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Collections: Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Middle Eastern Art: Figure of a Bound Foreign Prisoner

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Figure of a Bound Foreign Prisoner

The ancient Egyptians thought of their country as the center of the ordered universe and frequently viewed everything and everyone outside it as part of the threatening eternal chaos within which the universe was created. Because of the importance of images and their manipulation in Egyptian magic, the Egyptians believed that representations of bound foreigners (here a Nubian) could be ritually "tortured" or buried to aid in the magical subjugation of potential malign forces.

Medium: Limestone
Place Made: Egypt
Dates: ca. 1979-1801 B.C.E.
Dynasty: XII Dynasty (possibly)
Period: Middle Kingdom (possibly)
Dimensions: 4 7/16 x 1 3/4 x 1 3/8 in. (11.3 x 4.5 x 3.5 cm)
Collections: Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Middle Eastern Art
Museum Location: This item is not on view
Accession Number: 73.23
Credit Line: Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
Image: Front, 73.23_front_PS2.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2006

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- sad
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