Skin-deep: typology, chemical characterisation and innovative imaging of unfired clay Egyptian execration figurines at the national museum for antiquities, Leiden

Abstract

Exactly a century ago, a large group of late Middle Kingdom Egyptian execration figurines was excavated at

Saqqara. These figurines modelled in unfired clay, although found in a closed archaeological context, show

a clear typological variation and the presence of different scribal hands. The figurines were divided between

museums in Cairo, Tel Aviv, Brussels and Leiden. The Brussels group was intensively studied during a pioneer research project at the Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels, with a multifocal approach integrating a condition assessment, multispectral imaging and portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectrometry. The developed method was recently applied to the figurines housed at the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden. This allows a direct comparison between the different collections, with the main goal to assess divergent object lives since the group was dispersed.