Fin dalla Preistoria, in Egitto sono state realizzate figurine in diversi materiali raffiguranti esseri umani, animali e altri soggetti. Tra queste, le statuine in ceramica o argilla sono ancora un ambito di ricerca poco esplorato a causa della percezione del loro scarso valore materiale e della conservazione variabile dovuta alla loro composizione organica. Nonostante ciò, questi reperti offrono uno sguardo unico sulle idee, gli usi e le attitudini degli antichi, soprattutto quando modellate a mano. La loro diffusione, malleabilità e portabilità le rendevano accessibili a persone di ogni classe economica e sociale. Il volume verte su figurine egizie di argilla del Medio Bronzo (ca. 2100-1550 a.C.), ma include anche esempi provenienti dai paesi vicini, come la Nubia e il Levante, in quanto partner più immediati in termini di diffusione e correlazione della materia prima. I saggi contenuti in questo volume si propongono quindi di esplorare temi poco studiati o completamente nuovi riguardo alle figurine di argilla, come il loro contesto archeologico, le tecniche di fabbricazione, i processi tecnologici, la classificazione, l’agency e il significato sociale. Inoltre, due sezioni del volume sono dedicate al confronto con materiali comparativi del IV e III millennio a.C. e del Tardo Bronzo.

Theory and Methods
Ulrike Dubiel, “Images in Clay: Aspects of Image Production beyond the Residence”
Wolfram Grajetzki, “Clay and Ceramic Figurines in Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period Burials”
Clay Figurines before the II Millennium: A Comparative Glimpse
Elizabeth Brice, “Here and There, but not Everywhere: Predynastic Zoomorphic Figurines as Regionally Diverse Objects during the Early-mid Fourth Millennium BC”
Axelle Brémont-Bellini, “Not to be Lumped Together. Differences in Context, Typology and Use Practices of Bovine Figurines in the Predynastic Period”
Paul Whelan, “A Canid Conundrum: Questions Raised by the Early Dynastic Figurine Corpus from Abydos”
Clay Figurines in Middle Bronze Age Egypt
Clara Jeuthe, “Remarks on Figurines and their Find Contexts from the Excavations in Ayn Asil, Dakhla Oasis”
Gianluca Miniaci, “Context, Dating, and Assemblage for the Clay Figurines of Lahun: Open Questions and Documented Parallels”
Angela M. J. Tooley, Nicholas S. Picardo, “Peculiar People: Plaque Figurines from Wah-sut (South Abydos)”
Cristina Alù, Hannah B. Page. “Decoding Decoration on Middle Kingdom Egyptian Clay Figurines: Body Modification or Ornamentation?”
Victoria Jensen, “Clay Figurines and Models from the Palace, Settlement, and Cemeteries of Deir el-Ballas”
Marwa Abdel Razek, “Second Intermediate Period Female Figurines in Clay from the Cairo Museum”
Diana Craig Patch, “Agency in a Seventeenth Dynasty Burial: A Pair of Figurines”
Émilie Sarrazin, “The Women Who Gathered at Tell Edfu: An Archaeological Discussion on an Assemblage of Female Figurines from the Second Intermediate Period and Early New Kingdom”
Luisa M. García González, Ana Díaz Blanco, “A Particular Middle Kingdom Figure Pottery Vessel from Tomb QH35p of Qubbet el-Hawa (Aswan, Egypt)”
Clay Figurines in Middle Bronze Age Nubia
Josef Wegner, “A New Look at the Figurine Assemblage of the Lower Nubian C-Group Settlement at Areika”
Jenny Butterworth, “Lower Nubian C-Group Figurines: Defining the Anthropomorphic Corpus”
Anna Uhlschmidt, “Grazing the Eternal Horizon: Animal Figurines at the Northern Cemetery of Aniba”
Clay Figurines in Middle Bronze Age Western Asia
Maciej Makowski, “Mesopotamian Clay Figurines on the Turn? Typological and Quantitative Approaches to the Study of Coroplastic Art during the Transition from the Third to the Second Millennium BC”
Frances Pinnock, “A Group of Mysterious Clay Figurines from Middle Bronze II Ebla”
Camilla Saler, “Clay Figurines from Deposit α (Nos 7852–7902) in the Field of Offerings at Byblos”
The Technological Aspects of the Clay Figurines
Vanessa Forte, “The Incomplete Chaîne Opératoire: Potentials of the Traceological Approach applied to Figurines made of
Unfired Clay”
Hannah B. Page, “Of Marl and Faience: Compositional Analysis of the Unfired Clay Figurines from Lisht with Portable ED-XRF”
Athena Van der Perre, Dennis Braekmans, Vanessa Boschloos, Hendrik Hameeuw, “Skin-deep: Typology, Chemical Characterisation and Innovative Imaging of Unfired Clay Egyptian Execration Figurines at the National Museum for Antiquities, Leiden”
Beyond Middle Bronze Age Figurines: A Change in the Continuity
Patryk Chudzik, “Clay Cow Figurines and their Place in the Votive Practices of the Hathor Cult in the Light of New Evidence from the Theban Necropolis”
Audrey Crabbé, “Magazine Menagerie: Preliminary Results on the Clay Animal Figurines of Magazine 23 at Deir el-Medina”
Kathrin Gabler, Martina Landrino, “Mud Made for Eternity: Two Life-Size Muna-Statues from TT 217”