Monkeys and Chariots: observations on a “satirical” production from Deir el-Medina and elsewhere

Beginning in the second half of the XVIIIth dynasty, a well-known corpus of small figurines are attested that depict monkeys imitating various human activities such as playing music, dancing or driving a chariot. Of these, a special subcorpus of figurines depicting monkeys driving chariots derives predominately from the village of Deir el-Medina. This subcorpus includes a total of 28 figurines, dating from the end of the XVIIIth Dynasty to the Ramesside period. The purpose of this paper is to present this subcorpus, which has been gathered as part of a doctoral thesis entitled “The Chariot in the Egyptian Mind”. Among the 30 collected figurines, variations are attested, from carefully worked and painted miniature sculptures to rough – and sometimes unfinished – two-faced bas-reliefs. Iconographic variants show one or several monkeys on the chariot, the vehicle itself being pulled by horses, lions or dogs. Those figurines can be compared with some figured satirical ostraca from Deir el-Medina and of course with the so-called “erotic” papyrus of Turin. These comparisons allow the “satirical” nature of the figurines to be discussed, as they are in many cases likely mocking the social elites of Egypt – and even in some cases Pharaoh himself – , but in other cases are clearly a kind of toy, given that they were designed to be equipped with small wheels and a pulling string. The paper concludes with reflections on what this production implies about the significance of the chariot in the Ramesside Egyptian mind.