Reconstructing Context: Private Statuary at Deir el-Medina
on-line via Zoom
Date: Saturday 24th October 2026 @ 2 pm
By David Brügger
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Cost: Free for Members and £4 Visitors
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Abstract
The interpretation of ancient Egyptian private statuary is frequently limited by the loss or inadequate documentation of its original contexts. Deir el-Medina offers an exceptional opportunity to address this problem through its unusually dense combination of archaeological remains, visual representations, and textual documentation. Drawing on recent fieldwork and the reassessment of archaeological archives, tomb decoration, ostraca and papyri, this paper presents preliminary results from a contextual approach that combines these different sources to reconstruct the spatial, social, and ritual settings of private statuary. Following an overview of the emerging evidence, one case study demonstrates how contextual reconstruction can recover aspects of a statue’s creation and performance that cannot be established from the object alone.
Biography
David is a PhD Student in Egyptian Archaeology at the University of Oxford, who is researching how ancient Egyptian private individuals, artists in particular, used statuary to advertise themselves to peers, descendants, and deities, questioning our own, contemporaneous self-presentation craze.
He is affiliated to Harris Manchester College and member of the IFAO’s ‘Mission d’étude de Deir el-Medina’ since 2021. He holds a MA in Egyptology from the University of Manchester, distinguished by the A.H. Kyd Prize.
