DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.811#0138
io4 WAS THERE A MINOAN REACTION ON EGYPT?
Sensa-
tional
versions
of New
Empire :
Siege of
Tabor.
Was
there a
Minoan
reaction
on Egypt?
sculptures of the Ramesseum, such as that (Fig. 58) depicting the siege of
Tabor in Rameses II's fifth year (1295 B.C.).1
The city itself stands on a rocky height fenced round with a double
enceinte, including a citadel tower or keep, and a gate with upright posts is
shown to the left of the outer wall. Women in wild gesticulation are there
seen on the towers and battlements beside the defenders, armed with bows,
spears, and stones, while some of the inhabitants endeavour to escape by
means of ropes. The attacking force, among whom are Shardanas with
horned helmets, as well as Egyptians armed with round-topped shields,
make use of the ' testudo' for their approach, but the ladder for scaling the
walls has lost its hold, and is falling, together with two of the aggressors.
One of the Shardanas makes use of a spike of metal to climb the rocks.2
The citadel tower shows a standard transfixed with arrows—the sign of
defeat—while a figure holds a flaming censer with an incense offering to the
Egyptian king, a visible token of surrender.
Here, too, as on the silver 'rhyton ', we find what is clearly a faithful
record of various thrilling episodes of the attack—not all favourable to the
victor, like the shipwreck in the other case. Here, too, moreover, we see
carefully depicted various ethnic characteristics in armature and dress.
Egyptians with their national coiffure and sashes, together with their
rounded shields, Shardana mercenaries with their two-horned casques, long
thrusting swords, and round targes, and the native Syrians with long Semitic
gaberdines.
The analogies between this and other Egyptian siege scenes of this
later epoch, with those of the Minoan composition, are sufficiently obvious.
At the same time the great posteriority in date—amounting in the above
case to over two centuries—makes it quite possible to trace in this sensa-
tional version the direct reaction of such Minoan models, belonging to the
early part of the New Era, on the stiff conventional schemes that the Egyp-
tian sculptors inherited from the Middle Empire.
The spirit that breathes in the Minoan version is far more in keeping
1 Lepsius, Denkmdkr, iii, 166 (some de-
tails inaccurate) ■ Rosellini, Mon. Stor,, cviii;
Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, i, p. 243
(some omissions); Prisse d'Avennes, Art
Egypt-, ii> 11, reproduced in Fig. 58 ; Wres-
zinski, Atlas zur altdgypt. Kxdturgeschichte,
ii, 107-9. Another relief of Rameses II also
shows the siege of a Syrian fortress (Rosellini,
T. 68; Von Bissing, Denkmiiler dgyptischer
Shilptur, PI. 93 and text (Medinet Habu).
Baron Von Bissing in comparing the My-
cenae relief with the Egyptian class of siege
scenes agrees that many details of the Minoan
example, in the form and position of the
stronghold and in the movements of the
besiegers and defenders, present analogies
with the Egyptian versions.
- See Wilkinson, op. at., p. xxi, No. 75.
Sensa-
tional
versions
of New
Empire :
Siege of
Tabor.
Was
there a
Minoan
reaction
on Egypt?
sculptures of the Ramesseum, such as that (Fig. 58) depicting the siege of
Tabor in Rameses II's fifth year (1295 B.C.).1
The city itself stands on a rocky height fenced round with a double
enceinte, including a citadel tower or keep, and a gate with upright posts is
shown to the left of the outer wall. Women in wild gesticulation are there
seen on the towers and battlements beside the defenders, armed with bows,
spears, and stones, while some of the inhabitants endeavour to escape by
means of ropes. The attacking force, among whom are Shardanas with
horned helmets, as well as Egyptians armed with round-topped shields,
make use of the ' testudo' for their approach, but the ladder for scaling the
walls has lost its hold, and is falling, together with two of the aggressors.
One of the Shardanas makes use of a spike of metal to climb the rocks.2
The citadel tower shows a standard transfixed with arrows—the sign of
defeat—while a figure holds a flaming censer with an incense offering to the
Egyptian king, a visible token of surrender.
Here, too, as on the silver 'rhyton ', we find what is clearly a faithful
record of various thrilling episodes of the attack—not all favourable to the
victor, like the shipwreck in the other case. Here, too, moreover, we see
carefully depicted various ethnic characteristics in armature and dress.
Egyptians with their national coiffure and sashes, together with their
rounded shields, Shardana mercenaries with their two-horned casques, long
thrusting swords, and round targes, and the native Syrians with long Semitic
gaberdines.
The analogies between this and other Egyptian siege scenes of this
later epoch, with those of the Minoan composition, are sufficiently obvious.
At the same time the great posteriority in date—amounting in the above
case to over two centuries—makes it quite possible to trace in this sensa-
tional version the direct reaction of such Minoan models, belonging to the
early part of the New Era, on the stiff conventional schemes that the Egyp-
tian sculptors inherited from the Middle Empire.
The spirit that breathes in the Minoan version is far more in keeping
1 Lepsius, Denkmdkr, iii, 166 (some de-
tails inaccurate) ■ Rosellini, Mon. Stor,, cviii;
Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, i, p. 243
(some omissions); Prisse d'Avennes, Art
Egypt-, ii> 11, reproduced in Fig. 58 ; Wres-
zinski, Atlas zur altdgypt. Kxdturgeschichte,
ii, 107-9. Another relief of Rameses II also
shows the siege of a Syrian fortress (Rosellini,
T. 68; Von Bissing, Denkmiiler dgyptischer
Shilptur, PI. 93 and text (Medinet Habu).
Baron Von Bissing in comparing the My-
cenae relief with the Egyptian class of siege
scenes agrees that many details of the Minoan
example, in the form and position of the
stronghold and in the movements of the
besiegers and defenders, present analogies
with the Egyptian versions.
- See Wilkinson, op. at., p. xxi, No. 75.