UCL INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY
ARCLG200: EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY an object-based theoretical introduction
2015-16
ablution platform in situ in a town house
1800 BC, Lahun
Petrie photograph 1889
MA Archaeology of Egypt and Near East Course, 30 credits (1.0 unit)
Turnitin Class ID: 2971084
Turnitin Password: IoA1516
Co-ordinator: STEPHEN QUIRKE
s.quirke@ucl.ac.uk
Room 409 (4th floor of Institute of Archaeology)
telephone: internal, external
Please see the last page of this document for important information about submission
and marking procedures.
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OVERVIEW
Short description
This theoretical object-focussed course seeks to contest contemporary Eurocentric
perceptions of ‘Ancient Egypt’, and to engage in a fresh dialogue with an ‘ancient
Egypt’ defined as the material, verbal and visual self-expression of a languagecommunity. One set of time- and space- borders of the remetj-en-Kemet “people of
Kemet”/ “Egyptians” is marked by the life-span of a fused sacred script and formal
art, developed towards 3000BC, and in use on monumental scale until the third
century AD. In the first part of the course, we debate this definition and discuss
modern obstacles to understanding ancient written and visual expression of the
sacred. In each subsequent quarter, the course uses a different lens, moving from
regional to local horizons; theoretical propositions in archaeology and history are
tested against artefacts selected from the 80,000 objects in the Petrie Museum. The
recourse to museum objects is intended not to illustrate, but to challenge our
construction of knowledge: according to this view, past material is explosively
transformative.
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Week-by-week summary
All seminars are facilitated by the Course Co-ordinator Stephen Quirke, and take
place in the Petrie Museum, except seminars 5, 8, 14, which are held in the public
galleries of the British Museum, starting from the Great Court information desk.
For all Petrie Museum seminars, please go to the Science Library, Malet Place
(you will need your UCL ID card), where we meet in Room 106 (go to the first
floor, through right-hand stairs on first floor landing, then first short corridor
on right: door to Room 106 is on left).
TERM 1
I. Global horizons: Politics of Perception
9.10.15 10:00 1. Introduction. Problems of perception: the Object encounter
16.10.15 10:00 2. Orientalism in archaeology and ethnography: objectifying
‘cultures’ and people
23.10.15 10:00 3. Objects as encounters with people living today in the
archaeological landscapes: ‘heritage’ and ‘ownership’
30.10.15 10:00 4. Objects as encounters with people living in other times in the
archaeological landscapes: makers and users
6.11.15 10:00 5. Objects as encounters in museum practice: modern display as
knowledge production British Museum visit
READING WEEK (NO G200 CLASS)
II. Regional horizons: Drawing boundaries in space and time
20.11.15 10:00 6. Cross-cultural hierarchies of art: obstacles in seeing
27.11.15 10:00 7. Diachronic hierarchies in the study of belief
4.12.15 10:00 8. Reading ancient writing: tyranny of the alphabet British
Museum visit
11.12.15 10:00 9. Time-space blocks: ‘centre, region, periphery’
18.12.15 10:00 10. Grand narrative? Bronze Age-Iron Age in Egypt
TERM 2
III. Local horizons: social power and profile
15.1.16 10:00 11. Moving to the city: Lahun
22.1.16 10:00 12. Social class and structural constraints
29.1.16 10:00 13. Institutions of unity and division: writing power
5.2.16 10:00 14. Ethnicity at local level British Museum visit
12.2.16 10:00 15. Trade and empire: local impact
READING WEEK (NO G200 CLASS)
IV. Bodily horizons: social power and inequality
26.2.16 10:00 16. Archaeology and the individual: Qau and Badari
4.3.16 10:00 17. Age/class/gender/ethnicity in the archaeological record
11.3.16 10:00 18. Individual agency with different abilities
18.3.16 10:00 19. Social exclusion in archaeological records
24?.3.16 10:00 20. Evaluating the object as multi-personal identifier
NB Term 2 ends on Thursday 24 March, so the day and time for the last seminar will
be confirmed after students have selected their Term 2 courses.
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Basic texts
Together with the online reading-list accessible from the Institute of Archaeology
intranet for students, two Petrie Museum web-resources are recommended: the fully
illustrated but only part-edited catalogue www.petriecat.museums.ucl.ac.uk and the
support learning website Digital Egypt for Universities illustrated by items in the
collection www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk. The 100,000 UCL object images available on
these two web-sites may provide ideas for illustrating coursework, dissertations or
presentations in your MA. To see Petrie Museum objects for coursework, please
email Alice Stevenson, curator alice.stevenson@ucl.ac.uk to book a Monday
research visit, giving 2-3 weeks notice to avoid disappointment - space is limited!
For Egypt, as for many other area-studies, there are few published combinations of
archaeological fieldwork and philological research. The most accessible and readily
available is:
B. Kemp, Ancient Egypt. Anatomy of a civilization, Cambridge 1st edition 1989, 2nd
edition 2006 ISSUE DESK IOA KEM and EGYPTOLOGY B 5 KEM (note that the
second edition is substantially revised). This is recommended particularly for students
new to Egyptian archaeology.
One useful new introduction proposes a move to more archaeological approaches:
W. Wendrich (ed.), Egyptian Archaeology. Malden MA and Oxford 2010 ISSUE
DESK IOA WEN 9
An often-cited, and still indispensable guide, to the Nile Valley landscape is:
K. Butzer, Early hydraulic civilization in Egypt: a study in cultural ecology, Chicago
1976 ISSUE DESK IOA BUT and EGYPTOLOGY B 5 BUT
For the historical background on the study of ancient Egypt, two authors consider
treatment of the ancient past within Egypt, often overlooked:
Colla, E. Conflicted antiquities: Egyptology, Egyptomania, Egyptian modernity.
Durham N.C. 2007 EGYPTOLOGY A 8 COL
El-Daly, O. Egyptology: the missing millennium. Ancient Egypt in medieval Arabic
writings, London 2005 EGYPTOLOGY A 8 ELD
The development of archaeology could be rewritten uncomfortably into the setting of
the chapter on Treasure hunting in El-Daly, pp.31-44.
Methods of assessment
This course is assessed by means of two pieces of coursework, each of maximum
4000 words, which each contribute 50% to the final grade for the course: details
below, under Coursework. The submission deadlines are (1) Wednesday 2.12.2015
and (2) Thursday 15.3.2016
Teaching methods
The course is taught through eighteen two-hour seminars in UCL and two off-site
museum visits. Seminars will comprise: (1) initial group discussion of essential
reading for that week; (2) critical review through artefact study (object-handling
session in smaller groups within classroom); (3) a concluding full group discussion;
(4) outline of preparatory reading and any other tasks required for the following week.
Beside the physical encounter with objects in the museum, virtual access is provided
by the fully illustrated online catalogue http://www.petrie.ucl.ac.uk/index2.html and
learning-support website http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/.
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Workload
There will be 40 hours of seminars for this course. Students will be expected to
undertake around 180 hours of reading for the course, plus 80 hours preparing for
and producing the assessed work. This adds up to a total workload of some 300
hours for the course.
Prerequisites
There are no formal prerequisites for this course. The course has a general focus on
material from third to first millennia BC Egypt. Therefore, students with no previous
learning on those periods are advised that attendance at the undergraduate course
ARCL2012 Archaeology of Ancient Egypt is likely to facilitate comprehension of the
material presented in this course (attendance only, not assessment): ARCL2012 is
taught Terms I-II, Thursday 11-1, Room 209. If you would like to attend ARCL2012,
please ask the co-ordinator for that course in advance.
2 AIMS, OBJECTIVES AND ASSESSMENT
Aims
• to introduce students to new potential, and constraints, for Egyptian archaeology
as a self-critical and comparative ‘area-study’
• to introduce students to current research in theory and practice in the study of the
ancient Egyptian past
• to develop critical faculties in debate and written evaluation of rival interpretations
and perspectives on evidence from the Egyptian past
• to develop a range of research-oriented skills appropriate to Egyptian
archaeology
Objectives
On successful completion of this course a student should:
• be able to discuss obstacles to contemporary understanding of ancient Egypt
• be familiar with, and able to comment on, the chronological and geographical
terminology current in study of ancient Egypt
• be familiar with means of locating and using key library and museum
resources in Egyptian archaeology
• understand practical and ethical issues of direct encounters with material from
another time and place
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the course students should be able to demonstrate:
• an ability to criticize and evaluate quality of evidence and interpretation in current
research in Egyptian archaeology
• an ability to conduct and communicate independent research in library and
archive across a range of topics in Egyptian archaeology
• awareness of the broader context as well as outline of the empirical content of
chosen specialised topics within Egyptian archaeology
• improved oral presentation and discussion skills
• an ability to design an original research project in this field
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•
an ability to lead a theoretically-engaged object-handling seminar or class, to
ethical standards
Coursework is designed to assess progress in particular on the first three of these
learning outcomes.
Coursework
Assessment tasks
There are two essays for assessment of this course, each of a maximum 4,000
words. Please note the assessment criteria tabulated on the back of essay coversheets. One essential transferable skill from university courses is the ability to
develop a structured argument within a set word-limit: accordingly, one assessment
criterion is keeping within the word-limit: see Word counts below. Selection and
quality of illustrations may also be important. If reference is made to the web, please
take into account the note on online resources for Egyptology above. If students are
unclear about the nature of an assignment, they should discuss this with the
Course Co-ordinator.
Students are not permitted to re-write and re-submit essays in order to try to improve
their marks. However, students may be permitted, in advance of the deadline for a
given assignment, to submit for comment a brief outline of the assignment. The
Course Co-ordinator is willing to discuss an outline of the student's approach to the
assignment, provided this is planned suitably in advance of the submission date. The
title of the essay submitted must give the exact wording of EITHER the selected
option as worded below, OR an alternative title as agreed in writing with the
Course Co-ordinator before submission.
Word-length
PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY!
One essential transferable skill from university courses is the ability to develop a
structured argument within a set word-limit: accordingly, one of the criteria for
assessment includes keeping within the word-limit. For each of the two essays for
this course, the word-count range is 3,800-4,200. Penalties will be imposed only if
you exceed the upper figure in the range. There is no penalty for using fewer words
than the lower figure in the range: the lower figure is simply for your guidance to
indicate the sort of length that is expected.
According to strict UCL-wide regulations, a score of zero will be imposed if
your essay exceeds 10% above the specified maximum length, so it is
especially important that your essay does not exceed 4620 words = 10%
beyond the upper figure in the range.
The following should not be included in the word-count: title page, contents pages,
lists of figure and tables, abstract, preface, acknowledgements, bibliography, lists of
references, captions and contents of tables and figures, appendices.
For the precise wording of UCL regulation 3.1.7 Penalties for Over-length
Coursework see the Appendix
Please ask the Course Co-ordinator if uncertain about any of these regulations.
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Essay title options:
Coursework 1 submission deadline 2.12.2015
Options
1. How might ‘Egyptian’ objects excavated in ancient contexts outside Egypt
affect the restitution debate? Discuss with reference to both ancient Egyptian
and Egyptianising material.
One time/place/object category can be used as case study (e.g. Late Middle Bronze
Age Egyptian and Egyptianising obelisks/ scarabs/ hieroglyphs in the Levant). The
readings for seminars 1 to 3 provide examples of arguments from both sides (e.g.
Hassan and Irwin in further reading for seminar 2). An introduction to the restitution
debate in museums may be found in:
Legget, J. Restitution and repatriation: guidelines for good practice, London 2000 AG
QUARTOS LEG
2. What does the current location and content of the main museum displays
and university libraries reveal about Egyptology and its future?
Consider ways in which museum displays and university libraries may be considered
dominant resources for the study of ancient Egypt, in relation to each other and to
continuing archaeological fieldwork. Summaries of Egyptology Library Resources are
provided on the Moodle page for this course. Further reading for seminars 1 to 3 may
also be useful. Case-studies from your own experience may be useful.
