Recent findings on the history of ancient Egypt suggest that the artists responsible for creating the magnificent sculptures and paintings of the civilization worked not just individually but in groups. The discovery was confirmed by excavating one of the empire's few female pharaohs known as Hatshepsut. Based on the study, the tomb of the said pharaoh was full of well-designed artistry and had been created meticulously in each of its details.
Like the famous Renaissance artists Raphael, Michelangelo, and Caravaggio, the said artists worked in teams rather than finishing the tomb single-handedly. According to the findings, collective artisans and sculptors led the art job and managed to pull off the best tomb of Egypt with the help of a large crew of assistants and amateurs. The new study is considered the first and novel method of analyzing the roots of ancient Egypt, creating a distinct but effective outlet over the civilization's history that was studied initially in written records only.
Forgotten Art of Ancient Egypt
University of Liège Egyptology expert Dimitri Laboury, who was not involved in the study, said in a Science report that the artists behind the pharaoh's tomb contributed additional records in the Egyptological records. The expert said that the same ancient artists were found to be key personalities back in the civilization, and they influenced much of the creativity in their culture through their artistic approach.
Thousands of years have passed, but the arts found on the tombs in Egypt are not being regarded as expressions of creativity. Instead, they are always targeted for many examinations as a sign of something hidden in the Egyptian culture. The creations made by the forgotten artists are often categorized as either valuable information or a religious interpretation, but no experts dared to appreciate the pieces of art in front of them.
The obsession with archaeological studies over the mysticism that covered ancient Egypt led to the lack of artisan and methodology information on today's time. Because of the overlooked aspect of ancient life in Egypt, we might have missed numerous pieces of information that could have been a breakthrough if only they were initially appreciated.
Hatshepsut's Tomb Found Full of Clues About Unknown Artists, Their Teams, and Their Methodology
The experts today believe that there is more than the technicalities found in the paintings and sculptures of the artifacts, as creating a complex art in the age of dominant illiteracy is challenging to almost impossible. The textual records that were previously unearthed dropped clues about the time's painters and sculptors, but the question of who they were and what they created remained unsolved.
University of Warsaw archaeology expert Anastasiia Stupko-Lubczynska led the study together with their colleagues to analyze the available clues to give us a glimpse of what we have been missing for the past two centuries, specifically the artistic side of ancient Egypt's culture.
According to their findings, the most comprehensive art history of the civilization made through a collective effort could be found at the temple of Hatshepsut, a woman pharaoh that ruled Egypt between 1478 BCE and 1458 BCE. The study was published in the journal Antiquity, titled "Masters and apprentices at the Chapel of Hatshepsut: towards an archaeology of ancient Egyptian reliefs."
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