Statuary Reuse with Kylie Thomsen

Afterlives of Ancient Egypt with Kara Cooney

EPISODE 67 | In this episode Kara and Jordan talk with PhD candidate Kylie Thomsen about her research contextualizing statuary reuse using new technologies like photogrammetry and RTI (Reflectance Transformation Imaging).

About Kylie Thomsen

Kylie is an Egyptology PhD candidate in the department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles. She received her bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of Arizona and holds a master’s degree in Egyptology from Indiana University Bloomington. Kylie is currently a researcher and graphic designer for the UCLA Coffins Project, which investigates coffin reuse in ancient Egypt during the Third Intermediate Period. Her dissertation research focuses on the documentation and contextualization of ancient Egyptian statuary reuse, including documenting statues via high-resolution photography, photogrammetry, RTI (reflectance transformation imaging), and traditional art historical methods in order to analyze the statues for signs of recarving, reinscribing, and other indicators of object reuse.

Episode Notes

* This article by Daniel Soliman discusses the reuse of two 12th Dynasty colossal statues that were reworked during the reign of Ramesses II.

* Soliman, Daniel. “At the Hands of Senwosret III? The Iconography and Style of the Reworked Colossi Cairo JE 45975 and JE 45976.” The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 105, no. 1 (2019): 97–105. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26949435.

* Partially Reworked Statue from the Museo Egizio: https://collezioni.museoegizio.it/en-GB/material/Cat_3017

* This statue demonstrates that a statue could be completely recrafted into a new object.

Get full access to Ancient/Now at ancientnow.substack.com/subscribe