3. To what extent can the 21st century museum visitor to site or museum
experience a monument from the past in the same manner as its ancient
makers and users?
Consider using case-studies from sites and museums which you have visited. See
the reading for seminars 1, 4 and 5; you can also look ahead to the reading for
seminar 9 on ancient Egyptian conceptions of time and festivals, to assess any
distance between modern and ancient conceptions of “monument”.
4. What problems and potentials would you identify in the place allotted to
Ancient Egypt in general histories of art?
For this option, see the reading recommended for seminar 6. You may also replace
the word “art” in this title with “religion” if you wish to look ahead to the reading for
seminar 7, but note that we only discuss the topic in class the Friday before the
essay submission deadline and so this is only recommended if you also have some
prior reading on the topic and familiarity with some week 7 readings.
5. How useful for future Egyptology are early excavations, in comparison with
new fieldwork and conservation priorities?
Discuss with reference to one site and its documentation/finds. Archived
documentation may be written, pictorial (e.g. photographic), mixed. Recent
publications on archives include:
Malek, J. We have the tombs, who needs the archives? In N. Strudwick and J.
Taylor. The Theban Necropolis: Past, Present and Future. London 2003, pp. 229243 EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E 100 STR
Picton (J.) and I. Pridden (ed.), Unseen Images : archive photographs in the Petrie
Museum.; Volume 1, Gurob, Sedment and Tarkhan, London 2008 EGYPTOLOGY
QUARTOS C 11 PET
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Spencer, P. (ed.), The Egypt Exploration Society, the early years, London 2007
COPY AVAILABLE IN PETRIE MUSEUM
Coursework 2 submission deadline 15.3.2016
Options
1. Does the category of ‘dynasty’ do more harm than good in studying Egypt?
See the reading recommended for seminars 9 and 10; you may wish to cite
examples from your general course reading where authors have used or avoided
‘dynasties’ in their dating of archaeological material, and to refer to sites covered in
the course, such as Lahun or the Qau-Badari-Matmar cemeteries and settlements.
2. Comparing the history of one technology with traditional ‘political history’,
discuss how and whether it is possible to write a unified ‘total history’ for
ancient Egypt.
See the reading recommended for seminars 9 and 10. One account of the critique by
Foucault of “total history”, in the context of museum history, is given in:
Lord, B., From the document to the monument: museums and the philosophy of
history, in S. Knell, S. Macleod, S. Watson (eds.), Museum revolutions: how
museums change and are changed, New York 2007, pp.355-366 MB 2 KNE and
SCIENCE LIBRARY ANTHROPOLOGY D 9 KNE
3. What insights might be gained from the comparison between ‘new towns’
ancient and modern in Egypt?
See the reading recommended for seminar 11.
Kemp, B. Ancient Egypt. Anatomy of a Civilization 2nd edition, Cambridge 2006,
pp.193-244 Model Communities on planned towns in ancient Egypt EGYPTOLOGY
B5 KEM
Mitchell, T., Rule of Experts. Egypt, Techno-politics, Modernity, University of
California Press, 2002, pp.80-119 chapter 4 The Character of Calculability
Schooling SCIENCE LIBRARY ANTHROPOLOGY QF 28 MIT
Mitchell, T., Colonising Egypt, Cambridge 1988, pp.34-62 chapter 3 Enframing,
especially pp.44-48 on model housing DCA 200 MIT
4. Among written, visual and other material evidence, what types of sources
are available for a history of justice in ancient Egypt, and how have these been
used by Egyptologists?
See the reading recommended for seminar 12; if you intend to discuss evidence for
the level of commitment from different groups within society, consider also the
reading for seminar 13.
5. What advantages would you see in a ‘history of ancient Egypt’ that did not
rely on written evidence?
Select readings from seminars 6 to 8 may be useful in combination with the sitespecific evidence and readings from seminars 11 to 13.
Moreland, J. Archaeology and Text. London, 2001 AH MOR
Morris, I. Archaeologies of Greece, in his Classical Greece: ancient histories and
modern archaeologies, Cambridge 1994, pp.8-47 ISSUE DESK IOA MOR 11 and
YATES A 20 MOR
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Sauer, E. The disunited subject: human history’s split into ‘history’ and ‘archaeology’,
in his Archaeology and Ancient History: breaking down the boundaries, London and
New York 2004, pp.17-45 MAIN LIBRARY ANCIENT HISTORY A 8 SAU
6. How would you account for the relatively low visibility of peoples from the
west of Egypt in our record from the second millennium BC?
See the reading recommended for seminar 14 and references cited in the O’Connor
and Ritner articles there.
Submission procedures
Students are required to submit hard copy of all coursework to the course coordinator pigeon hole via the Red Essay Box at Reception by the appropriate
deadline. The coursework must be stapled to a completed coversheet (available
from the web, from outside Room 411A or from the library)
Students should put their Candidate Number on all coursework. This is a 5 digit
alphanumeric code, and can be found on Portico: it is different from the Student
Number/ ID. Please also put the Candidate Number and course code on each page
of the work.
It is also essential that students put their Candidate Number at the start of the title
line on Turnitin, followed by the short title of the coursework – e.g. YBPR6 Funerary
practices
Please note the stringent UCL-wide penalties for late submission given below. Late
submission will be penalized in accordance with these regulations unless permission
has been granted and an Extension Request Form (ERF) completed – an ERF can
be obtained from the course co-ordinator, the website, or IoA Room 411A.
Date-stamping is via ‘Turnitin’ (see below), so in addition to submitting hard copy,
students must also submit their work to Turnitin by midnight on day of the deadline.
Students who encounter technical problems submitting their work to Turnitin should
email the nature of the problem to ioa-turnitin@ucl.ac.uk in advance of the deadline
in order that the Turnitin Advisers can notify the Course Co-ordinator that it may be
appropriate to waive the late submission penalty.
If there is any other unexpected crisis on the submission day, students should e-mail
the Course Co-ordinator, and follow this up with a completed ERF
Stringent new UCL-wide regulations with regard to the granting of extensions
for Undergraduate and Master’s coursework have been introduced with effect
from the 2015-16 session. Full details will be circulated to all students and will
be made available on the IoA intranet. Note that Course Coordinators are no
longer permitted to grant extensions. All requests for extensions must be
submitted on a new UCL form, together with supporting documentation, via
Judy Medrington’s office and will then be referred on for consideration.
Please be aware that the grounds that are now acceptable are very limited.
Please see the Coursework Guidelines on the IoA website or your Degree Handbook
for further details of penalties:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/administration/students/handbook/submission
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For ARCLG200 the Turnitin 'Class ID' is 2971084 and the 'Class Enrolment
Password' is IoA1516. Further information is given on the IoA website:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/administration/students/handbook/turnitin
Turnitin advisers will be available to help you via email: ioa-turnitin@ucl.ac.uk if
needed.
UCL-WIDE PENALTIES FOR LATE SUBMISSION OF COURSEWORK
UCL regulation 3.1.6 Late Submission of Coursework
Where coursework is not submitted by a published deadline, the following penalties
will apply:
i) A penalty of 5 percentage marks should be applied to coursework submitted the
calendar day after the deadline (calendar day 1).
ii) A penalty of 15 percentage marks should be applied to coursework submitted on
calendar day 2 after the deadline through to calendar day 7.
iii) A mark of zero should be recorded for coursework submitted on calendar day 8
after the deadline through to the end of the second week of third term. Nevertheless,
the assessment will be considered to be complete provided the coursework contains
material than can be assessed.
iv) Coursework submitted after the end of the second week of third term will not be
marked and the assessment will be incomplete.
vii) Where there are extenuating circumstances that have been recognised by the
Board of Examiners or its representative, these penalties will not apply until the
agreed extension period has been exceeded.
viii) In the case of coursework that is submitted late and is also over length, only the
lateness penalty will apply.
Please ask the Course Co-ordinator if uncertain about any of these regulations.
With these UCL-wide regulations in mind, it is useful to prepare your personal degree
time-table in order to ensure submission of coursework on time for all your courses;
this can be used to monitor your progress on all coursework, so that you can apply
for an extension of the deadline if needed.
Timescale for return of marked coursework to students.
You can expect to receive your marked work within four calendar weeks of the official
submission deadline. If you do not receive your work within this period, or a written
explanation from the marker, you should notify the IoA Academic Administrator, Judy
Medrington by e-mail or at Room 411A (IoA fourth floor).
Keeping copies
Please note that it is an Institute requirement that you retain a copy (this can be
electronic) of all coursework submitted. When your marked essay is returned to you,
you should return it to the marker within two weeks.
Citing of sources
Coursework should be expressed in a student’s own words giving the exact source of
any ideas, information, diagrams etc. that are taken from the work of others. Any
direct quotations from the work of others must be indicated as such by being placed
between inverted commas. Plagiarism is regarded as a very serious irregularity
which can carry very heavy penalties. It is your responsibility to read and abide by
9
the requirements for presentation, referencing and avoidance of plagiarism to be
found in the IoA ‘Coursework Guidelines’ on the IoA website
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/administration/students/handbook
There are strict penalties for plagiarism. Further details are available on the IoA
website.
IoA ADVICE ON AVOIDING PLAGIARISM
The term “plagiarism” means presenting material (words, figures etc.) in a way that
allows the reader to believe that it is the work of the author he or she is reading,
when it is in fact the creation of another person. It can be intentional or unintentional,
and therefore must be consciously avoided. In academic and other circles, plagiarism
is regarded as theft of intellectual property. By UCL regulations, all detected
plagiarism is to be penalized and noted on the student’s record, irrespective of
whether the plagiarism is committed knowingly or unintentionally. Allegations of
plagiarism may arise at a late stage, for example in assessment of course work by an
external examiner; penalties can be as severe as failing a course or a whole degree.
It is thus important to take deliberate steps to avoid any inadvertent plagiarism.
Avoiding plagiarism should start at the stage of taking notes. In your notes, it
should be entirely clear what is taken directly from a source, what is a paraphrase of
the content of a source and what is your own synthesis or original thought. Take care
to include sources and relevant page numbers in your notes.
When writing an essay, any words and special meanings, any special phrases,
any clauses or sentences taken directly from a source must be enclosed in inverted
commas and followed by a reference to the source in brackets. It is not generally
necessary to use direct quotations except when comparing particular terms or
phrases used by different authors. Similarly, all figures and tables taken from sources
must have their origin acknowledged in the caption: note that captions are not
included in maximum word lengths.
Paraphrased information taken from a source must be followed by a reference to
the source. If a paragraph contains information from several sources, it must be
made clear what information comes from where: a list of sources at the end of the
paragraph is not sufficient. Please cite sources of information fully, including page
numbers where appropriate, in order to avoid any risk of plagiarism: citations in the
text do not contribute to any maximum word count.
To guard further against inadvertent plagiarism, you may find it helpful to write a
plan of your coursework answer or essay and to write the coursework primarily on
the basis of your plan, only referring to sources or notes when you need to check
something specific such as a page number for a citation.
COLLUSION, except where required, is also an examination offence. While
discussing topics and questions with fellow students is one of the benefits of learning
in a university environment, you should always plan and write your coursework
answers entirely independently.
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SCHEDULE AND SYLLABUS
Teaching schedule
Except for off-site museum visits, seminars are held 10:00-12:00 on Fridays, in the
Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, Malet Place: we assemble in meeting room
Room 106 on the first floor of the UCL Science Library, Malet Place. You need
your UCL ID-card to enter the Science Library: to reach Room 106, go through the
double door next to the lifts on the first floor landing, and Room 106 is at the corner
of the corridor on the right.
Three off-site visits are scheduled to the British Museum: week 5 Enlightenment
Gallery; week 8 Sculpture Gallery, week 14 Egypt and Africa Gallery.
Seminar facilitator: Stephen Quirke.
