Articles

Egyptian Motifs in the Ceramic Decoration of Meroe

Vostok/Oriens '2018, №5

DOI: 10.31857/S086919080001848-9

 
The ancient Sudanese civilization of Meroe existed in the second half of the sixth century BCE to the middle of the fourth century CE. Its pottery has a special place in the world material and art culture due to the nature of its decoration. Decoration of the Meroitic pottery distinguishes it from the ceramics of other ancient civilizations. Well-known Egyptian motifs were used for the ornamentation of Meroitic wares. The article concerns the allocation of Egyptian motifs in the pottery of Meroe. It aims at establishing of statistic influence of Ancient Egypt on Meroitic pottery and art culture. Despite a distinct relationship between the Meroitic arts and the ancient Egyptian civilization, the address to the Egyptian samples was not their exact copying. Meroitic craftsmen took the Egyptian forms and symbols as a basis, reinterpreted them within local traditions and used the Egyptian and Hellenistic bases as well as the achievements of their Nubian ancestors. Meroitic potters acquainted with the monuments of Egypt and the Greek-Roman World took on various features and displayed a special fusion of artistic ideas embodied in the decoration of ceramics of Meroe. In these decorations, on the one hand, there are Egyptian and Hellenistic themes, technical methods and ceramic shapes characteristic for the pottery of Late and Ptolemaic Egypt, ancient Greece and Rome. On the other hand, the ceramic products turned original and recognizable, vividly illustrating the material and artistic culture of the Meroitic civilization.

Keywords: Ancient Sudan, Nubia, Meroe, Abu Erteila, Meroitic pottery, Egyptian influence, Egyptian-Hellenistic syncretism

Pages: С. 37–55