This analysis shows how the Egyptian non-royal epithets from the Middle Kingdom (c. 2040-1640 BCE) provide new insight into the ways in which biographical self-presentation reflects religious and social attitudes and the changing relationship between elite officials and the king.
Ancient Egyptian Administration provides the first comprehensive overview of the structure, organization and evolution of the pharaonic administration from its origins to the end of the Late Period. The book not only focuses on bureaucracy, departments, and official practices but also on more informal issues like patronage, the limits in the actual exercise of authority, and the competing interests between institutions and factions within the ruling elite. Furthermore, general chapters devoted to the best-documented periods in Egyptian history are supplemented by more detailed ones dealing with specific archives, regions, and administrative problems. The volume thus produced by an international team of leading scholars will be an indispensable, up-to-date, tool of research covering a much-neglected aspect of pharaonic civilization.
This analysis shows how the Egyptian non-royal epithets from the Middle Kingdom (c. 2040-1640 BCE) provide new insight into the ways in which biographical self-presentation reflects religious and social attitudes and the changing relationship between elite officials and the king.
The wish to affiliate with a specific cultural, social, or ethnical group is as important today as it was in past societies, such as that of the ancient Egyptians. The same significance applies to the self-presentation of an individual within such a group. Although it is inevitable that we perceive ancient cultures through the lens of our time, place, and value systems, we can certainly try to look beyond these limitations. Questions of how the ancient Egyptians saw themselves and how individuals tried to establish and thus present themselves in society are central pieces of the puzzle of how we interpret this ancient culture. This volume focuses on the topic of identity and self-presentation, tackling the subject from many different angles: the ways in which social and personal identities are constructed and maintained; the manipulations of culture by individuals to reflect real or aspirational identities; and the methods modern scholars use to attempt to say something about ancient persons. Building on the work of Ronald J. Leprohon, to whom this volume is dedicated, contributions in this volume present an overview of our current state of understanding of patterns of identity and self-presentation in ancient Egypt. The contributions approach various aspects of identity and self-presentation through studies of gender, literature, material culture, mythology, names, and officialdom.
Self-presentation is the oldest and most common component of ancient Egyptian high culture. It arose in the context of private tomb records, where the character and role of an individual—invariably a well-to-do non-royal elite official or administrator—were presented purposefully: published by inscription and image, to a contemporary audience and to posterity. Living Forever: Self-presentation in Ancient Egypt looks at how and why non-royal elites in ancient Egypt represented themselves, through language and art, on monuments, tombs, stelae, and statues, and in literary texts, from the Early Dynastic Period to the Thirtieth Dynasty. Bringing together essays by international Egyptologists and archaeologists from a range of backgrounds, the chapters in this volume offer fresh insight into the form, content, and purpose of ancient Egyptian presentations of the self. Applying different approaches and disciplines, they explore how these self-representations, which encapsulated a discourse with gods and men alike, yield rich historical and sociological information, provide examples of ancient rhetorical devices and repertoire, and shed light on notions of the self and collective memory in ancient Egypt.
How did the Ancient Egyptians maintain control of their state? Topics include the controlling function of temples and theology, state borders, scribal administration, visual representation, patronage, and the Egyptian language itself, with reference to all periods of Egyptian history, from the Old Kingdom to Coptic times.
A. Abdel-Raziq: An unpublished small sculpture of a female acrobat at the Al-Salam School Museum in Assiut. N. Abdelwahed | J. M. Iskander | T. Tawfik: The Blocks from the Nilometer at Roda. Preliminary Report on the Reconstruction Work. B. Ahmed: The Stela of Hori-Sheri at the Egyptian Museum (Cairo JE 59858). H. Beinlich: Das Relief Hildesheim F 38. M. Wilding Brown: A New Analysis of the Titles of Teti on Statue BM EA 888. K. Cortebeeck: Stamp seals in ancient Egyptian tombs. A revision of the usages in quest of the sex of their owners. K. Hassan: Two Administrative Hieratic ostraca from Deir el-Bahri (Late 20th and Early 21st Dynasties). B. Hufft: Motivtransfer und Rezeption? Ein Beitrag zu den ägyptischen reliefierten Lotuskelchen der 3. Zwischenzeit. K. Jansen-Winkeln: H#wtj "Anführer" als allgemeine Bezeichnung und als Titel. E. Lanciers: The Cult of Arensnuphis in Thebes in the Graeco-Roman Period. H. Madkour: An Eleventh Dynasty Stela of the Priest Ka-whmi. D. Metawi: A Late-Eighteenth Dynasty Memphite Stela (Cairo Museum JE 20222). A. J. Morales: A false-door spell in the Pyramid Texts? An interpretation for the discontinuation of PT355. A. J. Morales | S. Falk | M. Osman | R. Sánchez: Casado | H. Shared | K. Yamamoto | E. H. Zidan: The Middle Kingdom Theban Project Preliminary report on the Freie Universität Mission to Deir el-Bahari, First and Second Seasons (2015–2016). J. F. Quack: Zur Situierung von TB 166 Pleyte. M. G. Rashed | A. A. Abdelrahman: The Statue of Ankhef-Khonsou from Karnak Cachette (CK 1164). J. C. Sánchez-León | A. Jiménez-Serrano: Keeping Provincial Power in the Lineage During the Twelfth Dynasty: The Case of Khema, Governor of Elephantine. J. M. Serrano: Threesolar hymns from Dra Abu el-Naga. S. Soleiman An Inscribed Slab of Unknown Ownership discovered recently at Saqqara. N. Staring: RevisitingThree Objects in Berlin Pertaining to the Mayor of Memphis, Ptahmose The "Lost" Faience Stela ÄM 19718 and the Limestone Pyramid Panels ÄM 1631-1632. S. Töpfer: Teile des Totenbuches des Anch-ef-en-Chonsu, Sohn des Bes-en-Mut in der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek (Papyrus Wien Aeg. 12022a+b).
