Ontology and iconography in Egyptian religious compositions: composite figures in the Amduat, Book of Two Ways, and apotropaic wands c. 2000-1400 BCE

Thesis

This thesis investigates the patterns of occurrence of composite figural forms of divine beings in three categories of Egyptian pictorial–verbal religious compositions dating between 2000 and 1400 BCE: the Amduat, Book of Two Ways, and apotropaic wands. Analysis of the Amduat focuses on the burial chamber of Thutmose III (KV 34); study of the Book of Two Ways concentrates on the coffins B1C and B5C (Cairo CG 28083 and JE 37566); images on various wands are treated as selections from a repertoire. Most case studies are ophidian composites that incorporate elements of the bodies of serpents, whose cultural associations in Egypt are well-explored. The thesis argues that composite figures, which conjoin elements of human and animal bodies or parts of inanimate objects, display both ontological and semantic content, and that configurations were constrained by features of context, such as compositional format, multimodality, and decorum. Chapters 1 and 2 establish the theoretical basis of the thesis. Following the terminology of anthropologist Philippe Descola, composite figures are argued to balance interiority (subjectivity and vital force) and physicality (bodily constitution and means of action) in an analogist ontological regime, in which beings are defined and related through metaphor and symbolism. The concept of agency is treated as an aspect of interiority; its dynamics and loci are identified in the Egyptian terms sšmw and jrw. In Chapters 3 to 5, case studies from the three corpora are analysed within the frame of Neil Cohn’s notion of visual language, developed out of research on comics. This concept accommodates varied relationships between beings, images, and hieroglyphic writing by taking account of contextual features while exploiting analytical approaches deriving from art history as well as comics studies. Chapter 6 presents a typology of conceptual structures and discusses sources and transmission between corpora. The composite figure is suggested to be an emic category whose conceptual implications distinguish it from other uses of conjoined elements as a graphic schema, enabling zoomorphic composites to be related to other schemas, notably personifications. A concluding chapter extends the central ideas of the thesis to other corpora, outlines relevant theoretical considerations, and suggests how the methods developed could be extended in their application.

Authors: Miller, JS

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-koprzv5pb
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: iconography; comics studies; multimodality; social anthropology; visual culture; visual language; Coffin Texts; representation; underworld books; ontology
• Subjects: Egyptology; Religion; Anthropology; Art, Ancient