Syllabus
The following is an outline for the course as a whole, and identifies essential and
supplementary readings relevant to each session. Information is provided as to
where in the UCL library system individual readings are available (location, Teaching
Collection (TC) number, and status (whether out on loan) can also be accessed on
the online Library catalogue). Each weekly reading-list starts with items considered
essential to keep up with topics covered, and to contribute to discussion. Copies of
individual articles and chapters identified as essential reading are on the online
reading-list, Moodle site, or in the Teaching Collection in the Institute Library (where
permitted by copyright). If students encounter any difficulty with obtaining any title, or
with access to online resources, they should contact the Course Co-ordinator at
once.
In line with the avoidance of prerequisites for this course, every effort has been made
to avoid any language requirement. However, students aiming to continue in
mainstream Egyptology should note that the discipline is still largely philological, with
substantial German-language publications; therefore, vocational Egyptology students
without German will find it useful to start reading at least short German articles. For
this, one very helpful resource is the Lexikon der Ägyptologie (EGYPTOLOGY A 2
LEX); the Course Co-ordinator can advise on this. At the end of each seminar, there
is time to raise any questions about reading for the following week, or questions can
be put during the week to the Course Co-ordinator.
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1. Introduction. Problems of perception: the Object encounter 9.10.15
This seminar introduces the course aims, methods, and outline, considering in
particular primary obstacles to assessing evidence from ‘ancient Egypt’.
For discussion:
Egyptology has developed along several lines, but the discipline has canonised only
a specific selection from these as its authoritative history. Arguably, the full potential
of encounters with Egyptian pasts might be recovered through two critical moves:
1) external: the current consensus can be problematised by writing and reading
different histories, recent and ancient, that have been deselected in
disciplinary memory.
2) internal: the act of critical historicising can be applied to the traditional
histories of museum and university: a detailed history of an institution can
dispel the aura of inevitability by which a discipline protects itself from rivals.
Such critique could encourage a move from normative Eurocentric field, to recognise
the potential in African-centred and Egyptian/ Arab nationalist studies of past and
present of the Nile basin.
Object encounter:
During this introductory seminar, we will consider our individual encounters with
objects outside and inside the museum, and formulate our object-handling
procedures for this course. We will discuss ethical and practical issues, as well as
didactic and research opportunities, in direct encounters with material evidence from
the past. As part of this discussion, we will read the short story ‘The Chair Carrier’ by
the twentieth-century Egyptian writer Idris:
Idris, Y. The Chair Carrier. In D. Johnson-Davies, Arabic Short Stories, Berkeley,
1983, pp.1-5 COURSE COPY
Essential reading:
Hassan, F. Conserving Egyptian heritage: seizing the moment. In N. Brehony and A.
El-Desouky (eds.), British-Egyptian relations from Suez to the present day, London
2007, pp.209-233 ON-LINE READING-LIST and MAIN LIBRARY HISTORY 53 h
BRE
Said, E. Representing the Colonized: anthropology's interlocutors. In Critical Inquiry
15, 1989, pp.205-225 JSTOR, link on ON-LINE READING-LIST
Further reading:
Carman, J. Against Cultural Property: archaeology, heritage and ownership. London,
2005 AG CAR
Eldaly, O. Ancient Egypt in medieval Arabic writings, in P. Ucko and T. Champion,
The Wisdom of Egypt: changing visions through the ages, London 2003, pp.39-63
EGYPTOLOGY A8 UCK
Hassan, F. Memorabilia. Archaeological Materiality and National Identity in Egypt, in
L. Meskell (ed.), Archaeology Under fire: Nationalism, Politics and Heritage in the
Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, London 1998, pp. 200-216 AG MES and
ON-LINE READING-LIST
Kamugisha, A. Finally in Africa? Egypt, from Diop to Celenko. Race and Class 45,
2003, pp.31-60. ON-LINE READING-LIST
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Lucas, G. Critical approaches to fieldwork, New York, 2001, chapter 4 The measure
of culture, pp.107-145. INST ARCH AH LUC
Obenga, T. Ancient Egypt and Black Africa: a student's handbook for the study of
Ancient Egypt in philosophy, linguistics, and gender relations. London, 1992.
EGYPTOLOGY B20 OBE
Pope, J. Ägypten und Aufhebung. G.W.F. Hegel, W.E.B. DuBois, and the African
Orient, in The New Centennial Review 6:3, 2007, pp.149-192 ON-LINE READINGLIST
Reid, D.M. Indigenous egyptology: the decolonization of a profession, Journal of the
American Oriental Society 105,1985, pp.233-246. INST ARCH PERS and ON-LINE
READING-LIST
Scham, S. Ancient Egypt and the Archaeology of the Disenfranchised, in D. Jeffreys
(ed.), Views of Ancient Egypt since Napoleon Bonaparte: Imperialism, Colonialism
and Modern Appropriations, London 2003, pp.171-178 ISSUE DESK IOA JEF and
EGYPTOLOGY A8 JEF
Trigger, B. A history of archaeological thought, 2nd edition, Cambridge 2006, pp.195207 (earlier archaeology of Africa) ISSUE DESK IOA TRI 2 and INST ARCH AG TRI
Vercoutter, J. The search for Ancient Egypt, London 1992 EGYPTOLOGY A8 VER
Wendrich, W. in id. (ed.), Egyptian Archaeology, Malden MA and Oxford 2010,
chapter 1 Egyptian archaeology: from text to context, pp.1-14, ISSUE DESK IOA
WEN 9 and EGYPTOLOGY A 6 WEN
Wengrow, D. The Archaeology of Early Egypt. Social transformations in North-east
Africa, 10,000 to 2650 BC, Cambridge 2006, chapter 6 introduction Opening
considerations: La Mémoire monarchique, pp.127-134 ISSUE DESK IOA WEN 7 and
EGYPTOLOGY B 11 WEN and ON-LINE READING-LIST
2. Orientalism in archaeology and ethnography: objectifying ‘cultures’ and
people. 16.10.15
London is one of several European and American cities with a concentration of large
collections of Egyptian antiquities, centres of Egyptological study, 19th and 20th
century buildings in Egyptianizing style, and hardstone monolithic monuments in
public spaces (in London, the obelisk called Cleopatra’s Needle on the Thames
Embankment). In reception history, two disciplinary trends may be contrasted: 1. a
determinedly apolitical account of European fascination with the ‘East’, history of
archaeology, and decoding of ancient scripts, 2. a critical account of the political and
ideological frameworks that enabled one set of lands to acquire in material form the
history of another, with a near-monopoly of cultural production on that history of the
other.
In the second trend, the most influential motif has been Orientalism as
analysed by Edward Said, and we consider the sharply different responses to his
work in the anthropological, historical and archaeological reception of postcolonial
studies. Archaeological archives remain largely unexplored in self-critique but can be
used to encompass the conflict between the two approaches. Ancient transfers of
material and motifs also introduce new considerations into the debate. This seminar
explores possibilities for ethically-grounded future research within this global story, in
local Bloomsbury contexts - the British Museum and UCL.
13
Essential Reading
Said, E. Afterword, in id., Orientalism, Harmondsworth 1995, pp.329-354
ANTHROPOLOGY D7 SAI and GEOGRAPHY H26SAI and HISTORY 6 a SAI and
ON-LINE READING-LIST (NB: the afterword is in 1995 and later reprints, not in the
earlier 1978 edition)
Crehan, K. Gramsci, Culture and anthropology, London 2002, chapter 3.
Anthropology and Culture: some assumptions, pp.36-67 SCIENCE LIBRARY
ANTHROPOLOGY D 12 CRE and SSEES LIBRARY Misc.XVIII GRA CRE and ONLINE READING-LIST
Further Reading
On Edward Said Orientalism:
Robert Irwin For Lust of Knowing. The Orientalists and their Enemies,
Harmondsworth 2006, chapter 9 An Enquiry into the Nature of a certain TwentiethCentury Polemic, pp.277-309. Science ANTHROPOLOGY D 6 IRW
Loomba, A. Subjectivity and Science in Postcolonial Archaeology, in J. Lydon and U.
Rizvi (eds.), Handbook of Postcolonial Archaeology, Walnut Creek 2010, pp.125-131
INST ARCH AG LYD
MacKenzie, J. Orientalism: history, theory and the arts, Manchester 1995 ART M11
MAC
Lockman, Z. Contending Visions of the Middle East: the history and politics of
orientalism. Cambridge 2004 SCIENCE LIBRARY GEOGRAPHY PA 44 LOC
On the historical context of disciplinary formation in archaeology and
anthropology:
Gosden, C. Anthropology & Archaeology. A changing relationship, New York 1999,
chapter 2 Colonial origins, pp.15-32. INST ARCH BD GOS
Gosden, C. and C. Knowles, Collecting Colonialism. Material culture and colonial
change, Berg 2001, chapter 1 People, Objects and Colonial Relations, pp.1-25 INST
ARCH MB 4 GOS and ANTHROPOLOGY SQ 182 GOS
Gilsenan, M., ‘Very Like a Camel: The Appearance of an Anthropologists’ Middle
East,’ in R. Farden (ed.). Localizing Strategies: Regional Traditions of Ethnographic
Writing. Edinburgh 1990, pp.222-239. Science ANTHROPOLOGY D 5 FAR
Gonzalez-Ruibal, A. Colonialism and European archaeology, in J. Lydon and U. Rizvi
(eds.), Handbook of Postcolonial Archaeology, 2010, pp.39-50. INST ARCH AG LYD
On European reception of ancient Egypt:
Clayton, P. The rediscovery of ancient Egypt: artists and travellers in the 19th century,
London 1982 EGYPTOLOGY A 30 CLA
Curl, J. Egyptomania. The Egyptian revival, a recurring theme in the history of taste,
Manchester and New York 1994 MAIN LIBRARY ART P7 CUR
Humbert, J.-M. and C. Price, Introduction: an architecture between dream and
meaning, in J.-M. Humbert and C. Price, Imhotep Today: Egyptianizing architecture,
London 2003, pp.1-24 EGYPTOLOGY K5 HUM and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Moser, S. Reconstructing Ancient Worlds: Reception Studies, Archaeological
Representation and the Interpretation of Ancient Egypt. In Journal of Archaeological
Method and Theory 2014, pp.1-46 ON-LINE READING-LIST
Schulz, R. Travellers, correspondence, and scholars: images of Egypt through the
millennia, in id. and M. Seidel (eds.), Egypt, The World of the Pharaohs, Cologne
1998, pp.491-497 EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS B 5 SCH
14
On the historical context of disciplinary formation in Egyptology:
Carruthers, W. (ed.) Histories of Egyptology: interdisciplinary measures, New York
2015 EGYPTOLOGY A 8 CAR
Colla, E. Conflicted antiquities: Egyptology, Egyptomania, Egyptian modernity.
Durham N.C. 2007, chapter 4 The discovery of Tutankhamen’s Tomb: archaeology,
politics, literature, pp.172-226 EGYPTOLOGY A 8 COL (3 copies) note especially the
discussion of the poetry of Ahmed Shawqi ascribing agency to objects pp.216-222
Marchand, S. The end of Egyptomania: German scholarship and the banalisation of
ancient Egypt 1830-1914. In W. Seipel (ed.), Ägyptomanie : europäische
Ägyptenimagination von der Antike bis heute, Vienna 2000, pp.125-133
EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS A 6 SEI
Marchand, S. German orientalism in the age of empire: religion, race and
scholarship. Washington 2009 MAIN LIBRARY HISTORY 52f MAR
Mitchell, T. Colonising Egypt. Berkeley 1991, chapter 1 Egypt at the Exhibition pp.133. DCA 200 MIT
Riggs, C. Unwrapping ancient Egypt, London 2014 EGYPTOLOGY E 7 RIG
On 'Cleopatra's Needle' and other obelisks outside Egypt:
Hassan, F. Imperialist Appropriations of Egyptian Obelisks, in D. Jeffreys (ed.), Views
of Ancient Egypt since Napoleon Bonaparte: Imperialism, Colonialism and Modern
Appropriations, London 2003, pp. 19-68 EGYPTOLOGY A8 JEF and ON-LINE
READING-LIST
3. Objects as encounters with people living today in the archaeological
landscapes: ‘heritage’ and ‘ownership’. 23.10.15
In this seminar we consider the relations between archaeologists of all nationalities
and the people who live at the places they excavate or survey. In general a gap grew
out of the professionalization of archaeology over the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries. Archaeological publications and archives from that time can help
to reveal the structures of those relations, in the process of formation. Initiatives to
close the gap are known under the umbrella term 'community archaeology'. This
movement has also been subject to critique, both for lack of realism in archaeological
agendas, and for lack of real participation/ collaboration.
