Pharaonic Praise of Cruelty: Depiction of Emotions in War and Post-War Images from the Old Kingdom
Keywords:
war, emotions, iconography, Old Kingdom
Abstract
In his posthumous book Vom Kriege (1832), Carl von Clausewitz noted that “if war is an act of force, emotions cannot fail to be involved” (Book I, 1.3). This statement aimed at thinking about the actions and decisions of actors willing to exercise violence against rival groups, but it also makes sense when considering the social and individual experiences of those who are defeated in armed conflicts. In ancient Egypt, the iconography was characterised by a lack of emotional expressions on the faces of the characters depicted. However, some indications of emotional reactions can be recognised, either by the inclusion of epigraphic inscriptions or by the body posture of the characters depicted. The aim of this article is to identify ways of representing the relation between war and emotion, and in particular the human suffering involved in military activity, in images of war and post-war from the Old Kingdom (c. 2686-2181 BC). In short, the aim is to reflect on the Egyptian state’s perception of the emotional impact of war.Downloads
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References
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Strudwick, N. C. (2005). Texts from the Pyramid Age. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature.
Teeter, E. (2000). The Body in Ancient Egyptian Texts and Representations (Plate 6), en: Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 37: 149-170.
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Altenmüller, B. (1977). Gefühlsbewegungen, en: Helck, W. y Otto, E. (eds.), Lexikon der Ägyptologie. Band II. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 508-509.
Baines, J. (1995). Kingship, Definition of Culture, and Legitimation, en: O’Connor, D. y Silverman, D. P. (eds.), Ancient Egyptian kingship. Leiden: Brill, 3-47.
Baines, J. (2017). Epilogue: On Ancient Pictorial Representations of Emotion: Concluding Comments with Examples from Egypt, en: Kipfer, S. (ed.), Visualizing Emotions in the Ancient Near East. Friburgo / Gotinga: Academic Press / Vandenhoeck, 263-285.
Beaux, N. (2012). Joie et tristesse en Égypte ancienne: Archéologie de l’émotion, en: Comptes rendus des séances de l’Académie des Inscriptions & Belles-Lettres 4: 1565-1590.
Berens, V. (2017). Het creëren van het onbestaande. Composietdieren van de Predynastieke tijd tot en met het middenrijk, en: Ta-Mery 2016-2017: 2-21.
Bestock, L. (2018). Violence and Power in Ancient Egypt: Image and Ideology before the New Kingdom. Londres / Nueva York: Routledge.
Borchardt, L. (1913). Das Grabdenkmal des Königs S’ahu-Re’. Band 2: Die Wandbilder. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs.
Brunner, H. (1977). Herz, en: Helck, W. y Otto, E. (eds.), Lexikon der Ägyptologie. Band II. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1158-1167.
Brunner-Traut, E. (1977). Gesten, en: Helck, W. y Otto, E. (eds.), Lexikon der Ägyptologie. Band II. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 574-585.
Campagno, M. (2018). Lógicas sociales en el antiguo Egipto. Diez estudios. Buenos Aires: Editorial de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires.
Centeno, M. A. y Enriquez, E. (2016). War and Society. Cambridge / Malden: Polity Press.
Cervelló Autuori, J. (2015). Escrituras, lengua y cultura en el antiguo Egipto. Bellaterra: Edicions UAB.
Clausewitz, C. von (1984 [1832]). De la guerra. Barcelona: Labor.
Davis, W. (1992). Masking the Blow. The Scene of Representation in Late Prehistoric Egyptian Art. Berkeley / Los Ángeles / Oxford: University of California Press.
Downes, S., Lynch, A. y O’Loughlin, K. (2015). Introduction - War as Emotion: Cultural Fields of Conflict and Feeling, en: Downes, S., Lynch, A. y O’Loughlin, K. (eds.), Emotions and War. Medieval to Romantic Literature. Hampshire / Nueva York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1-23.
Gardiner, A. H. y Peet, T. E. (1917). The Inscriptions of Sinai. Part I. Introduction and Plates. Londres: Egypt Exploration Fund.
Gnirs, A. M. (1999). Ancient Egypt, en: Raaflaub, K. y Rosenstein, N. (eds.), War and Society in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds. Asia, the Mediterranean, Europe, and Mesoamerica. Washington: Center for Hellenic Studies, Trustees for Harvard University, 71-104.
Hall, E. S. (1986). The Pharaoh Smites his Enemies. A Comparative Study. Munich: Deutscher Kunstverlag.
Hamblin, W. J. (2006). Warfare in the Ancient Near East to 1600 BC. Holy Warriors at the Dawn of History. Londres / Nueva York: Routledge.
Hannig, R. (2003). Ägyptisches Wörterbuch I. Altes Reich und Erste Zwischenzeit. Maguncia: Von Zabern.
Hannig, R. (2006). Ägyptisches Wörterbuch II. Mittleres Reich und Zweite Zwischenzeit. Teil 1. Maguncia: Von Zabern.
