Day 23 - Profile of a (non-Egyptian?) man



February 14, 2018

What immediately captures my eye in this study gallery (122) is this small fragment (maybe 5 inches square) depicting  the head of a man in profile. He certainly doesn't look like conventional representations of Egyptians, even those of the Amarna period. His face is round, his nose curved, his lips full. He looks to me as if he came from a Black African locale (or at least Nubia).  I may have viewed figures with  curled wigs or hairdos of the type he is wearing (its shape reminds me of the toques I've been seeing all over New York this cold winter), but I don't thnk I've previously see images with a similar hoop earring; this one appears to go right through his ear.

If he is indeed a foreigner, how did he come to be in Egypt, and what did he do there? I've noticed a depiction of a battle scene; maybe he was taken captive (shades of Amonasro!). But he doesn't look unhappy or as if he's suffering. Is that  a hint of a smile I see on his lips? Maybe not. - it strikes me that we read so much of a person's expression through his or her eyes, and the almond eyes here provide no clues. Was he a servant?  An official?  It's interesting to speculate about all this - and I realize that I may be utterly, completely wrong, too, in my supposition that he's non-Egyptian. Maybe what this entry shows most is my own awareness of race, however major or minor a consideration that was to the ancient Egyptians. 

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