Essential Reading
Glazier, D. and A. Jones, 'Not just Egyptians; not just Europeans. Different Cultures,
working together …' in F. Hassan, L. Owens, A. De Trafford (eds.), Managing Egypt's
Cultural Heritage, London 2009, pp.27-37 EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS A 6 HAS
Wynn, L. Shape shifting lizard people, Israelite slaves, and other theories of pyramid
building: Notes on labor, nationalism, and archaeology in Egypt, in Journal of Social
Archaeology 8, 2008, pp.272-295 ON-LINE READING-LIST
Further reading:
Fushiya, T. Archaeological Site Management and Local Involvement: A Case Study
from Abu Rawash, Egypt, in Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites
12/4, 2010, pp. 324-355. ON-LINE READING-LIST
15
Knudsen, S. A comparative overview of academic discourse on indigenous
knowledge in the Middle East and Africa, in E. Boon and L. Hens (eds.) Indigenous
Knowledge Systems and Sustainable Developement: relevance for Africa (= Tribes
and Tribals Special Volume 1), 2007, pp.13-28 ON-LINE READING-LIST
Masry, A.H. Traditions of Archaeological Research in the Near East, World
Archaeology 13/2, 1981, pp. 222-239 ON-LINE READING-LIST
Matthews, R., The Archaeology of Mesopotamia. Theories and approaches, New
York 2003, chapter 7 Futures of the Mesopotamian past, pp.189-204. INST ARCH
DBB 100 MAT
Petrie, W.M.F. Methods and Aims in Archaeology, London 1904, chapter 3 The
Labourers pp.20-39 INST ARCH AL 14 PET
Reid, D. Cultural Imperialism and Nationalism: The struggle to define and control the
Heritage of Arab Art in Egypt, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 24/1,
1992, pp. 57-76
Scham, S. Disinheriting Heritage: Explorations in the Contentious History of
Archaeology in the Middle East, in M. Liebman and U. Rizvi (eds) Archaeology and
the Postcolonial Critique, Walnut Creek 2008, 165-175. INST ARCH AG LIE
Sillman, S. (ed) 2008 Collaborating at the trowel's edge : teaching and learning in
indigenous archaeology. Tucson 2008, INST ARCH DED 100 SIL
Van der Spek, K., The Modern Neighbors of Tutankhamun, London 2011, chapter 8
All-in a Season’s work: Egyptology-Induced Labor Relations at al-Hurubat, chapter 9
Faked Antikas and “Modern Antiques”: Artistic Expression in the Villages of the
Theban West Bank, pp. 219-287
Wendrich, W. From practical knowledge to empowered communication: field schools
of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt, in R. Boytner et al. (eds.), Controlling
the Past, Owning the Future: the political uses of archaeology in the Middle East,
Tucson 2010, pp.178-195 INST ARCH DBA 100 BOY
Modern Egyptian tale on mutual incomprehension:
Lashin, Village Small Talk, 1923, online English translation at
http://www.alkalimah.net/en/article.aspx?aid=12
4. Objects as encounters with people living in other times in the archaeological
landscapes: makers and users. 30.10.15
In this seminar, students are invited to choose one object from the Petrie Museum
collections, observing the practical and ethical guidelines agreed in class in week 1,
and to present this object to the class in the manner of an object biography. In
combination with the readings on 'experiencing the past', the presentations will
provide the basis for discussion of the possibilities and limits on our attempts to know
the past through surviving material. The archaeological archive and museum history
can provide tighter frameworks for assessing our own part in constructing the past,
alongside the potential of the object to project onto us worlds outside our own.
Essential Reading
Brück, J. Experiencing the past? The development of a phenomenological
archaeology in British prehistory. In Archaeological Dialogues 12.1, 2005, pp. 45-72
ON-LINE READING-LIST
16
Schwartz, F., Walter Benjamin's Essay on Eduard Fuchs: An Art-Historical
Perspective in A. Hemingway (ed.), Marxism and Art History, from William Morris to
the New Left, Pluto Press, 2006 MAIN LIBRARY ART BG HEM and ON-LINE
READING-LIST
Further Reading:
Gosden, C. and Y. Marshall, The cultural biography of objects, in World Archaeology
31.2, 1999, pp.169-178 ON-LINE READING-LIST
Sellet, F. 1993. Chaine Opératoire: the concept and its applications. In Lithic
Technology 18, 1993, pp.106-112 ON-LINE READING-LIST
Sillar, B., M. Tite, The challenge of ‘technological choices’ for material science
approaches in archaeology. In Archaeometry 42/1, 2000, 2-20 ON-LINE READINGLIST
Szpakowska, K. Daily Life in Ancient Egypt. Recreating Lahun, Oxford 2008, chapter
7 Religion, pp. 122-149. EGYPTOLOGY B 20 SZP
Vidale 1998, “Operational sequences beyond linearity”, in Milliken, Vidale (eds.),
Craft Specialization: Operational Sequences and Beyond, Oxford, 179-184 INST
ARCH DA QUARTOS EUR
Ancient Egyptian tale on a prized object:
Episode of loss and recovery of the fish-pendant in the Tales at the Court of King
Khufu, on ‘Papyrus Westcar’. Translations are available in English in:
M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature I, Berkeley 1975 EGYPTOLOGY V 20 LIC
R. Parkinson, The Tale of Sinuhe and other ancient Egyptian poems, 1940-1640 BC,
Oxford 1998, pp.109-111 EGYPTOLOGY V 50 PAR and ON-LINE READING-LIST
preview includes pp.109-111
W. K. Simpson, The literature of ancient Egypt: an anthology of stories, instructions,
stelae, autobiographies, and poetry, 3rd edition, New Haven 2003 EGYPTOLOGY V
20 SIM
5. Objects as encounters in museum practice: modern display as knowledge
production (British Museum visit). 6.11.15
As considered in seminars 1-2, large collections in Europe and North America have
played a prominent role both in forming knowledge and as object of restitution
debates. Recent publications have discussed the impact of the British Museum in the
formation of Egyptology, reconsidering the professed lack of interest in Egypt on the
part of Trustees and Directors. Currently, its Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan
is a major contributor to Egyptological study, through annual conferences as well as
fieldwork and initiatives for international curatorial training. This visit is an opportunity
to consider the practical engagement of staff, research visitors and general public in
all institutions of display, study and preservation of material. The architectural and
environmental issues apply to all collections of Egyptian antiquities, including those
inside Egypt. In encountering material out of context, the visit also offers a chance to
consider how ancient settings can be included in our views at such great distances in
time and space. Material from burials, offering-chapels and temples at Memphis,
Abydos and Thebes dominate the monumental selection in museums. The visit
covers the Egyptian Sculpture Gallery and Enlightenment Galleries.
17
Essential:
Boast, R. Neocolonial Collaboration: Museum as Contact Zone Revisited, Museum
Anthropology 34/1, 2011, pp.56-70 ON-LINE READING-LIST
Moser, S. Wondrous Curiosities. Ancient Egypt at the British Museum. Chicago and
London 2006, chapter 3 Colossal Monstrosities: the Townley Installation of Egyptian
Antiquities, 1808, pp.65-92 EGYPTOLOGY C 10 BM and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Further reading:
For “object biography” in your gallery presentations:
Colla, E. Conflicted antiquities: Egyptology, Egyptomania, Egyptian modernity.
Durham N.C. 2007, chapter 1 The Artifaction of the Memnon Head, pp.24-71
EGYPTOLOGY A 8 COL (3 copies)
Archaeological landscape in general, and context at Mennefer/Memphis:
Jeffreys, D. Regionality, cultural and cultic landscapes, in W. Wendrich (ed.),
Egyptian Archaeology, Malden MA and Oxford 2010, pp.102-118 EGYPTOLOGY A 6
WEN
Jeffreys, D. Survey of Memphis I. London 1988 EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS A 20 JEF
Martin, G. The Hidden Tombs of Memphis: New Discoveries from the Time of
Tutankhamun and Ramesses the Great. London 1991 EGYPTOLOGY E 7 MAR
Archaeological context at Abdju/Abydos: chapel monuments
Kemp, B. Abydos, in W. Helck and W. Westendorf (eds.), Lexikon der Ägyptologie I,
Wiesbaden 1975, cols.28-41 EGYPTOLOGY A 2 LEX
O'Connor, D. The 'Cenotaphs' of the Middle Kingdom at Abydos, in P. PosenerKriéger (ed.), Mélanges Gamal Eddin Mokhtar, Cairo, 1985, pp. 161-177.
EGYPTOLOGY A 6 MOK
O'Connor, D. Abydos, North, Ka chapels and cenotaphs. In K. Bard (ed.),
Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt. London and New York 1999,
pp.100-102 ISSUE DESK IOA BAR 17 and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Richards, J. Society and Death in ancient Egypt: mortuary landscapes of the Middle
Kingdom, Cambridge 2005, chapter 7 Cemeteries Past, Present and Provincial:
Abydos pp.125-172 EGYPTOLOGY E 7 RIC and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Simpson, W.K. The terrace of the great God at Abydos : the offering chapels of
dynasties 12 and 13. New Haven, 1974 EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E 120 SIM
Archaeological context at Waset/Thebes: temple/tomb architecture/sculpture
Bell, L. Divine kingship and the theology of the obelisk cult in the temples of Thebes.
In H. Beinlich (ed.), 5. Ägyptologische Tempeltagung Würzburg, 23. - 26. September
1999 Akten der Ägyptologischen Tempeltagungen 3, Wiesbaden 2002, pp.17-46
EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS R 5 BEI
Bryan, B. The statue program for the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III. In S.Quirke
(ed.), The Temple in Ancient Egypt. New discoveries and recent research, London
1997, pp.57-81 EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS K 7 QUI and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Hartwig, M. Tomb Painting and Identity in Ancient Thebes 1419-1372 BC, Brussels
2004, pp.5-19 EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS M20 HAR
Strudwick, N. and J. Taylor, The Theban Necropolis. Past, present and future,
London 2003 EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E100 STR
18
On the assembling of the Egyptian collections in nineteenth century Europe
and on principles of museum display:
Caygill, M. The Story of the British Museum, London 1981 INST ARCH MA 42.1 BRI
Hoock, H. The British state and the Anglo-French wars over antiquities, 1798-1858.
In The Historical Journal 50, 2007, pp.49-72 ON-LINE READING-LIST
James, T. G. H. The British Museum and Ancient Egypt. London 1981
EGYPTOLOGY A 8 JAM
Kirtland, K. A glass clouds in post-revolutionary France: shifting relationships of art to
its public in the work of Quatremère de Quincy. In J. Clifford and G. Zezulka-Mailloux
(eds.), Culture and the State I. landscape and ecology, 2003, pp.209-231 ON-LINE
READING-LIST (Google Books link: if incomplete, a course copy is available)
Moser, S. Wondrous Curiosities. Ancient Egypt at the British Museum. Chicago and
London 2006, Conclusion: Something for Everyone: The British Museum and its
creation of Ancient Egypt, pp.217-233. EGYPTOLOGY C 10 BM
Moser, S. The devil in in the detail: Museum Displays and the Creation of
Knowledge, Museum Anthropology 33/1, 2010, pp.22-32 ON-LINE READING-LIST
Preziosi, D. Brain of the Earth’s Body. Art, Museums and the Phantasms of
Modernity. Minneapolis, 2003, The Astrolabe of the Enlightenment, pp.63-91 MAIN
LIBRARY ART A 4.9 PRE and ON-LINE READING-LIST for the Soane Museum as a
counter-example
Digital Egypt for Universities pages:
http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/museum/index.html
http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/museum/museum6.html
6. Cross-cultural hierarchies of art: obstacles in seeing. 20.11.15
Since the early 19th century, European establishments have endorsed the primacy of
ancient Greek art for which Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768) had fought.