Kanawati, N. y McFarlane, A. (1993). Deshasha. The tombs of Inti, Shedu and Others. Sidney: The Australian Centre for Egyptology.
Keegan, J. (2013 [1976]). El rostro de la batalla. Madrid: Turner.
Kelly, R. C. (2000). Warless Societies and the Origin of War. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Kipfer, S. (2017). Visualizing Emotions in the Ancient Near East - An Introduction, en: Kipfer, S. (ed.), Visualizing Emotions in the Ancient Near East. Friburgo / Gotinga: Academic Press / Vandenhoeck, 1-23.
Lichtheim, M. (2006 [1973]). Ancient Egyptian Literature. Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms. Berkeley / Los Ángeles: University of California Press.
Loprieno, A. (2012). Slavery and Servitude, en: Frood, E. y Wendrich, W. (eds.), UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology. Los Ángeles: UCLA. En línea: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8mx2073f. [Consultado: 24-2-2023].
Martínez Babón, J. (2007). Faraones guerreros. Historia militar de Egipto desde la Dinastía I hasta la XXVI. Sant Feliu de Guíxols: Gràfiques Bigas.
Matić, U. (2018). Traditionally Unharmed? Women and Children in New Kingdom Battle Scenes, en: Kahlbacher, A. y Priglinger, E. (eds.), Tradition and Transformation in Ancient Egypt. Viena: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, 245-260.
McDonald, A. (2020). Emotions, en: UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 1 (1). En línea:
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1t5224vj. [Consultado: 24-2-2023].
McFarlane, A. (2003). Mastabas at Saqqara: Kaiemheset, Kaipunesut, Kaiemsenu, Sehetepu, and others. Oxford: Aris and Phillips.
Moreno García, J. C. (2004). Egipto en el Imperio Antiguo (2650-2150 antes de Cristo). Barcelona: Bellaterra.
Mourad, A.-L. (2011). Siege Scenes of the Old Kingdom, en: Bulletin of the Australian Centre for Egyptology 22: 135-158.
Pampler, J. (2015 [2012]). The History of Emotions. An Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Petrie, W. M. F. (1898). Deshasheh, 1897. Londres: Egypt Exploration Fund.
Piankoff, A. (1930). Le “cœur” dans les textes Égyptiens. París: Geuthner.
Quibell, J. E. y Hayter, A. G. K. (1927). Teti Pyramid, North Side. El Cairo: Imprimerie de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale.
Reddy, W. M. (2004). The Navigation of Feeling. A Framework for the History of Emotions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Roth, A. M. (2014). Representing the Other Non-Egyptians in Pharaonic Iconography, en: Hartwig, M. K. (ed.), A Companion to Ancient Egyptian Art. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 155-174.
Shaw, I. (2019). Ancient Egyptian Warfare: Pharaonic Tactics, Weapons and Ideology. Havertown: Casemate Publishers.
Smith, W. S. (1949). A History of Egyptian Sculpture and Painting in the Old Kingdom, 2da edición. Londres: Oxford University Press.
Spalinger, A. J. (2017). The trope issue of Old Kingdom war reliefs, en: Bárta, M., Coppens, F. y Krejcí, J. (eds.), Abusir and Saqqara in the year 2015. Praga: Faculty of Arts, Charles University, 401-417.
Stockfisch, D. (1996). Bemerkungen zur sog. ‘libyschen Familie’, en: Schade-Busch, M. (ed.), Wege öffnen: Festschrift für Rolf Gundlach zum 65. Geburtstag. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 315-325.
Strudwick, N. C. (2005). Texts from the Pyramid Age. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature.
Teeter, E. (2000). The Body in Ancient Egyptian Texts and Representations (Plate 6), en: Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 37: 149-170.
Tobin, V. A. (1993). Divine Conflict in the Pyramid Texts, en: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 30: 93-110.
Wagner-Durand, E. (2020). Imaging Emotions. Emotional Communities of Mesopotamia and the Potential of an ‘Emotional Turn’ in the Study of Visual Cultures, en: Bracker, J. (ed.), Homo pictor: Image Studies and Archaeology in Dialogue. Heidelberg: Propylaeum, 235-279.
Westendorf, W. (1986). Trauer, en: Helck, W. y Otto, E. (eds.), Lexikon der Ägyptologie. Band VI. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 744-745.
Wilkinson, R. H. (1995 [1992]). Cómo leer el arte egipcio. Guía de jeroglíficos del antiguo Egipto. Barcelona: Crítica.
Published
2023-12-01
How to Cite
Gayubas, A. (2023). Pharaonic Praise of Cruelty: Depiction of Emotions in War and Post-War Images from the Old Kingdom. Revista Del Instituto De Historia Antigua Oriental, (24). https://doi.org/10.34096/rihao.n24.13745
Issue
Section
Dossier. Egiptología iberoamericana (primera parte)
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