Tätigkeitsbericht SÄK 2017: Beyond Politics Material Culture in Second Intermediate Period Egypt and Nubia (ca 1750-1550 BC) (original) (raw)
Related papers
Proceedings of the Twelfth International Congress of Egyptologists ICE XII, 2023
https://www.ifao.egnet.net/publications/catalogue/9782724709537/ In 2015 the project Beyond Politics: Material Culture in Second Intermediate Period Egypt and Nubia1 was initiated to assess archaeological finds in their own right, independently from the historical, written sources. This approach was born out of necessity because the majority of archaeological finds do not bear dynastic affiliations. This is particularly true of the non-élite strata of ancient society. The difficulties would not be alleviated even if such data were more frequent, because in the Second Intermediate Period (SIP) a) the sequence of pharaohs is not completely preserved2 b) the reconstruction is not agreed upon3 and c) numerous archaeological SIP sites do not include any king’s names. Most objects discussed here lack inscriptions or names, to demonstrate the complications and the need to add archaeological interpretations to obtain greater insight into the reconstruction of the lives of past people in the SIP. This is not to say that texts should be ignored, but the full value of archaeological finds should be used to add knowledge of the past.
From Nubia to the Levant: The Distribution of Predynastic Egyptian Decorated Ware in Space and Time
Ancient Cultures at Monash University: Proceedings of a Conference held between 18–20 October 2013 on Approaches to Studying the Ancient Past, 2015
This paper is based on research regarding the production and distribution of the iconic Upper Egyptian Decorated Ware (D-Ware), produced between c. 3600 and 3100 BCE, in the hope that this may shed some light on the socio-economic atmosphere of Egypt prior to unification. The nature and extent of Predynastic Egyptian craft specialisation and socio-economic interaction between different sites throughout Upper, Middle and Lower Egypt is not yet properly understood. To date, there has been no study that takes into account the entire corpus of D-Ware vessels and sherds and due to the unique nature of the decoration, it may be possible to isolate potential centres of manufacture from a detailed distribution analysis. This paper will present preliminary results regarding the spatial and temporal distribution of both D-Ware vessels and sherds throughout the late Predynastic period.
Abstract The ancient Nubian site of Kerma was first excavated by George Reisner in the early 1900s, and the resulting finds and archaeological archive still hold much information that deserves further study. In particular, an analysis of the use of Egyptian and Egyptianizing material culture in the burials of the Classic Kerma period can further the understanding of interregional interactions between Nubia and Egypt. Rather than pointing to strong Egyptian cultural inuences on Kerman Nubians, this paper proposes that the Kerman kings and elites co-opted objects and motifs they encountered during military raids in Egyptian territory for their own purposes. The patterns in the use of the Egyptian winged sun disc motif provide a case study that demonstrates how exotic material culture was used in schemes of royal legitimation, and in turn, how the Nubian elite reacted through their own material creations. Keywords: Winged sun discs, Nubia, Kerma, Egypt, Second Intermediate Period, Interregional Interaction, hybridity, material culture Résumé L'ancien site nubien de Kerma a été fouillé par George Reisner dans les années 1900, et les découvertes et archives archéologiques qui en proviennent, contiennent encore beaucoup d'informations qui méritent une étude plus approfondie. En particulier, une analyse de l'utilisation de la culture matérielle égyptienne et égyptisante dans les sépultures de la période de Kerma Classique peut améliorer la compréhension des interactions interrégionales entre la Nubie et l'Égypte. Loin d'être une preuve de fortes inuences culturelles égyptiennes sur les Nubiens de Kerma, les rois de Kerma et les élites cooptaient des objets et des motifs qu'ils rencontraient au cours de leurs raids militaires sur le territoire égyptien. Les façons d'utiliser le motif égyptien du disque solaire ailé fournissent une étude de cas qui nous montre comment la culture matérielle exotique a été utilisée dans les systèmes de la légitimation royale, et en retour, comment l'élite nubienne a réagi à travers ses propres créations matérielles. Mots-clés : Kerma Classique, Nubie, Égypte, Deuxième Période Intermédiaire, interaction interrégionale, hybridité, culture matérielle, disque solaire ailé égyptien.
This paper aims to present the preliminary results of an on-going research project hosted by the University of Cologne (Germany) entitled “An archaeology of the subordinate élite in Old Kingdom Egypt: museum objects and social analysis at Hebenu (Zawyet Sultan)”. The research project aims to explore the social life of the lower-ranking élite at Zawyet Sultan (Middle Egypt) and to reconstruct the local settlement through the re-contextualisation of artefacts, coming from the cemeteries excavations carried out by Raymond Weill in the 19th century, and today preserved in different museum collections. The site of Zawyet Sultan corresponds to the ancient Hebenu, the capital of the 16th province of Upper Egypt. Hebenu has been chosen as the research-program case-study because it offers an excellent opportunity to explore an ancient Egyptian settlement together with the cemeteries of its inhabitants and has the potential to shed light on the life of a provincial community over a long period of time. The project adopts an interdisciplinary approach, with the aim to create a relation between the artefacts, their archaeological context, and their social relationships within the landscape (local/regional context). This line of research will enable a more realistic sociological reconstruction of the subordinate élite of the site and also a comparison with neighbouring sites (e.g. Beni Hassan, Assiut, Deir el-Bersha, Asyut).
