ABSTRACT

This volume challenges assumptions about—and highlights new approaches to—the study of ancient Egyptian society by tackling various thematic social issues through structured individual case studies.

The reader will be presented with questions about the relevance of the past in the present. The chapters encourage an understanding of Egypt in its own terms through the lens of power, people, and place, offering a more nuanced understanding of the way Egyptian society was organized and illustrating the benefits of new approaches to topics in need of a critical re-examination. By re-evaluating traditional, long-held beliefs about a monolithic, unchanging ancient Egyptian society, this volume writes a new narrative—one unchecked assumption at a time.

Ancient Egyptian Society: Challenging Assumptions, Exploring Approaches is intended for anyone studying ancient Egypt or ancient societies more broadly, including undergraduate and graduate students, Egyptologists, and scholars in adjacent fields.

part |7 pages

Introduction

chapter 1|5 pages

Investigating Ancient Egypt's Societies

Past Approaches and New Directions

section Section I|92 pages

Power

chapter 3|12 pages

Hidden Violence

Reassessing Violence and Human Sacrifice in Ancient Egypt

chapter 4|11 pages

Making the Past Present

The Use of Archaism and Festivals in the Transmission of Egyptian Royal Ideology

chapter 8|16 pages

Ancient Egyptian Decorum

Demarcating and Presenting Social Action

chapter 9|11 pages

Co-Regency in the 25th Dynasty

A Case Study of the Chapel of Osiris-Ptah Neb-ankh at Karnak

section Section II|122 pages

People

chapter 10|8 pages

The Egyptianization of Egypt and Egyptology

Exploring Identity in Ancient Egypt

chapter 12|18 pages

Eight Medjay Walk into a Palace

Bureaucratic Categorization and Cultural Mistranslation of Peoples in Contact

chapter 15|19 pages

The Ancient Egyptian Artist

A Non-Existing Category?

chapter 17|15 pages

Revealing the Invisible Majority

“Hegemonic” Group Artefacts as Biography Containers of “Underprivileged” Groups

chapter 18|13 pages

Reevaluating Social Histories

The Use of Ancient Egypt in Contemporary Art

section Section III|126 pages

Place

chapter 19|10 pages

People of Nile and Sun, Wheat and Barley

Ancient Egyptian Society and the Agency of Place

chapter 20|13 pages

Shifting Boundaries, Conflicting Perspectives

(Re)establishing the Borders of Kemet Through Variable Social Identities

chapter 21|17 pages

Urban Versus Village Society in Ancient Egypt

A New Perspective

chapter 23|20 pages

Othering the Alphabet

Rewriting the Social Context of a New Writing System in the Egyptian Expedition Community

chapter 25|12 pages

New Methods to Reconstruct the Social History of Food in Ancient Egypt

Case Studies from Nag ed Deir and Deir el Ballas

chapter 26|11 pages

Stop and Smell the Flowers

A Re-Assessment of the Ancient Egyptian “Blue Lotus”

chapter 27|13 pages

The Body of Egypt

How Harem Women Connected a King with his Elites