Gebel el Arak Knife Handle - Episode 12 - Egyptian Object Stories

Welcome back to Ancient Egyptian Object Stories. In this episode, we return to the pre-dynastic period, which we first visited in episode 1 with an examination of pottery. But now we will look specifically at one example of a popular pre-dynastic medium, ivory. In a future episode, we will examine pre-dynastic ivories in general, but the object in this object story, the Jebel el-Arak knife handle, has rather a significant story to tell us not just about early Egypt, but also the history of influences of foreign art on Egyptian art. The Jebel el-Arak knife handle dates to the 4th millennium BCE, probably in the Negada II phase or around 3500 to 3200 BCE. Writing had not yet developed in Egypt at this time, but the beginnings of what would become traditional Egyptian art was emerging not just from within the centralizing Egyptian culture, but also from distant lands that helped shape what it would mean, in terms of art, to be Egyptian. The small knife was found in Upper Egypt, where most of the earliest Egyptian statehood material comes from, presumably from a site called Jebel el-Arak, although it has been suggested that the knife was found in Abydos. The blade, about 19 centimeters long, is made of flint, while the handle, 9.5 centimeters long, is made of hippopotamus ivory, a common material for knives in the pre-dynastic period. Not only is ivory a prestigious material, but also the masterful decorative carving and raised relief on the handle indicate this was owned by a wealthy person and may possibly have been used ceremonially or as a grave good. One side of the knife handle contains multiple registers that are not separated by ground lines. The scene is one of violence with the top two registers showing men in hand-to-hand combat, while the bottom three-ish registers show a naval battle on unidentifiable waters. At the very top, two men are restraining two other men. On the far left, a man threateningly brandishes a mace in a position akin to the smiting pose that will become a major motif in pharaonic art. On the far right, a man is actively trying to restrain an enemy who still appears to be holding a knife similar to the Jebel al-Arak knife itself. The second register shows men in active battle, beating each other with clubs and frozen in a stalemate. The naval battle below shows two fleets of ships. In the top row, the ships differ in their appearance from the bottom row of ships, and between the two fleets, several men are shown drowning in the water after presumably being hurled from their respective ships. The ships on the bottom are distinctly Egyptian, comparable to the boats often depicted on Negada II period pottery. The top row of ships, however, are characteristically Mesopotamian. At the fore and aft, the ships' prows and sterns shoot upward to a great height, and there are standards that bear symbols from Mesopotamian religion, namely the lunar crescent of the moon god and what appears to be the rod and ring, which is a divine emblem often handled by Mesopotamian gods. Because of this Mesopotamian iconography, it has been suggested that this is an international battle, perhaps taking place on sea. However, all human figures have the same manner of dress and hair, and even weapons, indicating they are people of the same origin. The Mesopotamian boats may have been incorporated to add differentiation that indicates opposing sides of people in Egypt rather than a battle between Upper Egypt and Southern Mesopotamia. Perhaps it commemorates a battle between rival groups that occurred on Egypt's path toward statehood. On the reverse side, another scene of violence plays out, but this time between animals. Unlike the previous side, the arrangement of the animals is mostly chaotic and disorderly with no registers to be found. Prey animals like antelope and ibexes scatter in disarray to escape the vicious lioness near the bottom that is savagely mauling an unfortunate creature. Some order is apparent in the form of the two dogs facing each other near the top, arranged symmetrically. Each wears a collar, indicating they are pet hunting dogs and thus are controlled, unlike the antelope and lion. One dog appears at the very bottom of the knife handle, following a prey animal which presumably has been captured during the hunt. Lastly, and most significantly, a trio with figures occupies the top of the knife handle. Quite simply, a man stands between two rearing lions and he clutches each by the throat while each lion scrabbles at him with one paw. Together they form a controlled symmetrical image which, again, differs from the chaotic assembly below. What makes this trio quite important is its non-Egyptian origin. The motif, known as the Master of Animals, comes from early Mesopotamian art and predates its use in Egyptian art by possibly several hundred years. The Mesopotamian period contemporaneous with the Jebel el-Arek knife is the Uruk period. The costume worn by the man is consistent with the style of dress Uruk period men are shown wearing in southern Mesopotamian art, namely the cap that would become distinctive headgear in Babylonian art, and the full beard. The human form has stylized and strongly defined