Many representations of human beings from ancient
Egypt were gendered in some way. Such images were intended and recognizable
as either male or female, along with a few other gender categories discussed
under "Other Genders." Aside from representations of difference
in biological sex, gender could be indicated in Egyptian art by position
of human figures with respect to each other, relative size, and color differences.
Thus seemingly ungendered representations of people almost always indicate
that the image is unfinished, incomplete, or damaged in such a way as to
remove the signs of gender (obvious or not) from it. Few objects from ancient
Egypt have reached us in perfect condition so it is not surprising that
in many representations of people the gender is uncertain. Some images,
however, were not explicitly gendered, often to serve the very practical
expedient of being able to represent any gender.
