Votive Offerings to Hathor.

AuthorBleiberg, Edward
PositionReview

By GERALDINE PINCH. Oxford: GRIFFITH INSTITUTE, ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM, 1993. Pp. xxv + 408 + 6 plans + 18 figures + 64 plates. [pounds]40, $91.50 (cloth); [pounds]22, $50 (paper).

Egyptologists have paid little attention to the objects which Geraldine Pinch studies in Votive Offerings to Hathor, making this very important contribution to Egyptology even more remarkable. Pinch has performed a minor miracle of recovery and analysis for objects which excavators routinely ignored until recently. Even more significantly, she draws from these votive objects fascinating conclusions about the relationship between state and popular cults.

Part one reviews the six major archaeological sites and other minor settings where votive objects for Hathor have been discovered. They include Deir el-Bahri, Faras, Mirgissa, Serabit el-Khadim, Timna, and Gebel Zeit. Hathor's votive offerings thus derive from three important shrines in the heart of Egypt, as well as temples in Nubia, Sinai, and the Eastern Desert, arguing for the unusual importance of the goddess wherever ancient Egyptians settled. Because in previous publications standards of recording archaeological finds were more lax, Pinch was forced to reconstruct the find spots of many of the votive objects from Deir el-Bahri and Faras. Pinch accepts this challenge by examining occasionally conflicting records of these excavations and convincingly assigning objects to the temples constructed by Nebhepetre Mentuhotpe, Hatshepsut, and Thutmose III. She performs similar tasks with the objects from Faras. With the additional information she gleans from the other four, more recently excavated sites, she is able to show that these objects were deposited between the Eleventh and the Nineteenth Dynasties.

Part two is a catalog and discussion of the eleven types of votive offerings made to Hathor, including stelae, textiles, Harbor masks, objects depicting cows, objects depicting cats, fertility figurines, phallic objects, objects depicting human ears and eyes, jewelry, amulets, and vessels. In many cases a basic taxonomy is established for each kind of object. Small objects bearing Harbor masks, for example, are divided into loop sistra, naos sistra, Hathor masks, and Harbor mask columns. Each has a different interpretation, ranging from representations of the double nature of the goddess, to pacification of the goddess, sexual symbolism, and rebirth.

Careful attention is also paid to separating votive objects from...

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