The Middle Kingdom (ca. 2030–1650 B.C.) was a transformational period in ancient Egypt, during which older artistic conventions, cultural principles, religious beliefs, and political systems were revived and reimagined. Ancient Egypt Transformed presents a comprehensive picture of the art of the Middle Kingdom, arguably the least known of Egypt’s three kingdoms and yet one that saw the creation of powerful, compelling works rendered with great subtlety and sensitivity. The book brings together nearly 300 diverse works— including sculpture, relief decoration, stelae, jewelry, coffins, funerary objects, and personal possessions from the world’s leading collections of Egyptian art. Essays on architecture, statuary, tomb and temple relief decoration, and stele explore how Middle Kingdom artists adapted forms and iconography of the Old Kingdom, using existing conventions to create strikingly original works. Twelve lavishly illustrated chapters, each with a scholarly essay and entries on related objects, begin with discussions of the distinctive art that arose in the south during the early Middle Kingdom, the artistic developments that followed the return to Egypt’s traditional capital in the north, and the renewed construction of pyramid complexes. Thematic chapters devoted to the pharaoh, royal women, the court, and the vital role of family explore art created for different strata of Egyptian society, while others provide insight into Egypt’s expanding relations with foreign lands and the themes of Middle Kingdom literature. The era’s religious beliefs and practices, such as the pilgrimage to Abydos, are revealed through magnificent objects created for tombs, chapels, and temples. Finally, the book discusses Middle Kingdom archaeological sites, including excavations undertaken by the Metropolitan Museum over a number of decades. Written by an international team of respected Egyptologists and Middle Kingdom specialists, the text provides recent scholarship and fresh insights, making the book an authoritative resource.
Titles have always been conferred on persons both to identify their functions in society and to assign honorary status. In Egypt even more than in Mesopotamia, function-related and honorary titles were so valued that officials and functionaries of varying stations collected the titles accrued in their lifetime and preserved them in a titulary, the ancient equivalent of a resume. Israelites serving at the royal courts in Jerusalem and Samaria or in local administrations also held title, but the sources suggest far fewer of them than their neighbors. Nili Fox analyzes the titles and roles of civil officials and functionaries in Israel and Judah during the monarchy, including key ministers of the central government, regional administrators, and palace attendants. The nineteen titles fall into three categories: status-related titles, function-related titles, and miscellaneous designations that could be held by a variety of officials. Fox sets these Israelite and Judahite titles in their ancient context through extensive study of Egyptian, Akkadian, and Ugaritic records. She also draws upon the corpus of Hebrew epigraphic material, which allows her to explore economic components of state organization such as royal land grants, supply networks, and systems of accounting, which would be impossible to understand on the basis of the Hebrew Bible alone. Fox also treats the widely debated issue of whether Israelite state organization was influenced by foreign models and, if so, how much. The evidence of non-Hebrew sources offers little concrete material to substantiate theories that Israel modeled its government after a foreign prototype, and Fox offers a more finessed approach. Many features of Israelite administration are best explained as basic elements of any monarchic structure in the ancient Near East that developed to satisfy the needs of an evolving local system. Other seemingly foreign features have a long tradition in Canaan and probably were naturally assimilated. Fox recognizes the interconnections between the cultures in the region but emphasizes the need to closely examine the Israelite system with internal evidence.
"The studies collected in Ancient Taxation explore the extractive systems of eleven ancient states and societies from across the ancient world, ranging from Bronze Age China to Anglo-Saxon Britain. Together, the contributors explore the challenges of taxation in predominantly agro-pastoral societies, including basic tax strategy (taxing goods vs. labor, in kind vs. money taxes, direct vs. indirect, internal vs. external, etc.), assessment and collection (particularly over wide geographic areas or at large scale, e.g., by tax farming), compliance, and negotiating the cooperation of social, economic, and political elites or other critical social groups. By assembling such a broad range of studies, the book sheds new light on the commonalities and differences between ancient taxation systems, highlighting how studying taxes can shed light on the fiscal and institutional practices of antiquity. It also provides new impetus for comparative research, both between ancient societies and between ancient and modern extractive practices. This book will be of interest to those studying ancient history, economic history, the history of taxation, or comparative politics and economics"--