang to cover the lower left part of the body. One interesting stylistic confront is the double edge of the mantle on the body axis, which may relate the studied Fayoumic torso with the workshop of Medinet Madi, the ancient Narmouthis in the Fayoum. The statue dates to the 1^st century BC and 1^st century AD.[9]

DATING

The examples mentioned support the identification of this torso as one of a strategos dating to the late Ptolemaic period to early Roman period. Statues of the time continued the Egyptian tradition of the back pillar and the modelling of Greek costumes. Furthermore, the pose with the right arm stretching alongside the body and the left arm holding the fringed mantle over the abdomen was a feature of late Ptolemaic statues.[10] Consequently, the torso under investigation might date to the late Ptolemaic to early Roman period thanks to the comparisons to the Erinaious statue and the Fayoumic statue in the Egyptian Museum,  Cairo.

According to Sobhi Ashour[11], the dress worn by our torso is close to the Dimeh types B & C, especially with the tunic distinguished by the round-shaped neck and banded shoulder sleeves, which were features of type B. Furthermore, the absence of the axial fringes from type C is another evidence supporting this. The two Dimeh types are chronologically interlaced, suggesting a similar timeframe and workshop. As a consequence, the torso is dated between 30 BC to the early Roman period.[12]

CONCLUSION

The newly examined Fayoumic torso lacks authenticated information about its archaeological context. However, its provenance is easily identified thanks to the many Fayoumic examples mentioned as a temple.[13] The stylistic similarities with these Fayoumic statues with a fringed mantle type suggest a relation between the temples and the workshops within the different Fayoum towns.

Medinet Madi had a workshop, whose production may have reached Dimeh and other Fayoumic sites.[14] Dimeh could also have had a workshop. The unfinished statue from Medinet Madi (Kom Oushim Magazine 48-1995) was carved in sandstone. It shows extreme resemblance with Dimeh type B. This statue might have been carved by a sculptor from Medinet Madi influenced by the Dimeh workshop or by a sculptor from Dimeh working in Madinet Madi. Further studies are necessary to identify these craftsmen and their origin.[15]

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PLATES

Fig.1.a: The torso: a male figure (sandstone; height:1.16 m, Kom-Oushim storeroom, El-Fayoum, (Inv.no. 307). The front view. Photograph by the author.

Fig.1.b The torso, side view, the shoulder with a banded line carved from the neck to the edge of the sleeve on the forearm. Photograph by the author

Fig.1.c: The fringed mantel with a diagonal-grooved roll on the chest. Photograph by the author

Fig.1.d: The back pillar. Photograph by the author

Fig.2: Headless statue of a man (limestone, height: 135 cm, Milano, inv.no.0.9.40006). Bresciani E., La Iside di Medinet Madi, 76, pl.11.51.

[1]The Ptolemaic period is one of the most important and diverse periods in the history of Egypt as it combined two cultures: the Egyptian and the Greco-Macedonian ones. For further readings: Ashton, S. A., Ptolemaic Royal Sculpture from Egypt; the interaction between Greek and Egyptian traditions, Oxford University Press, (2001); Noshy, I., The Art in Ptolemaic Egypt, A study of Greek and Egyptian influences in Ptolemaic Architecture and Sculpture, Oxford University Press, (1937), 83-142; Vandrope, K., ‘The Ptolemaic Period,’ in: Lloyed, A.B., A Companion to Ancient Egypt, vol. I, Wiley- Blackwell, (2010), 172-173; Ashton, S, A., ‘Ptolemaic and Romano-Egypt Sculpture,’ in: Lloyed, A.B., A Companion to Ancient Egypt, vol. II, Wiley- Blackwell, (2010), 971-973.