As a result, ancient Egyptian formal art and prehistoric (including predynastic
Egyptian) art have been assigned fixed places in a ruthless hierarchy of aesthetic
values. In this European tradition, the hierarchy may be embedded consciously or not
in our every act of perception of any product of the visual arts. In this seminar we
discuss the way in which our assumptions may be challenged, and the extent to
which another art may be appreciated. Serious obstacles must be acknowledged in
the process:
(1) Few contributions from Egyptologists have achieved recognition in art history,
beyond a first generation influenced by the Vienna school of Riegl and Wölfflin
(Evers, Krahmer, Schäfer)
(2) History of art has traditionally excluded Egyptian arts from its field of research.
(3) Anthropology of art offers comparative material and theoretical methods of
approach, but may be as Eurocentric as traditional Egyptological art history in its
assumptions and effects.
Examples from each longer duration of visual art history can be found at one global
connection point, Qift (Gebtyu/Koptos), the Nile River port for Red Sea trade, and the
place where Petrie recruited his core excavation workforce after he became UCL
Professor in 1893. Combining these with Egyptological publications of ancient
Egyptian inscriptions relating to visual arts, this seminar confronts the open question
of our capacity for appreciating visual arts from any period of Egyptian history.
19
Essential reading:
Assmann, J. Ein Gespräch im Goldhaus über Kunst und andere Gegenstände. In I.
Gammer-Wallert and W. Helck (eds.), Gegengabe. Festschrift für Emma BrunnerTraut, Tübingen 1992, pp.43-60 EGYPTOLOGY A6 BRU and English translation of
select pages COURSE COPY
Assmann, J. The Ramesside tomb of Nebsumenu (TT183) and the ritual of Opening
the Mouth, in N. Strudwick and J. Taylor (eds.), The Theban Necropolis. Past,
present and future, London 2003, pp.53-60 EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E100 STR
and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Further reading:
A town in Egypt: ancient Egyptian Gebtyu - Greek Koptos - modern Arabic Qift
Adams, B. Petrie at the cult centre of Min at Koptos. In J. Phillips (ed.), Ancient
Egypt, the Aegean, and the Near East. Studies in Honour of Martha Rhoads Bell,
San Antonio, 1997, pp.1-16 EGYPTOLOGY A 6 BEL and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Adams, B. Petrie’s manuscript journal from Coptos, in Autour de Coptos: actes du
colloque organisé au Musée des beaux arts de Lyon (17-18 Mars 2000) Topoi
supplement 3, Paris 2002, pp.5-22 EGYPTOLOGY E 100 AND
Towards interdisciplinary engagements - art history and literary studies:
Eagleton, T. The Ideology of the Aesthetic, Oxford 1990 MAIN LIBRARY ART BA
EAG
Nesbit, What was an author? in Yale French Studies 1987, pp.229-257 MAIN
ROMANCE PERS and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Riegl, A. The place of the Vapheio cups in the history of art. 1900 essay, translation
in C. Wood (ed.), The Vienna School Reader. Politics and art historical method in the
1930s, New York, 2000, pp.105-129 MAIN LIBRARY ART MG 8 WOO
Riegl, A. The main characteristics of the late Roman Kunstwollen. 1901 essay,
translation in C. Wood (ed.), The Vienna School Reader. Politics and art historical
method in the 1930s, New York, 2000, pp.87-103 MAIN LIBRARY ART MG 8 WOO
and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Wood, C. Introduction to new edition of E. Panofsky, Perspective as Symbolic Form,
New York, 1997, pp.7-24 MAIN LIBRARY ART TD 30 PAN and ON-LINE READINGLIST
Egyptologists and classical archaeologists on art
Arnold, D. Egyptian art – a performing art? In S. D’Auria (ed.), Servant of
Mut: studies in honor of Richard A. Fazzini, Leiden 2008, pp.1-18 EGYPTOLOGY
QUARTOS M 6 DAU
Davies, W. (ed.), Colour and Painting in ancient Egypt, London 2001 EGYPTOLOGY
QUARTOS M20 DAV
Davis. W. Abducting the Agency of Art. In J. Tanner and R. Osborne (eds.), Art’s
Agency and Art History, Oxford 2007, pp.199-219 IOA BD OSB
Jenkins, I. Archaeologists and Aesthetes in the sculpture galleries of the British
Museum, London 1992, Chapter 4. The Chain of Art, pp.56-74 YATES QUARTOS C
10 BRI and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Schäfer, H. Principles of Egyptian Art (4th and posthumous edition by Brunner-Traut,
trans. J. Baines), Oxford 1978 EGYPTOLOGY M5 SCH
Wengrow, D. The Archaeology of Early Egypt. Social transformations in North-east
Africa, 10,000 to 2650 BC, Cambridge 2006, in chapter 5 Image, ritual and the
20
construction of identity in late prehistory, pp.99-108 ISSUE DESK IOA WEN 7 and
EGYPTOLOGY B 11 WEN and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Digital Egypt for Universities pages:
http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/art/assessart.html
http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/religion/wpr.html
7. Diachronic hierarchies in the study of belief. 27.11.15
Much Egyptological writing about ancient belief or thought has followed evolutionary
principles. At a superficial level, Prehistoric Art became a guide to a supposed
primitive thought-world of myth and magic. European and Euroamerican writers
might accept a degree of achievement in ancient Egyptian art, but saw in its animalheaded gods the persistence of a ‘savage’ and ‘mythical thought’. In a stereotyped
version of these views, ancient Greek art with bodily perspective could correspond to
Platonic and Aristotelean philosophy and a turn towards a truer religion, which
tended to mean, for nineteenth century Europeans, various specific forms of
Christianity, depending on who was writing and where. Twentieth century
Egyptological writing has added an agnostic and secular end-point to the teleology.
In this seminar we discuss the roots and rootedness of evolutionary histories of
religion, our own relation to them, and the implications for our relation to past
expressions of belief.
Essential:
Baines, J. Interpretations of religion: logic, discourse, rationality. In Göttinger
Miszellen 76: 25–54 INST ARCH PERS and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Kemp, B. How religious were the ancient Egyptians? In Cambridge Archaeological
Journal 5, 1995, pp.25-54 INST ARCH PERS and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Further reading:
Asad, T. Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity
and Islam. Baltimore 1993 SCIENCE LIBRARY ANTHROPOLOGY D 190 ASA
Assmann, J. Moses the Egyptian: the memory of Egypt in Western monotheism,
Cambridge 1997, especially Chapter 1 Mnemohistory and the construction of Egypt,
pp.1-22 EGYPTOLOGY R 80 ASS
Assmann, J., The Search for God in Ancient Egypt, London 2001 EGYPTOLOGY R
5 ASS
Assmann, J. Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt, Ithaca 2005, Introduction: death
and culture, pp.1-20 EGYPTOLOGY R 5 ASS
Bowie, F. The anthropology of religion: an introduction. 2nd ed. Malden, MA 2006
SCIENCE LIBRARY ANTHROPOLOGY D100 BOW Useful introduction includes the
history of use of relevant terms in social sciences
Hornung, E. Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt. The One and the Many. Ithaca
1982 EGYPTOLOGY B 20 HOR
Hornung, E. The secret lore of Egypt : its impact on the West, Ithaca 2001
EGYPTOLOGY B 20 HOR
Schoske, C. Freud’s Egyptian digs. In W. Seipel (ed.), Ägyptomanie: europäische
Ägyptenimagination von der Antike bis heute, Vienna 2000, pp.105-113
EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS A 6 SEI
21
Spalinger, A. The limitations of formal ancient Egyptian religion. In Journal of Near
Eastern Studies 57, 1998, pp.241-260 INST ARCH PERS and ON-LINE READINGLIST
Wengrow, D. Forgetting the Ancien Regime: Republican Values and the Study of the
Ancient Orient, in D. Jeffreys (ed.), Views of Ancient Egypt since Napoleon
Bonaparte: Imperialism, Colonialism and Modern Appropriations, London 2003,
pp.179-193 EGYPTOLOGY A8 JEF and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Further reading for early twentieth century European attitudes to ancient
Egyptian religion:
Budge, E.A.T.W. The gods of the Egyptians. London 1904 EGYPTOLOGY R 5 BUD
Widely read early guide for a general public, useful for articulating assumptions
among earlier generations of English-language Egyptology ON-LINE READING-LIST
Erman, A. A handbook of Egyptian religion. London 1907 EGYPTOLOGY R 5 ERM
Internationally influential version of early 1900s Egyptological opinion. ON-LINE
READING-LIST
Gardiner, The attitude of the ancient Egyptians to death and the dead, Cambridge
1935 STORES 392 R5 GAR
8. Reading ancient writing: tyranny of the alphabet. (British Museum visit) 4.12.15
Beside art and belief, a third fundamental obstacle to encountering ancient Egyptian
material is the assumption that alphabets represent the true vocation of script.
According to this assumption, Egyptian hieroglyphs belong to a more ‘primitive’
phase in an evolutionary line from pictographic writing to the alphabet. This
assumption about scripts delivers the final twist in the historical incomprehension of
ancient Egyptian visual and verbal expression.
Discussion in this seminar concludes with a look back over the various obstacles to
perception discussed in the course, and provisional conclusions on the possibility of
reassessing the place of ancient Egypt in a world history.
Essential:
Harris, R. The Origin of Writing. London, 1986. Chapter Two: The Tyranny of the
Alphabet, pp.29-56 GC HAR and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Mitchell, T., Colonising Egypt, Cambridge 1988, pp.128-160 The machinery of truth,
especially pp.146-150 on the absence of vowels in abjad scripts such as Arabic DCA
200 MIT and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Further reading:
Bard, K. Origins of Egyptian Writing, in: R. Friedman and B. Adams (eds.) The
Followers of Horus: Studies dedicated to Michael Allen Hoffman 1944-1990, Oxford
1992, pp.297-306. ISSUE DESK IOA FRI 4 and EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS A 6 FRI
and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Damerow, P., The Origins of Writing as A Problem of Historical Epistemology,
Cuneiform Digital Library Journal 2006.1, at
http://cdli.ucla.edu/pubs/cdlj/2006/cdlj2006_001.html see ON-LINE READING-LIST
Davies, W.V. Egyptian Hieroglyphs. London 1987 EGYPTOLOGY V 8 DAV
22
Gardiner, A. Egyptian Grammar, 3rd edition, Oxford 1957, Introduction C. Brief
History of Egyptian Philology, pp.10-18 EGYPTOLOGY V 5 GAR and ON-LINE
READING-LIST
Goldwasser, O. Prophets, lovers and giraffes: wor(l)d classification in ancient Egypt.
Wiesbaden 2002 EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS V 7 GOL and ON-LINE READING-LIST
for preview
Houston, S. (ed.) The first writing: script invention as history and process, Cambridge
2004, especially the articles by Trigger and Baines INST ARCH GC HOU
Iversen, E. The myth of Egypt and its hieroglyphs in European tradition. Copenhagen
1961 EGYPTOLOGY A 8 IVE
Pope, M. The story of decipherment: from Egyptian hieroglyphs to Maya script.
