Renewed scholarly interest in ancient clay figurines from Egypt, the Near East, and the broader Mediterranean world has driven a recent resurgence in coroplastic studies. Until recently, several factors limited these studies. Many of these figurines were uncovered in large-scale excavations during the early twentieth-century, when recording techniques and excavator priorities meant that context was only cursorily documented, if at all. Furthermore, many pieces in modern museums were acquired from the art market and have no provenance. As a result, research on figurine date and function has been limited, concentrating on stylistic analysis and (less frequently) methods of production. However, following contemporary trends in household archaeology, gender studies, and investigations into the religion and culture of non-elites, a new generation of scholars is focusing on the value of these popular, personal objects. The formation of the Coroplastic Studies Interest Group in 2008 and an increasing number of conference panels focusing on figurines (American Schools of Oriental Research, 2009–2011; Theoretical Archaeology Group, 2009; Archaeological Institute of America, 2009, 2012; British Association for Near Eastern Archaeology, 2011) has created new momentum in the field. Recent studies utilize new technologies to re-investigate museum collections and capitalize on freshly excavated material to attempt to understand how and why ancient peoples used these figurines.

In Baked Clay Figurines and Votive Beds from Medinet Habu, Emily Teeter presents a comprehensive and well-researched catalog of clay objects from Medinet Habu, an important addition to the study of material culture from urban and domestic sites in Egypt. The volume adds a large new corpus of material to the study of Egyptian clay figurines, and the significance of this group of objects cannot be underestimated. Uncovered during systematic excavations by the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute in the 1920s and 1930s, the Medinet Habu figurines had remained primarily unexamined, despite being recorded in some detail by the excavators. Teeter, herself based at the Oriental Institute (where about half of the pieces are now housed), reconstructs the excavation field notes of researchers Uvo Hölscher and Rudolf Anthes from their 1926–1933 seasons at the temple precinct, re-evaluating the pieces and attempting to place them within their excavation context or chronology at the site, when possible. While significant numbers of clay figurines have been discovered at other sites in Egypt, including North and South Karnak, Amarna, Elephantine, Deir el Medina, Karanis, Athribis, and Antinoopolis, only a portion of these finds are published in full.

The volume includes all 272 baked clay objects discovered at the site of Medinet Habu and the neighboring temple of Aye and Horemheb, representing remains from more than two thousand years of various forms of cultic, administrative, and domestic occupation. The main temple of Medinet Habu dates to the reign of Ramesses III (1182–1151 BCE, 20th Egyptian Dynasty), but the precinct area saw almost continual use through the ninth-century CE. Activity at the smaller memorial temple of the pharaohs Aye and Horemheb (1324–1293 BCE, 19th Egyptian Dynasty), also included in the Oriental Institute excavations, was much more abbreviated—abandoned after the 20th Dynasty with occupation only renewed during the Roman period. The book includes anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines, as well as votive model beds and clay stelae decorated with elaborate figural designs. Both mold-made and hand-modeled pieces are studied. The result is a detailed catalog of objects of disparate time periods and various functions, linked by their material of manufacture—clay.

Following an introduction to the temples and their broader historical context, Teeter covers in brief sections a series of issues related to the figurines. The first discusses the relationship of clay figurines to Egyptian “high art” of statuary in stone, metal, and wood, a topic rarely discussed in art-historical studies, but which has significance for those interested in understanding both figurine function and production. This is followed by a short section on materials and manufacture, where Teeter reviews the limited evidence to suggest Medinet Habu was the locus of production for some of the materials. In a section discussing the date of the figurines, Teeter makes the limitations of dating previously excavated materials (even those with stratigraphic information recorded) painfully clear.

The catalog of objects constitutes the bulk of the book. Female figurines represent almost half the objects, and it is here where the catalog will make its largest impact, as these pieces are of interest to those dealing with similar corpora of material across the ancient Near East and Mediterranean. Teeter’s reconstruction of early excavation notes allows her, in some cases, to date pieces using evidence from ceramics and other objects found with the figurines. Each entry includes a discussion of provenance, with clear explanations given for the dating of each object, providing transparency with regard to the level of confidence for the chronology given. Because the Medinet Habu corpus extends across so many periods of Egyptian history, Teeter is able to confirm that certain iconographic types have a greater chronological range than documented at sites of more limited duration. This is especially important for scholars who rely on stylistic evidence for dating museum pieces without provenance, since conclusions about these objects are often based on data from sites with shorter lifespans.