musculature which, while it is a feature of Egyptian pre-dynastic art, lacks the live form traditional for depictions of ancient Egyptian men. The heaviness to both the human form and the lions is distinctly Mesopotamian and continues to be so well into the Neo-Babylonian times of the 6th century BCE and beyond. The Mesopotamian motif of the Master of Animals, also called the Hero, is generally depicted as a man wrangling two animals such as lions, bulls, and leopards, and sometimes even some species of antelope or mythological creatures. Often the Master or Hero is depicted frontally, that is, his face faces the viewer. Such a representation is typical of protective entities such as Pazuzu and Humbaba in Mesopotamian religion or Bes in ancient Egyptian religion. The figure on the knife handle, however, is depicted in the composite pose where his shoulders are depicted frontally while the rest of his body is depicted in profile. The eye also tends to be depicted frontally. This was the standard format of the human figure in Egyptian art but it was also used in Mesopotamian art even before the advent of standardized Egyptian art. Although the composite pose for the Master of Animals is not uncommon in Mesopotamian art, as one of the harps from the royal tomb at Ur revealed, it was certainly favored in ancient Egyptian art and may perhaps be why it was selected for this knife handle rather than the frontal representation that was more prevalent in Mesopotamian art. One interpretation of this motif is that it represents man's control over nature. If this is how the motif is meant to be read, then its place on the Jebel el-Arek knife handle certainly makes sense. It may reflect the ancient Egyptian concept of order overcoming chaos, which was a running theme in Egyptian art for millennia and was also especially a royal theme because the king was responsible for maintaining order. Combat is a popular subject matter for a most often portrayed by chaotic animals being controlled in some way or another. These chaotic animals were sometimes also mythological creatures borrowed from Mesopotamian religion. Most famously, this is exemplified by the long-necked serpopards or serpentine leopards that appear quite often in pre-dynastic Egyptian art and disappear quite soon after. The Master of Animals appears in another pre-dynastic Egyptian context in the well-known Tomb 100 painting from Hierakonpolis. One of the most important parts of this painting is one of the earliest depictions of the smiting pose that would come to be adopted as standard royal imagery, but it also contains a sketch of the Master of Animals motif. The male figure is, like all the others, rendered rather rudimentarily, but it is clear that he is wrangling two animals which are ostensibly lions but look rather like giant rats. The animals rest their forelegs upon the torso of the man who clutches their throats. Overall, the painting is a haphazard array of figures without any particular narrative to be discerned, but the Mesopotamian influence is made clear in the Master of Animals scene. It must be noted that when there are obvious foreign influences on Egyptian art, it does not mean it is not Egyptian. The choice of foreign art may simply be due to it being more conveniently suited to expressing whatever the Egyptians meant to convey in their art. Certainly, reusing or imitating motifs from elsewhere and integrating them into their own developing art was simpler than reinventing the proverbial wheel. When they encountered a certain image from Mesopotamia, perhaps they found that it illustrated their own pre-existing beliefs perfectly and therefore adopted the motif which then developed over time, as Egyptian religious beliefs also developed, making a distinctly Egyptian art that can historically be traced back to a foreign inspiration. It should come as no surprise that Mesopotamian art would find its way into Egyptian art so early because the Egyptians were already in contact with peoples all the way in Afghanistan, exemplified by the presence of lapis lazuli figurines and other lapis lazuli objects in pre-dynastic tombs. Lapis lazuli only comes from a specific region in Afghanistan, serving as concrete evidence for Egypt's very early international activities. It is likely that art was transmitted through trade activities and the Mesopotamian art that Egyptians encountered during these activities found its way into the manufacture of luxury objects in Egypt. This practice is actually well documented in the New Kingdom when the so-called international style emerged as a result of large-scale internationalism, where art of various civilizations of the Eastern Mediterranean and West Asia mixed and mingled on decorated objects and palace wall paintings alike to form a hybrid style with no clear origins. Widespread interculturalism was once again, or perhaps more strongly, the order of the day in Egyptian art, and it coincided with developing religious ideas in the 18th dynasty. Thank you for watching, and I hope you will join me again for my next ancient Egyptian object story. For further reading, please see the description box below. If you liked this video, don't forget to click the like button and subscribe to be notified of future content.