Egyptian statues epitomize solidity and permanence for the modern viewers who admire them securely guarded in museums or tourist sites. To their pharaonic makers and owners, however, they were functional objects with specific duties to fulfil. Rather than being blindly revered as artworks, they were often re-used for new purposes when their old functions lapsed. These re-uses could include physical transformation. This lecture covers over three thousand years to show how subsequent generations have used and abused Egyptian artworks.

Lecture cosponsored by the American Research Center in Egypt-Northern California