The book also includes a much smaller group of male figurines and phallic figurines. Such artifacts are rarely published and have few stylistic parallels. Interestingly, only eight figurines of deities were discovered at Medinet Habu (and the majority of these represent the Egyptian god Bes), so scholars seeking comparative material for clay images of the Greco-Egyptian gods Harpocrates, Isis-Demeter, and Serapis—so common at Delta and Fayum sites—will be disappointed.

Seventy-nine zoomorphic figurines (including horses, donkeys, camels, birds, dogs, and other animals) compose the majority of the remaining catalog. These pieces are frequently hand-modeled, and offer many challenges for dating and interpretation. Due to their limited aesthetic value, these pieces are usually left out of publications. Teeter chooses to include them, assigning the pieces equal value to the molded figurines, and giving them tentative dates based on context or the small amount of comparative material published from other sites in Egypt.

Discussions of dating and stylistic comparisons to other figurines in the catalog entries are usually brief, but provide the basic information scholars need to place the pieces in context. The expanded description of each category of figurine (preceding each section of catalog entries) is especially strong when dealing with the zoomorphic Greco-Roman figurines, where more research exists upon which Teeter can draw.

The final group of objects Teeter examines is of three related types: model clay beds, clay round-topped stelae, and the (possibly plaster) molds used to decorate both. The thirty-seven small beds and thirteen stelae fragments were impressed with elaborate figural decoration of women and the apotropaic god Bes. The Medinet Habu corpus is the “largest corpus of such material from a single site” (157), but the location of the majority of the pieces remains unknown in the storerooms of Luxor (usually inaccessible to scholars). Teeter’s examination of these objects makes the strongest argument for the reevaluation of unpublished excavation materials. With detailed records on the find spots of the model beds and stelae, Teeter confidently dates the objects to within a 250-year period. As well, she documents the groups of objects found together, making conclusions on use, meaning, and production based on an informed understanding of their context. Most importantly, Teeter utilizes the field photographs and notes maintained by the Oriental Institute to recover seventy-five percent of this corpus, which otherwise would be lost to scholarship.

The vivid imagery on the clay beds and stelae—including scenes of nude women boating in the marshes, the plucking of papyrus plants, the playing of musical instruments—represent highly charged Hathoric symbols and reference fertility, sexuality, and rebirth. Any scholar interested in ancient Egyptian sexuality or the material culture of domestic life will find this section of the book fascinating.

All objects in the catalog are illustrated with small black-and-white “thumbnails” next to the catalog entries, as well as large black-and-white photographs as plates. Unfortunately, about half of the objects (those whose modern location is unknown) are documented only through field photographs, and many of these depict only the front of each figurine. The pieces now housed in Chicago have large photographs of both front and back. The quality of photographs therefore varies, with the Chicago pieces displayed in much higher quality, showing important details. The book also includes drawings of the designs impressed on the model beds, stelae, and molds. These are very useful, as many of the decorative scenes are indistinct, and the forms can be difficult to discern from the photographs.

The Oriental Institute Press has recently begun making many of its manuscripts available for free download as PDF files online, and Baked Clay Figurines is included in this program: https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/pubs/catalog/oip/. This availability in digital format adds considerable value to the printed book. Most researchers have limited library access while in the field, impeding comparisons between primary material under study and catalog descriptions with high-quality photographs in publications. A downloadable PDF, not reliant on internet connectivity, allows scholars in the field to access comparative material from a laptop during field analysis. Size, color, and stylistic differences can more easily be identified. The images included in the PDF are of superb quality and show crisp detail (as good, if not better, than the printed volume) when viewed over 100% size on a monitor screen.

Baked Clay Figurines and Votive Beds from Medinet Habu is a well-organized and nicely illustrated catalog of clay objects of daily life from an important cult and domestic site in Egypt. Teeter’s work demonstrates that there is significant value in the painstaking resurrection of excavation data from earlier periods in the history of archaeology. Despite Teeter’s valuable recovery of such objects for scholarship, there are limitations of even the most careful re-analysis of these records. Stylistic comparison with other figurines (whose own dates are often based on limited information) still remains a major form of dating in the volume. Without the detailed records on context that modern excavations maintain, real progress in clearly defining the chronological span of individual iconographic types of figurines remains elusive. Fortunately, scholars at sites in both Upper and Lower Egypt are working to publish figurines from recent excavations, and this will improve the chronological sequencing necessary for investigating questions concerning figurine function, regional development, and exchange. Nevertheless, Baked Clay Figurines, with examples from a site spanning hundreds of years of occupation, provides the type of case study that future work will build upon and refine.