egypt-museum:

King Ramesses III Smiting his Enemies

On this ostracon, at the top right and below the royal cartouche of Ramesses III (r. ca. 1186-1155 BC), we read “He who crushes foreign lands and sacrifices chiefs”. Faithful to the conventions of the war stories of the Ramesside period, the pharaoh represented conquered, in fact, by himself the innumerable crowd of enemies, gripping by the hair a bunch of Asiatics (recognizable by the code of racial stereotypes conveyed by the images Egyptians of the time: elongated beard, long hooked nose and receding forehead).

The ostracon has a very balanced composition. The scene is structured with long red lines (red is the draft for the draftsman of ancient Egypt), one of which, essential, traces the diagonal of the arms of the king. The nine faces of the enemies (perhaps an echo of the “Nine Bows” designating the traditional enemies of Egypt) and the four arms, legs and torsos, suggest a group of prisoners facing the only victorious king. The details are drawn with a gesture of surprising firmness and regularity. The draftsman was probably based on a temple pylon relief that showed the king slaughtering enemies, defending Egypt against the forces of chaos that constantly threaten it.

Now in the Art and History Museum, Brussels. E 7359