Februrary 15-19: Old Kingdom I

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Posted at Feb 15/2010 10:47PM:
Laura L: This question doesn't relate specifically to the Old Kingdom, but rather to the span of Egyptian civilization as a whole... I'm wondering what the deal is with beards? Looking at the Narmer Palette in class the other day made me wonder why, in Egyptian art in general, the king is depicted with a beard of divine significance (albeit a fake one), while enemies sport beards as well? I wouldn't think that the king wants to identify with his enemies, so I was just wondering about their reason for being/significance. I read an article last night that dealt with the "enigma" that is facial hair in Ancient Egypt, and I'm curious whether it really is that or if we have any explanations...? Last semester in Egyptian Art/Arch, Professor Bestock mentioned that Ancient Egyptian men favored being clean-shaven, and reflecting on that last night made me wonder if this was a fashion trend or if there were actually any laws, at any time throughout Ancient Egyptian history, governing facial hair and who was allowed to have it? I know this is a pretty much nonessential question as far as the subject material of this class, but if anyone knows anything about this I would be very happy to know! Thank you in advance for any help!

Julia Troche:

Re: Beards

As you mentioned the curved beard in iconography can represent divinity, and in other cases (as was brought up in class today) there is a straight beard also worn by the king to represent his royal aspect. I do not know a lot about this issue, but I know a few things that might be helpful. Hair was problematic in Egypt where sand was rampant and a lack of consistent, thorough cleaning led to easy infestations of lice or mites of sort. In this sense hair in certain contexts was seen as dirty or profane. In the temples, for example, the priests were often required to be hairless before entering into the sacred temple space. I do not know of laws necessarily that demand this sort of restriction for the population at large. An additional point is that the beard is early on emphasized in predynastic and early dynastic art as a feature of manliness. I would venture to argue that this later imaging of the beard on kings is a reflex of this earlier perspective. The King should be mighty and powerful, and the beard represents this. However, the beards of Egyptians are always very linear and clean shaven - especially since many are fake. The beards of the "enemies of Egypt" cover a large portion of their faces and are depicted as more unkept. I obviously do not know a lot of information regarding the beards, but hopefully that helps elucidate some of the other aspects of beards in Egypt!

Posted at Feb 19/2010 02:51AM:
Laura L: Thank you for you input! I realize that this was a totally random question, but it popped into my head the other day and I couldn't really shake it for some (completely unexplainable) reason. Like I said, I was just really curious, and I really appreciate your post!

Posted at Feb 20/2010 10:08PM:
Prof. B: Julia, you've hit tons of good stuff on the head with this. An important distinction to keep in mind is: what are Egyptians represented as wearing vs. what did they actually wear? So the king's beard is ALWAYS a false beard, as far as I know (you can often see the little chin straps that hold it on). None of the royal bodies that have been recovered have facial hair that I can remember; the false beard was presumably a ceremonial thing. Facial hair amongst the general population seems to have gone through phases - lots of early OK guys are represented with mustaches (in situations that are far less ceremonial than royal depictions invariably are, so more likely this is actual). A good handful of early MK mummy masks also have a kind of small beard and mustache but I can't remember off the top of my head if the associated mummies had beards. Definitely the Egyptians were largely into hair removal - the number of razors and tweezers we have is huge, and even women seem usually to have kept their hair quite short and to have worn wigs for important occasions (though the wigs themselves are human hair so someone clearly had to grow out hair long enough to supply the elite with wigs). But it's a good general assumption that when you see a short kind of odd-looking rectangular type beard stuck on the chin of a dead guy or king with a longer version of same or god (usually long and curved at the end), it's a false beard worn for ceremonial reasons.