The World of Middle Kingdom Egypt III: Contributions on Archaeology, Art, Religion, and Written Sources, 2022
Cristina Alù, Some Remarks on the sx.tjw and their Overseers: The Multiple Meanings of sx.t and the Social Identity of the Marsh-dwellers Daphna Ben-Tor, James M. Weinstein, Scarabs from a Late Middle Kingdom Workshop at Tell el-Dab‘a Edward Brovarski, A Hitherto Unpublished Middle Kingdom Stela in the Field Museum of Natural History – Chicago Arkadiy E. Demidchik, Some Remarks on Neha’s Spell for Gaining Power over his Servant Statuettes Micòl Di Teodoro, The Preservation of Monuments in the Written Sources of Dynastic Egypt between 2000 and 1550 BC Gudelia García Fernández, Angela M.J. Tooley, Paddle Dolls from the Spanish Mission to Dra Abu el-Naga: Images and Contexts Wolfram Grajetzki, Middle Kingdom Coffins and Coffin Fragments in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge Ali Hassan Eid, The Journey from Authenticity to Forgery: A Case-study on an Adzeblade (Egyptian Museum Cairo JE 67944) of the Thirteenth Dynasty Khaled Hassan, Middle Kingdom Wooden Board with Hieratic Inscriptions from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (JE 30442/CG 25369/SR 920) Dinara Hereikhanova, Not only for a King: Nms-headdresses on the Objects of the Twelfth to Eighteenth Dynasties Lubica Hudáková, The Acquisition of a Coffin – Tracing the (Art) History of the Coffin of Neby (MFA 04.2058): From Dayr al-Barsha to Beni Hassan to Boston Alexander Ilin-Tomich, Minor contributions to Middle Kingdom prosopography Esmeralda Lundius, Processing Sites in the Funerary Landscape: Observations on Ancient Egyptian Offering Trays and ‘Soul houses’ Ahmed M. Mekawy Ouda, Seven Oyster Shells at the Egyptian Museum Cairo (CG 12825-12829, JE 28320 and JE 91753) Ahmed M. Mekawy Ouda, Khaled Hassan, Wooden Kohl Tube with Hieratic Inscriptions at the Egyptian Museum Cairo (CG 44703/JE 18553) Gianluca Miniaci, Cornelius von Pilgrim, An Unusual Mutilation of the Crocodile Hieroglyphic Sign in an Early Middle Kingdom Stela from the Sanctuary II of Heqaib at Elephantine Stephen Quirke, Three Types of inscribed Middle Kingdom objects in the Purchases by Flinders Petrie Patricia Rigault, A new Occurrence of CT 398 on two Coffin Fragments in the Louvre Museum Julien Siesse, The Late Middle Kingdom Stela Louvre N 196 = C 42 from the Louvre Museum Uta Siffert, ‘Death ends a Life, not a Relationship’. Some Thoughts on Designatin the Deceased Ax and Wsir NN in the Middle Kingdom Danijela Stefanović, The Administration of the Middle Kingdom Weaving Workshops: a Note on the Textual and Iconographic Data Mohamed Youssef Ali, The Statue of Ameny from his Tomb at Lisht
One of the most striking phenomena of the material culture of the northern Levant during the second millennium BCE is the presence of Egyptian objects in elite, ritual, or funerary contexts. Clearly, most of these objects were dispatched to the Levant only after their initial and primary use and function in Egypt – judging on the basis of typology or the hieroglyphic inscriptions –, and thus apparently received a secondary and completely redefined function after their dispatch to the Bronze Age northern Levant. Apart from chronological issues pertaining to the dispatch of these objects, an examination of the reception of these imports by the local elites, their appropriation within northern Levantine material (and ritual) culture, and incorporation into different contexts of use may help to shed new light on the modalities and strategies behind their reuse. The patterns seem to reveal a dialectic approach between the embrace and rejection of certain Egyptian objects and motifs of authority by the local Levantine elites. The paper deals with the different conception of Egyptian finds in secondary find contexts from the important northern Levantine sites of Tell Mišrife/Qatna and Tell Mardikh/Ebla. Most prominent among the finds discussed are the Egyptian objects from the Bronze Age palace, as well as the Royal Tomb and Tomb VII at Tell Mišrife/Qatna, discovered in the years 2002 and 2010 respectively. (Publication forthcoming)