London 1999 INST ARCH GB POP
Postgate, J., T. Wang, and T. Wilkinson, The Evidence for Early Writing: Utilitarian or
Ceremonial? In Antiquity 69, 1995, no. 264, pp.459-80. INST ARCH PERS and ONLINE READING-LIST
Sauer, E. Archaeology and Ancient History, London and New York 2004, Part I, pp.145 MAIN LIBRARY ANCIENT HISTORY A 8 SAU
Schenkel, W. Schrift D. Wiederentdeckung und Entzifferung. In Lexikon der
Ägyptologie V, Wiesbaden 1984, cols.728-735 EGYPTOLOGY A 2 LEX
9. Time-space blocks: ‘centre, region, periphery’ 11.12.15
In this seminar, we discuss accepted breaks within the unit of long duration ‘Ancient
Egypt’. The main criterion for sub-division has been political unity of the territory from
First Cataract to Mediterranean. Periods with one king have been named ‘Kingdoms’,
separated by ‘Intermediate Periods’ with evidence for more than one king at one
time. Arguably this approach has skewed perceptions and research, reinforcing
assumptions of linear progress or cycles of rise and fall. This implicit ideology in our
time-blocks of ‘Ancient Egypt’ might be rethought through a new definition of regions
within its territory. Here the Gramsci conception of interrelating economic regions
may be useful, as Peter Gran discussed for more recent history of Upper Egypt.
Another approach might be to translate this Egyptian history into a series of
successive language-communities – language unrecorded (prehistory), Egyptian,
Greek, Arabic. Other researchers would assign precedence to material culture, or, as
Michael Rowlands proposes, retrieve an earlier ethnological category, the Culture
Zone (Kulturkreis). Ancient Egyptian categories of time may also be used to contest
modern time-lines, and reconnect the discussion of individual artefacts with broader
settings of festival and offering in both domestic and monumental settings.
Comparison of results from such different bases may help remove assumptions
of linear progress, and encourage more open thinking on the questions of historical
change. Objects from the periods identified as epoch-breaking can also encourage
greater specificity in articulating criteria for periodisation. Material from al-Araba alMadfuna (Abdju/Abydos) is introduced into this debate over the way we see history
within ‘ancient Egypt’.
Essential:
Flammini, R. Ancient core-periphery interactions: Lower Nubia during Middle
Kingdom Egypt (ca.2050-1640 BC). In Journal of World-Systems Research 14, 2008,
pp.48-71 link from ON-LINE READING-LIST
23
Rowlands, M. Centre and periphery. Review of a concept, In M. Rowlands, M. Larsen
and K. Kristiansen (eds.), Centre and Periphery in the Ancient World, Cambridge
1987, pp.1-11 ISSUE DESK ROW 3 and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Further reading:
Critical theory and archaeological discussions:
Benjamin, W. Theses on the Philosophy of History, in W. Benjamin, Illuminations
(translations by H. Zohn), London 1973, 255-265 [written 1940, published 1942]
MAIN LIBRARY LITERATURE A 6 BEN and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Terrell, J. Archaeology, Language, and History. Essays on culture and ethnicity,
Westport Conn. 2001, Introduction pp.1-10 SCIENCE LIBRARY ANTHROPOLOGY
C6 TER
Trigger, B. A history of archaeological thought, 2nd edition, Cambridge 2006, pp.241278, 311-313 on culture-historical archaeology ISSUE DESK IOA TRI 2 and AG TRI
Egyptological periodization - including “Intermediate Periods”:
Allen, J. Coffin texts from Lisht. In H. Willems (ed.), The world of the coffin texts,
Leiden 1996, pp.1-15 EGYPTOLOGY V 50 WIL - combining ceramic studies, coffin
typology, and political historical background for the periodisation of material culture
Jansen-Winkeln, K. Relative chronology of Dyn.21. In E. Hornung (ed.), Ancient
Egyptian Chronology, Leiden 2006, pp.218-233 EGYPTOLOGY B10 HOR
Redford, D. Pharaonic king-lists, annals, and day-books: a contribution to the study
of the Egyptian sense of history. Mississauga 1986 EGYPTOLOGY B 20 RED
Ryholt, K. The political situation in Egypt during the second intermediate period, c.
1800-1550 B.C, Copenhagen 1997 EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS B 12 RYH
Seidlmayer, S. The relative chronology of the First Intermediate Period. In E.
Hornung (ed.), Ancient Egyptian Chronology, Leiden 2006, pp.159-167
EGYPTOLOGY B10 HOR
Shaw, I. (ed.), The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, New York 2000, bibliographic
essays pp.447-472 ISSUE DESK IOA SHA 5 and EGYPTOLOGY B 5 SHA
Spalinger, A. Chronology and Periodization, in: D. Redford (ed.), The Oxford
Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt Volume 1, Oxford 2001, pp.264-268. EGYPTOLOGY
A 2 OXF and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Regions and peoples:
Gran, P. Upper Egypt in modern history: a 'Southern Question'? in N. Hopkins and R.
Saad (eds.), Upper Egypt, identity and change, Cairo 2004, pp.79-96 EGYPTOLOGY
B 6 HOP
Lewis, M. Elusive Societies: A Regional-Cartographical Approach to the Study of
Human Relatedness, in Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 81,
1991, pp. 605-626 ON-LINE READING-LIST
MacEachern, S. Setting the boundaries: linguistics, ethnicity, colonialism, and
archaeology south of Lake Chad. In Terrell, J. Archaeology, Language, and History.
Essays on culture and ethnicity, Westport Conn. 2001, pp.79-101 SCIENCE
LIBRARY ANTHROPOLOGY C6 TER and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Marcus. E. Venice on the Nile? On the maritime character of Tell el-Dab`a/Avaris. In
E. Czerny et al. (eds.) Timelines. Studies in Honour of Manfred Bietak. Brussels
2006, vol.II, pp.187-190 DBA 100 Qto CZE
24
Rowlands, M. Chapter 4 The Unity of Africa. In O'Connor,D., Reid,R. (ed.) Ancient
Egypt in Africa. London 2003, pp.55-77 ISSUE DESK IOA OCO and EGYPTOLOGY
B 20 OCO
On Ancient Egyptian conceptions of time:
Hornung, E. Introduction. In E. Hornung (ed.), Ancient Egyptian Chronology, Leiden
2006, pp.1-16 EGYPTOLOGY B10 HOR for ancient Egyptian writings on material
existence over time
Kemp, B. Outlying temples at Amarna. In Amarna Reports VI. London1995, 411-461
EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E 45 KEM and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Neugebauer, O. and R. Parker, Egyptian Astronomical Texts vols.I-II, London 1960,
1969 EGYPTOLOGY SMALL FOLIOS S 10 NEU
Roberts, A. Hathor Rising. The serpent power of ancient Egypt, Totnes 1995, pp.816, notes on p.173 EGYPTOLOGY R 5 ROB
Roeten, L. Some observations on the nhh and d.t "eternity". In Göttinger Miszellen
201, 2004, pp.69-78 INST ARCH PERS
On Festivals:
El-Sabban, S. Temple Festival Calendars of Ancient Egypt, Liverpool 2000
EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS R5 ELS
Schott, S. Altägyptische Festdaten. Wiesbaden1950 EGYPTOLOGY S 5 SCH
Spalinger, A. Egyptian festival dating and the moon. In J. Steele and A. Imhausen
(eds.) Under One Sky. Astronomy and mathematics in the ancient Near East. Alter
Orient und Altes Testament 297. Münster 2002, pp.379-403 SCIENCE LIBRARY
HISTORY OF SCIENCE B10 STE
Spalinger, A. Some remarks on the epagomenal days in ancient Egypt. In Journal of
Near Eastern Studies 54, 1995, pp.33-47 link from ON-LINE READING-LIST
Walsem, R. van. "Month-Names and Feasts at Deir el-Medina." In R. Demarée and
J. Janssen (eds.) Gleanings from Deir el-Medina, Leiden 1982, pp.215-44
EGYPTOLOGY B 12 DEM
Digital Egypt for Universities page summarising Schott 1950:
http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/ideology/festivaldates.html
Discussions on historical change in Egypt, museums in periodization, and a
border-line object:
Adams, B. Dish of delight and coleoptera. In A. Leahy and J. Tait (eds.), Studies on
ancient Egypt in honour of H S Smith, 2000, pp.1-9 EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS A 6
LEA and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Reid, D. Whose Pharaohs? Berkeley 2002, pp.103-107, 159-163, 237-239, 275-278
EGYPTOLOGY A8 REI (5 copies)
Sijpestein, P. New rule over old structures: Egypt after the Muslim Conquest. In H.
Crawford, Regime change in the ancient Near East and Egypt, Oxford, 2007, pp.183200 DBA 200 CRA and ON-LINE READING-LIST
10. Grand narrative? Bronze Age and Iron Age in Egypt. 18.12.15
Older grand narratives focussed on technology and production have yielded in recent
decades to research into consumer webs, as part of a general rejection of unilinear
25
accounts of historical change. Yet, in the background, ‘base metal’ technology seems
to endure as a global and unilinear narrative, although its vocabulary of Copper,
Bronze, Iron Ages has never been adopted in studies limited to ancient Egypt.
In this seminar, artefacts of one material are selected to form the diachronic axis
of a time-line, as snapshots from an historical line of material production and
consumption. From one period, several artefacts of different quality are selected to
illustrate the synchronic axis of any time-line of production, varying at any period from
fine to coarse. Together the double axis provide the basis for analysis under the
headings of ideation, execution, circulation, use and deposit. The artificial material
variously called “Egyptian faience” or “glazed composition” underwent specific
changes in production over time, related to fineness of the core paste and to forms
and colours in use, and can therefore serve as an alternative material history against
which to consider the Three Ages.
Essential:
Shaw, T. et al. Theme 1: terminology. In T. Shaw et al., The Archaeology of Africa.
Food, metals and towns, London and New York 1993, pp.3-8 ISSUE DESK IOA SHA
6 and DC 100 SHA and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Sherratt, A. Reviving the Grand Narrative: archaeology and long-term change. The
second David L. Clarke memorial lecture. 1995 INST ARCH 3595 [Teaching
Collection] and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Further reading:
1. history and theory
Benjamin, W. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. In
Illuminations, New York 1968, pp. 217-251 MAIN LIBRARY LITERATURE A 6 BEN
and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Borić, D. The House between Grand Narratives and Microhistories: A House Society
in the Balkans, in R. A. Beck, Jr. (ed.) The Durable House: House Society Models in
Archaeology: pp. 97-129. Carbondale: Center for Archaeological Investigations,
Occasional Paper No. 35, 2007, pp.97-129 INST ARCH KO BEC
Bourriau, J. The beginnings of amphora production in Egypt, in J. Bourriau and J.
Phillips (eds.), Invention and innovation: the Social Context of Technological Change:
2, Egypt, the Aegean and the Near East, 1650-1150 BC, Oxford 2004, Chapter 5,
pp.78-95 DBA 100 BOU and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Wengrow, D. Prehistories of commodity branding. Current Anthropology 49.1, 2008
SCIENCE LIBRARY ANTHROPOLOGY PERS and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Winlock, H. The Monastery of Epiphanius at Thebes. Part 1. The archaeological
material, New York 1926, Chapter 3. Trades and occupations at the monastery, as
shown by the excavations, pp.51-97, especially historical reflections at pp.96-97
EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E 50 WIN and ON-LINE READING-LIST
2. archaeology: faience as case-study
Friedman, F. Gifts of the Nile: ancient Egyptian faience, London 1998
EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS M 20 FRI
Nicholson, P. Kiln excavations at P47.20 (house of Ramose complex). In B. Kemp
(ed.), Amarna Reports VI, London 1995, pp.226-238 EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E
45 KEM
Nicholson, P. and E. Peltenberg. Egyptian Faience. In P. Nicholson and I. Shaw
(eds.), Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology, Cambridge 2000, pp.177-224
26
INST ARCH K QUARTOS NIC and EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS S 5 NIC and ONLINE READING-LIST
Shortland, A. and M. Tite (eds.), Production Technology of Faience and Related
Early Vitreous Materials, Oxford 2006, pp.23-29 (Bouquillon, Glazed steatite), pp.3744, 47-48 (Vandiver, Raw materials and fabrication methods used in the production
of faience), pp.57-60 (Kaczmarczyk and Vandiver, Faience production in Egypt),
pp.147-151 (Hatton, Production of Egyptian blue and green frits), 208-209
(Conclusion) INST ARCH KJ TIT
For faience of different periods in the Petrie Museum collections:
http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/faience/periods.html
11. Moving to the city: Lahun. 15.1.16
Introduction to Lahun
The site-plan published by Flinders Petrie from the 1889 clearance of the Middle
Kingdom town near al-Lahun provides, together with writing from the site, a
populated architecture to focus discussion.
