‘Egyptian artists can be seen to have incorporated gestures of symbolism into their compositions in a conscious manner from very early times’ 1
It has been said that an action tells a thousand words - this is certainly the case for the many gestures present in ancient Egyptian artwork. It is clear that gestures can be substituted for words and just as ‘words may express anything’ however subtle or intense, gestures can do the same.2 Therefore, in terms of communication, a plethora of feelings, beliefs and ideas can be conveyed in a gesture. Several objects from a selection of the Eton Myers Collection currently on loan to the University of Birmingham illustrate the communicative aspect of gestures and show the ways in which the ancient Egyptians conveyed emotions and ideologies via this form of non-verbal interaction. As such, these objects are useful for students and researchers to study and interpret as it encourages them not to rely on textual or evidential detail, but to delve deeper to ‘think like an Egyptian’ and understand what these gestures conveyed in antiquity. The objects studied here consist of a range of amulets which were known throughout ancient Egypt for their ‘magical’ properties.3 Each of these amulets display one or more actions which help us to better understand the ways in which the ancient Egyptians transferred emotions, and beliefs of divine intervention and protection.
Gestures Communicating Emotion
Emotion is a difficult form of communication to interpret, especially when the sources available to analyse are of an artistic nature. However, some conclusions can be reached with one particular emotion: mourning. The common gestures of mourning have previously been established by many scholars,4 most notably by Werbrouck (1938). These actions include the baring of the chest and the raising of the hands to the head, which are seen in contexts including tomb wall scenes,5 vignettes from the Book of the Dead,6 vessels,7 and amulets. One such amulet from the Eton Myers Collection displays these gestures and provides an insight into how this particular emotion was communicated amongst the ancient Egyptian people.
ECM148, a faience amulet dating approximately to the Late Period, shows the goddess Isis - instantly recognisable from the hieroglyphic ‘throne’ on her head - bending on one knee with one hand to her head (fig. 1). Two small perforations on the goddess’ head and ankle show how the amulet would have been attached. The reverse of the amulet displays distinctive linen imprints, a lasting impression that alludes to the process of making faience.8 The raising of one (or more commonly two) hands is seen consistently throughout Egyptian artwork as a gesture of mourning. Several other amulets are comparable to ECM148, particularly UC52570 from the Petrie Museum and 11468 and 60859 from the British Museum. In each case a goddess - either Isis or Nephthys as it is likely that one amulet was part of a pair9 - bends to the ground on one knee with one of her hands placed to her head. Although this gesture may be unfamiliar to our Twenty-first Century eyes, to the ancient Egyptians it sent a clear message that the two goddesses, who were the mourners par-excellence, were grieving for Osiris, the mythical antecedent for all deceased Egyptians. For the emotion to be conveyed via mourning amulets the ancient Egyptians must have relied on the gestures for communication, as the facial expressions of the goddesses’ are very unclear. This is not due to damage over time, but rather the purposeful action of the artist to ensure that the gesture would be the communicator in this case.10
The amulets from the Eton Myers Collection selected in this study represent a range of particular objects that whether worn during life or made specifically to be placed on an embalmed individual in death,11 communicated ideologies of divine intervention and protection. Some scholars have placed amulets into specific groups,12 whilst others state that the arrangement of amulets into such groups is not something the ancient Egyptians had