Gotter bewohnten Agypten: Bronzefiguren der Sammlungen "Bible-Orient" der Universitat Freiburg Schweiz.

• Author: Peck, William H.
• Position: Book Review

By MADELElNE PAGE GASSER. Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis. Freiburg: UNIVERSITATSVERLAG, 2001. Pp. xxii + 178, plates. FS 48.

This small publication is a part of a series sponsored and undertaken by the Department of Biblical studies at Freiburg University devoted to the interpretation of ancient material from the Holy Land or associated with the Bible. Another recent contribution to the series is Agyptische Amulette aus Palastina/Israel II by Christian Herrmann, complementary to an earlier volume in the series by the same author. The series is essentially concerned with the documentation, publication, and interpretation of archaeological material of iconographic interest. This is exemplified by the present work, which deals with a group of Egyptian bronzes.

The general introduction by Othmar Keel outlines the reasons for the publication of a collection such as this, with its iconographic connections to Bible texts. This is followed by a discussion of bronze and bronze-working in Egypt, with examples of alloy analysis, the terminology for bronze in ancient Egyptian, and illustrations from tomb walls relating to the subject. Then comes a catalogue of thirty-eight objects in the collection. These range from full figures of deities and animals to fragments of crowns and other ritual objects. Each catalogue entry includes some general discussion of the image illustrated by the object and its significance, with discussion of the literature pertaining to the image type. A physical description and provenance (including the...