Female terracotta figurines in orans posture as a Phenomenon of “Popular Religion” in Late Antique Egypt

The article publishes seven terracotta standing female figurines in orans posture, which are held in the reserve collection of the Department of the Ancient Orient at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. The objects come from the former collection of V.S. Golenishchev and were purchased by him in Egypt in the 1880s–1890s. The aim of the article is to use this material to highlight certain aspects of beliefs in the 5th–7th centuries A.D., a period when Egypt was undergoing a gradual transition to Christianity while older religious practices continued to persist. Female figurines of various types were mass-produced and attested to the resilience of ancient religious traditions and cultic practices and to their capacity for adaptation during a gradual religious transformation and the shift toward Christianity. The figurines orans posture (with raised hands), by virtue of their function and iconography, can be traced back to earlier types – female apotropaic figurines of the 2nd–3rd centuries A.D. They generally functioned as votive offerings, although they were found in both sacred and domestic contexts. Particularly large numbers of the figurines have been discovered in early Christian religious centers, including the monasteries at Abu Mina, Elephantine, and Middle Egypt. The figurines testify to an emerging practice of female pilgrimage aimed at appealing to a specific saint for healing and for successful motherhood. The production technology and iconography (the orant type with a triangular headdress) of the Pushkin Museum figurines indicate the Aswan-Elephantine origin; only one possibly originates from the Fayum.