Studies of ancient Egypt remain undecided over fundamental questions of the form of
its economy, and changes over time; some consider the ancient lower Nile state or
kingship as a mainly redistributive centralised economy, while others assign a greater
or even preponderant role to private wealth. A central issue is land ownership,
introducing the local level, our focus for this quarter of the course, by asking whether
the farmers owned the land they tilled. From Syrian evidence, Carlo Zaccagnini
sought to define one historical phase of dual economy, with palace cities set in and
against the surrounding regions of food-supplying villages. For the issue of urbanism
in ancient Egypt, we consider in this seminar the qualities of urban settlement in its
difference from surrounding villages, taking into account the variety of regions and
periods in our history of the lower Nile, as discussed in the previous seminars.
Can we apply the Zaccagnini analysis convincingly to the Old Kingdom, and then to
the Middle Kingdom? Or are regional cities already in a different relation to local
villages in those periods?
Historians have identified certain activities as criteria for defining city against
village. Lahun finds are examined for evidence of those activities, as a practical
measure to define Lahun in the city-village spectrum.
Core question for this seminar: Lahun – city or village?
Essential:
Eyre, C. The Village Economy in Pharaonic Egypt. In A. Bowman and E. Rogan
(eds.), Agriculture in Egypt: From Pharaonic to Modern Times, Oxford 1999, pp. 3360 EGYPTOLOGY S 5 BOW and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Hassan, F. Town and village in ancient Egypt: ecology, society and urbanization. In
T. Shaw, et al. (eds.), The Archaeology of Africa. Food, metals and towns, London
and New York 1993, pp.551-569 ISSUE DESK IOA SHA 6 and DC 100 SHA and
ON-LINE READING-LIST
27
Further reading:
Theory and history:
Crehan, K. Gramsci, Culture and anthropology, London 2002, chapter 5. Subaltern
Culture, pp.98-127 SCIENCE LIBRARY ANTHROPOLOGY D 12 CRE and SSEES
LIBRARY Misc.XVIII GRA CRE
Janssen, J. Prolegoumena to the Study of Egypt's Economic History during the New
Kingdom. Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur 3 (1975), pp.127-85 INST ARCH PERS
and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Morris, I. and J. Manning, Introduction. In I. Morris and J. Manning, The ancient
economy: evidence and models, Stanford 2005, pp.1-44 ANCIENT HISTORY A 64
MAN and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Trigger, B. A history of archaeological thought, 2nd edition, Cambridge 2006, pp.104105 and 121-133 on the Three Ages combined with ‘Closed Finds’ ISSUE DESK IOA
TRI 2 and AG TRI for importance of assessing documentation for each find, a
particular problem for the excavation history of Lahun
Zaccagnini, C. Asiatic mode of production and ancient Near East. Notes towards a
discussion. In C. Zaccagnini (ed.), Production and consumption. Essays collected by
C. Zaccagnini, Budapest 1989, pp.1-56 with nn. on pp.99-114 STORE 01-07675
Town and town-houses in Egyptian archaeology:
Bietak (ed.), House and palace in ancient Egypt. Vienna, 1996 EGYPTOLOGY
QUARTOS K 6 BIE
Doyen, F. La residence d'Elite: un type de structure dans l'organisation spatiale
urbaine du Moyen Empire. In M. Bietak and E. Czerny, Cities and Urbanism in
Ancient Egypt, Vienna 2010, pp.81-101 EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS B 20 BIE
Kemp, B. Temple and Town in Ancient Egypt. In P. Ucko, R. Tringham and G.
Dimbleby (eds.) Man, Settlement and Urbanism, London 1972, pp.657-80 ISSUE
DESK IOA UCK 4 and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Lehner, M. Villages and the Old Kingdom. In W. Wendrichs (ed.), Egyptian
Archaeology, Malden MA and Oxford 2010, pp.85-101 EGYPTOLOGY A 6 WEN
Müller, M. (ed.), Household studies in complex societies: (micro) archaeological and
textual approaches. Chicago 2015 ON-LINE READING-LIST
Shaw, I. Egyptian Patterns of Urbanism : a Comparison of Three New Kingdom
Settlement Sites. In C. Eyre (ed.), Proceedings of the seventh International Congress
of Egyptologists; Cambridge, 3-9 September 1995, OLA 82, Leuven 1998, 1049 –
1060 ISSUE DESK IOA INT 1
Land-owning in Egyptian archaeology:
Allen, J. The Heqanakht Papyri. New York 2002 ISSUE DESK IOA ALL 1
Baer, K. The Low Price of Land in Ancient Egypt. Journal of the American Research
Center in Egypt 1 (1962), pp.25-45 INST ARCH PERS and ON-LINE READINGLIST
Katary, S. L. D. Land Tenure in the New Kingdom: The Role of Women, Smallholders
and the Military. In A. Bowman and E. Rogan (eds.), Agriculture in Egypt: From
Pharaonic to Modern Times, Oxford 1999, pp.61-82 EGYPTOLOGY S 5 BOW
Spalinger, A. J. Some Revisions of Temple Endowments in the New Kingdom. In
Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 28, 1991, pp.21-40 INST ARCH
PERS and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Warburton, D. Ancient Egypt: a monolithic state in a polytheistic market economy. In
M. Fitzenreiter, Das Heilige und die Ware. Zum Spannungsfeld von Religion und
28
Ökonomie, London 2007, pp.79-94 EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS R6 FIT and ON-LINE
READING-LIST
Lahun:
Gallorini, C. Reconstruction of Petrie's excavation at the Middle Kingdom settlement
of Kahun, in S.Quirke, Lahun Studies, Reigate 1998, pp.42-59 EGYPTOLOGY
QUARTOS E 100 QUI
Digital Egypt for Universities page linking plan of the Lahun Middle Kingdom town:
http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/lahun/town/index.html
12. Social class and structural constraints. 22.1.16
In this seminar we discuss the possibilities of assessing different life chances in
ancient Egypt, between wealthier and poorer in society.
Idealism and realism
Egyptology has offered both idealised and critical accounts of social life, but calls on
limited if wide-ranging sources. Ancient Egyptian writings on kingship emphasise the
role of the ruler in providing justice and offerings, notably in a remarkable
composition that its first modern editor Jan Assmann called ‘The King as Priest of the
Sun’. The claims of this composition can be compared with evidence for justice in
specific cases as recorded in manuscript and inscription, and with the more diffuse
evidence for social mobility and social divisions in the archaeological record. Ancient
wording of the contrast of ruler and worker is exemplified through one Middle
Egyptian literary composition, known in Egyptology as the Loyalist Instruction; this
starts as a hymn to the ruler, before abruptly inserting paternalistic concern for labour
as the source of all wealth. Another literary composition, the Teaching of Khety, is
also known in Egyptology as the Satire of Trades, for its harsh contrast of officialdom
and manual labour. Documents from labour mobilisation, perhaps for the construction
of the pyramid complex at Hawara, anchor the discussion in more specific timespaces, the town at al-Lahun as recorded by Petrie.
Essential:
Shennan, S. The development of rank societies. In G. Barker and A. Grant (eds.),
Companion Encyclopaedia of Archaeology, London 1999, pp.870-907 AH BAR and
ON-LINE READING-LIST
The tale of Khuninpu: synopsis and excerpt on Digital Egypt for Universities page:
http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/literature/midegsummaries.html#khuninpu
Further reading:
Theory and history:
Grajetzki, W. Class and society: position and possessions. In W. Wendrichs (ed.),
Egyptian Archaeology, Malden MA and Oxford 2010, pp.180-199 EGYPTOLOGY A 6
WEN
Mitchell, T. Rule of experts: Egypt, techno-politics, modernity, Berkeley 2002, chapter
5 Nobody listens to a poor man, pp.153-178 with nn. on pp.337-344 SCIENCE
LIBRARY ANTHROPOLOGY QF 28 MIT this offers a modern setting for the ancient
Egyptian Tale of Khuninpu
29
Ancient written sources – administrative and literary writings:
Boorn, G. P. F. van den. The Duties of the Vizier: Civil Administration in the Early
New Kingdom. London 1988 EGYPTOLOGY B 12 BOO
Enmarch, R. A world upturned: commentary on and analysis of The dialogue of
Ipuwer and the Lord of All, Oxford 2008 EGYPTOLOGY V 50 ENM
Hayes, W. A Papyrus of the Late Middle Kingdom in the Brooklyn Museum. Brooklyn
1955 EGYPTOLOGY T 20 HAY
Ancient written sources – legal documents:
Lorton, D. The Treatment of Criminals in the Ancient World. Journal of the Economic
and Social History of the Orient 20 (1977), pp.2-64 ON-LINE READING-LIST
McDowell, A. Jurisdiction in the Workmen's Community of Deir el-Medina. Leiden
1990 EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS B 20 MCD
Philip-Stéphan, A. Dire le droit en Égypte pharaonique: contribution à l’étude des
structures et mécanismes juridictionnels jusqu’au Nouvel Empire, Brussels 2008
EGYPTOLOGY B 20 PHI
Théodoridès, A. The Concept of Law in Ancient Egypt. In J. Harris (ed.), The Legacy
of Egypt, 2nd ed., Oxford 1971, pp.291-322 EGYPTOLOGY A 5 HAR and ON-LINE
READING-LIST
Archaeological evidence:
Seidlmayer, S. People at Beni Hasan. In Z. Hawass, J. Richards (eds.), The Art and
Archaeology of Ancient Egypt. Essays in Honor of David B. O’Connor, Cairo 2007,
vol.2, pp.351-368
Shortland, A. The tale of a fish: a foreign glass maker at Amarna? In A. Shortland, I.
Freestone, T. Rehren (eds.), From mine to microscope: studies in ancient
technology, Oxford 2009, pp.109-114 IOA K SHO A ‘rich’ object found in a ‘poor’
context: useful example for testing assumptions over ancient life chances
13. Institutions of unity and division: writing power. 29.1.16
Writing has been credited variously with consolidating and undermining political
power. As a largely philological discipline, Egyptology has tended to assume a
literate sphere as normative, resulting in remarkably little research into literacy over
time. The absence of theoretical diachronic study of writing has been compounded
by the lack of links with the growing fields of history of the book, and cultural studies.
This seminar considers the writing material from Lahun are considered within a
global history of communications technologies, in which creeping literacy has been a
major ambivalent or dialectical force. The question of female literacy will be a focal
point for discussion.
Essential:
1. the Egyptological application of the 'Great Divide' thesis of Ong
Baines, J. Literacy and Ancient Egyptian society. In Man New Series 18.3, 1983,
pp.572-599 ON-LINE READING-LIST
2. a medievalist critique of the 'Great Divide' thesis
Coleman, J. Public reading and the reading public in late medieval England and
France, Cambridge 1996, ch.1, On beyond Ong: the bases of a revised theory of
30
orality and literacy, pp.1-33 MAIN LIBRARY LITERATURE A 10.3 COL and ON-LINE
READING-LIST
Further reading:
Theory and history:
Chartier, R. The practical impact of writing. Reprint in D. Finkelstein and A. McCleery
(eds.), The Book History Reader, London 2006 LIBRARIANSHIP D 6 FIN from P.
Ariès and G. Duby (eds.), A history of private life, 3, Passions of the Renaissance,
Cambridge Mass. 1982 HISTORY 82 cu ARI and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Collins, J. Literacy and literacies: texts, power, and identity. Cambridge 2003. See
especially Chapter 2. The literacy thesis: vexed questions of rationality, development
and self; and Chapter 6. Literacy, power, and identity: colonial legacies and
indigenous transformations INST ARCH GC COL)
Crehan, K. Gramsci, Culture and anthropology, London 2002, chapter 6. Intellectuals
and the Production of Culture, pp.128-161, especially 131-137 SCIENCE LIBRARY
ANTHROPOLOGY D 12 CRE and SSEES LIBRARY Misc.XVIII GRA CRE
Loprieno, A. Is the Egyptian hieroglyphic determinative chosen or prescribed? In L.
