The Egyptianizing, male, limestone statuary from Cyprus - a study of a cross-cultural, Eastern Mediterranean votive type

Sammanfattning: This thesis is a study of a particular limestone votive statuary type which was dedicated in the sanctuaries on Cyprus during the entire 6th century B.C. Common to the group of figures is that they are wearing a Cypriote version of an Egyptian-type outfit, including characteristic Egyptian royal headgear and jewelry. In order to be able to answer questions on the origin of the Egyptianizing iconography encountered on the island, the reasons for the introduction of this particular votive statuary type in the Cypriote workshops, and the significance of the Egyptianizing figures within the sanctuaries of the island, a series of analyses are introduced. A typological analysis of the apparel of the figures is carried out, and the stylistic properties of the statuary are outlined. In addition, the archaeological contexts of the figures are investigated. The foreign iconography found in these Cypriote figures made it necessary to turn outside the island: the focus is placed on the only other find concentration of Egyptianizing statuary outside Cyprus, on the Phoenician coast. Through a similar series of analyses carried out on the Phoenician material, it can be stated that part of the statuary found there was Cypriote imports, while another part constituted indigenous, Phoenician Egyptianizing stone statuary. Against this background theories on the transmission of this particular iconography and votive figural type to Cyprus are presented. Through an analysis involving detailed comparisons with different categories of foreign material, it is suggested that the material and the craft tradition which lay behind the introduction of the Egyptianizing statuary on Cyprus were not the ones behind the Phoenician stone statues, nor was there any actual direct connection to contemporary Egyptian craftsmanship and technology or the Nilotic religious sphere. The analysis points rather towards a material category which for obvious reasons is only very sparsely preserved in the archaeological material record: Phoenician, large-scale ivory-on-wood statuary. Based on this suggestion, it is possible to better understand the significance of the Egyptianizing statuary on display in the ancient Cypriote sanctuaries: they are not to be viewed against an Egyptian religious background, but rather as an outcrop of a royal Phoenician iconography which found its way to the island, an iconography where a decorative and colorful statuary type clad in Egyptian-type dress was an acknowledged means to attract the attention of the divine powers.