DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1118#0153
EGYPTIAN FEMALE ACROBATS
5°7
be referred, like the others, to some surviving indigenous element in the
Nile Valley. Its general shape seems to answer best to Cylinders of the
Vth and Vlth Dynasties.
In the case of the 'tumbler' type, as depicted on the Minoan intaglio,
Fio-. 443, the characteristic feather crests may be reasonably taken as a
tribute to the excellence of Libyan performers, to which we may also see
Fig. 452. Female Egyptian Tumblers of Social and Ceremonial Occasions.
a reference in the acrobatic figure on the 'Nilotic' cylinder (Fig. 446). On
the other hand, among the Minoans themselves tumbling and other acrobatic
feats were a traditional feature in the bull sports, and had already entered
into the programme of these in their Anatolian home-land.1 The ' Cowboy
Fresco' is a later example of this, and its best sphragistic illustration,
a clay seal impression from the Temple Repositories, Fig. 451,2 supplies a
record of it in Minoan glyptic Art by the close of M. M. III.
'Tumbling' still forms an essential part of the Cretan ir-nS-nKros x°P°s,
where the leaders of the dance execute somersaults with surprising agility, and
recall the Ku/SiorijTfjpe of the Iliad, who accompanied and led the ring-dance.
It was, as noted above, equally well known in historic Egypt, where
a hieroglyph existed of a kilted male tumbler.3 Such already appeal" in
the XIIth Dynasty Tomb of Antefoker at Thebes,'1 but female acrobatic
Minoan
tumbling
of Bull
Sports.
Egyptian
female
acrobats
at dances
and
funerals.
1 Tumblers are seen in connexion with bull
sports on a Cappadocian cylinder of the latter
half of the Third Millennium B.C. (see P. of M.,
ill, p. 205, and Pinches, Liv. Anns, of Archae-
ology and Anthropology, i, p. 76seqq., no 23,
with Prof. Sayce's remarks).
= P. of M., i, p. 694, Fig. Sit (cf. iii, p. 21S,
Fig. 149, and p. 219, Fig. 152 (Zakro).
Bunsen, Egypt's Place in Universal History
(Cottrell's translation edited by Birch), i, p. 507,
"o- 34. In no. 35 a female figure of a
tumbler is also given as a hieroglyph, but there
wrongly taken for the arched form of the
Goddess of heaven.
'' For that of the Tomb of Antefoker see
N. de Garis Davies, Bull. Metr. Mas., N.Y.
Suppl., March, uirS, p. 62, Fig. 14. Cf., too,
the examples of women acrobats given by
Mr. Davies in the Bulletin of F'eb. 192S, p. 62,
Fig. 4; p. 65, Fig. 7 ; p. 6S, I'ig. 11; p. 69.
Fig. 13, and p. 70, Fig. 14. A fine late painting
of a female acrobat appears on an ostrakon
of the Turin Museum (Maspero, Egypte) in
Ars Una, p. 156, F'ig. 287.
5°7
be referred, like the others, to some surviving indigenous element in the
Nile Valley. Its general shape seems to answer best to Cylinders of the
Vth and Vlth Dynasties.
In the case of the 'tumbler' type, as depicted on the Minoan intaglio,
Fio-. 443, the characteristic feather crests may be reasonably taken as a
tribute to the excellence of Libyan performers, to which we may also see
Fig. 452. Female Egyptian Tumblers of Social and Ceremonial Occasions.
a reference in the acrobatic figure on the 'Nilotic' cylinder (Fig. 446). On
the other hand, among the Minoans themselves tumbling and other acrobatic
feats were a traditional feature in the bull sports, and had already entered
into the programme of these in their Anatolian home-land.1 The ' Cowboy
Fresco' is a later example of this, and its best sphragistic illustration,
a clay seal impression from the Temple Repositories, Fig. 451,2 supplies a
record of it in Minoan glyptic Art by the close of M. M. III.
'Tumbling' still forms an essential part of the Cretan ir-nS-nKros x°P°s,
where the leaders of the dance execute somersaults with surprising agility, and
recall the Ku/SiorijTfjpe of the Iliad, who accompanied and led the ring-dance.
It was, as noted above, equally well known in historic Egypt, where
a hieroglyph existed of a kilted male tumbler.3 Such already appeal" in
the XIIth Dynasty Tomb of Antefoker at Thebes,'1 but female acrobatic
Minoan
tumbling
of Bull
Sports.
Egyptian
female
acrobats
at dances
and
funerals.
1 Tumblers are seen in connexion with bull
sports on a Cappadocian cylinder of the latter
half of the Third Millennium B.C. (see P. of M.,
ill, p. 205, and Pinches, Liv. Anns, of Archae-
ology and Anthropology, i, p. 76seqq., no 23,
with Prof. Sayce's remarks).
= P. of M., i, p. 694, Fig. Sit (cf. iii, p. 21S,
Fig. 149, and p. 219, Fig. 152 (Zakro).
Bunsen, Egypt's Place in Universal History
(Cottrell's translation edited by Birch), i, p. 507,
"o- 34. In no. 35 a female figure of a
tumbler is also given as a hieroglyph, but there
wrongly taken for the arched form of the
Goddess of heaven.
'' For that of the Tomb of Antefoker see
N. de Garis Davies, Bull. Metr. Mas., N.Y.
Suppl., March, uirS, p. 62, Fig. 14. Cf., too,
the examples of women acrobats given by
Mr. Davies in the Bulletin of F'eb. 192S, p. 62,
Fig. 4; p. 65, Fig. 7 ; p. 6S, I'ig. 11; p. 69.
Fig. 13, and p. 70, Fig. 14. A fine late painting
of a female acrobat appears on an ostrakon
of the Turin Museum (Maspero, Egypte) in
Ars Una, p. 156, F'ig. 287.