Morra and C. Bazzanella (eds.) Philosophers and Hieroglyphs, Turin 2003, pp.237250 EGYPTOLOGY V 5 MOR
Ancient Egyptian signs - potmarks, mark lists, hieroglyphs:
Aston, D. Theban Potmarks - Nothing Other than Funny Signs? Potmarks from Deir
el-Medina and the Valley of the Kings. In B. Haring and O. Kaper (eds.), Pictograms
or pseudo script? Non-textual identity marks in practical use in ancient Egypt and
elsewhere; proceedings of a conference in Leiden, 19 - 20 December 2006,
Egyptologische uitgaven 25, Leiden 2009, 49 – 65 EGYPTOLOGY T 6 HAR
Gallorini, C. Incised marks on pottery and other objects from Kahun. In B. Haring and
O. Kaper (eds.), Pictograms or pseudo script? Non-textual identity marks in practical
use in ancient Egypt and elsewhere; proceedings of a conference in Leiden, 19 - 20
December 2006, Egyptologische uitgaven 25, Leiden 2009, 107 – 142 for the Lahun
potmark corpus EGYPTOLOGY T 6 HAR
Egyptological discussions of writing practice and training:
Berlev, O. Bureaucrats. In S. Donadoni (ed.), The Egyptians, Chicago 1997, pp.87119 EGYPTOLOGY B 20 DON and see ON-LINE READING-LIST for Google Books
link (complete as consulted 23.9.2013)
Heel, K. D. van and B. Haring (eds.), Writing in a workmen's village: scribal practice
in Ramesside Deir el-Medina, Leiden 2003 EGYPTOLOGY B 20 HEE
Janssen, J. Literacy and letters at Deir el-Medina. In R. Demaree and A. Egberts
(eds.), Village Voices, Leiden 1992, pp.81-91 (without appendix pp.91-94)
EGYPTOLOGY V 50 DEM
Roccati, A. Scribes. In S. Donadoni (ed.), The Egyptians, Chicago 1997, pp.61-85
EGYPTOLOGY B 20 DON and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Shubert, S. Does she or doesn’t she? female literacy in ancient Egypt. In
Proceedings of the Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations Graduate Students’ Annual
Symposia 1998-2000, Toronto 2001, pp.55-76 DBA 100 NEA
Smith, S. T. Literacy and administration in the Middle Kingdom. In B. Gratien, Le
Sceau et l'Administration dans la Vallée du Nil; Cahiers de Recherches de l'Institut
de Papyrologie et d'Égyptologie de Lille 22, 2001, pp.173 – 194 INST ARCH PERS
31
Williams, R. J. Scribal Training in Ancient Egypt. Journal of the American Oriental
Society 92 (1972): 214-221 ON-LINE READING-LIST
Zinn, K. Libraries and archives: the organization of collective wisdom in Ancient
Egypt. In M. Cannata (ed.), Current research in Egyptology 7, Oxford 2007, p.169176 EGYPTOLOGY A 6 CAN and ON-LINE READING-LIST
On the precise find locations of papyri from Lahun:
Collier, M. and S. Quirke, The UCL Lahun Papyri: Accounts, Oxford 2006, pp. 2-5
EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS T 20 UCL
14. Ethnicity at local level. (British Museum visit) 5.2.16
Within societies, smaller groups of varying geographical origin are marked as
different in a range of ways by themselves or by the larger group, sometimes visible
in a wide range of archaeological evidence, sometimes only visible in written records,
sometimes invisible. The life of such groups in Egypt has received variable research
attention, in response to that uneven evidence base.
A people called Medjay in Middle and New Kingdom writing seem to correspond in
geographical origin, time-span and rate of acculturation, to a material cultural
grouping known since Petrie as the Pan-Grave culture, perhaps nomads from the
deserts east of Nubia. However, material and written evidence is dangerously easy to
correlate, concealing the likely historical complexity behind an archaeological record.
The Libyans in Egypt have tended to present more the problem of invisibility, before
and after rulers from western desert nomad groups took power as kings in the Nile
Valley and Delta.
Though fragmentary, the written evidence from Lahun is abundant enough to be
contrasted with the other material found on the site, forming the focus of discussion
in the second part of this seminar.
Essential:
Bourriau, J. Relations between Egypt and Kerma during the Middle and the New
Kingdoms, in W.V. Davies (ed.), Egypt and Africa, Nubia from Prehistory to Islam,
London 1991, pp.129-144 EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS B 60 DAV and ON-LINE
READING-LIST
Cheal, C. The meaning of skin colour in Eighteenth Dynasty Egypt. In C. FluehrLobban and K. rhodes (eds.), Race and Identity in the Nile Valley: ancient and
modern perspectives, Trenton and Asmara 2004, pp.47-69 EGYPTOLOGY B 20 FLU
and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Further reading:
Theory and history:
Díaz-Andreu, M. The archaeology of identity: approaches to gender, age, status,
ethnicity and religion, London and New York 2005 especially Sam Lucy on Ethnic
and cultural identities, pp.86-109 AH DIA
Jones, S. The archaeology of ethnicity: constructing identities in the past and
present, London and New York 1997 ISSUE DESK IOA JON 6 and BD JON
32
Archaeological studies of ethnic groups in ancient Egypt:
Ben-Tor, D. The relations between Egypt and Palestine in the Middle Kingdom as
reflected by contemporary Canaanite scarabs. Israel Exploration Journal 47, 1997,
pp. 162-189 INST ARCH PERS
Fitton, L., M. Hughes and S. Quirke. Northerners at Lahun: neutron activation
analysis of the Minoan and related pottery in the British Museum. In S. Quirke (ed.),
Lahun Studies, Reigate 1998, pp.112-140 EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E 100 QUI
and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Giuliani, S. Nubian evidence in Hierakonpolis. In I. Caneva and A. Roccati (eds.),
Acta Nubica. Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference of Nubian Studies,
Rome 2006, pp. 223 – 227 EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E 120 CAN
Lilyquist, C. Mayana K 1300 at Sedment el-Gebel: Traces of Ethnicity. In D. Magee,
J. Bourriau, S. Quirke (eds.), Sitting Beside Lepsius. Studies in Honour of Jaromir
Malek at the Griffith Institute, OLA 185, Leuven, Paris, Walpole, MA 2009, pp. 289313 EGYPTOLOGY A 6 MAL
O’Connor, D. The nature of Tjemhu (Libyan) society in later New Kingdom Egypt. In
A. Leahy (ed.), Libya and Egypt c.1300-750 BC, London 1990, pp.29-114
EGYPTOLOGY B 20 LEA and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Ritner, R. Fragments and Re-Integration in the Third Intermediate Period. In G.
Broekman et al. (eds.), The Libyan Period in Egypt: Historical and Cultural Studies
into the 21st - 24th Dynasties, Leiden 2009, 327 – 340 EGYPTOLOGY B12 BRO
Saleh, H. Investigating ethnic and gender identities as expressed on wooden
funerary stelae from the Libyan Period (c. 1069 - 715 B.C.E.) in Egypt, Oxford 2007
especially pp.25-30 Representation of ethnicity and gender on the wooden funerary
stelae, pp.51-57 On the question of ethnicity EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS M 20 SAL
Schneider, T. Foreigners in Egypt: archaeological evidence and cultural context. In
W. Wendrichs (ed.), Egyptian Archaeology, Malden MA and Oxford 2010, pp.143163 EGYPTOLOGY A 6 WEN
Smith, S. Wretched Kush: ethnic identities and boudaries in Egypt’s Nubian empire,
London 2003 EGYPTOLOGY B 60 SMI
Sparks, R. A Series of Middle Bronze Age Bowls with Ram's-Head Handles from the
Jordan Valley, Mediterranean Archaeology 4, 1991, pp.45-54 INST ARCH PERS and
ON-LINE READING-LIST
Sparks, R. Canaan in Egypt: archaeological evidence for a social phenomenon. In J.
Bourriau and J. Phillips (eds.), Invention and innovation: the Social Context of
Technological Change: 2, Egypt, the Aegean and the Near East, 1650-1150 BC,
Oxford 2004, Chapter 3, pp.25-54 DBA 100 BOU and ON-LINE READING-LIST
15. Trade and Empire: local impact. 12.2.16
Trading and military expeditions from one region into another can be explored at the
local horizon of the despatching region, as well as the interregional impact. For
second millennium BC Egypt, such expeditions towards the outside world are wellattested in the archaeological, including the contemporary written, record. These
sources have specific contexts that can radically alter interpretation, as in the use of
the funerary record for reconstructions of social life. Evidence for expeditions in the
other direction, into Egypt, is more limited, leading to an imbalance in modern
readings. Translations of technical terms in ancient inscriptions have compounded
misunderstanding, above all in the use of the English word ‘tribute’ to translate
33
ancient Egyptian words. Linking back to the discussion of global and regional history,
and summarising the discussions on local life, this seminar addresses the impact of
interregional/’international’ contact, including the arrival of forced labour from
overseas, at Middle Kingdom Lahun.
Essential:
1. archaeological record of material transfers in MBA
Wengrow, D. The voyages of Europa: ritual and trade in the Eastern Mediterranean,
c.2300-1850 BC. In W. Parkinson and M. Galaty (eds.), Archaic state interaction: the
eastern Mediterranean in the Bronze Age: interaction in the Eastern Mediterranean
and Southeastern Europe during the Bronze Age, Santa Fe, 2010 ISSUE DESK IOA
PAR 10 and ON-LINE READING-LIST
2. interpreting words: inw = 'tribute'?
Spalinger, A. From local to global. The extension of an Egyptian bureaucratic term to
the Empire. In Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur 23, 1996, pp.353-376 INST ARCH
PERS
Further reading:
Old and Middle Kingdom Egypt
Marcus, E. Amenemhet II and the sea: maritime aspects of the Mit Rahina (Memphis)
inscription. In Ägypten und Levante 17, 2007, pp.137-190 INST ARCH PERS
Wegner, J. Regional control in Middle Kingdom Lower Nubia. The function and
history of the site of Areika. In Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 32,
1995, pp.127-160 INST ARCH PERS and ON-LINE READING-LIST
New Kingdom Egypt
Aruz, J. et al. (eds.), Beyond Babylon: art, trade, and diplomacy in the second
millennium B.C., New York 2008 DBA 300 Qto ARU
Bader, B. Contacts between Egypt and Syria-Palestine as seen in a grown
settlement of the late Middle Kingdom at Tell el-Daba/Egypt. In J. Mynarova (ed.),
Egypt and the Near East - the crossroads, Prague 2011, pp.41-72 INST ARCH DBA
100 MYN
Feldman, M. Diplomacy by Design: Luxury Arts and an "international Style" in the
Ancient Near East, 1400-1200 BCE, Chicago 2006 DBA 100 FEL
Hulin, L. Embracing the new: the perception of Cypriot pottery in Egypt. In D.
Michaelides et al. (eds.), Egypt and Cyprus in Antiquity, Oxford 2009, pp.40-47 INST
ARCH DAG 15 MIC
Liverani, M. International relations in the ancient Near East, 1600-1100 B.C.,
Basingstoke 2001 ANCIENT HISTORY B 61 LIV
Liverani, M. The Near East in the Bronze Age. In J. Manning, and I. Morris (eds.) The
Ancient Economy: Evidence and Models, Stanford 2005, pp.47-57 MAIN LIBRARY
ANCIENT HISTORY A 64 MAN
Merrillees, R. The relative and absolute chronology of the Cypriote White Painted
Pendent Line Style. In Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No.
326, 2002, pp. 1-9 INST ARCH PERS and link from ON-LINE READING-LIST
Moran, W. The Amarna Letters, Baltimore 1992 EGYPTOLOGY B 12 TEL
Sowada, K. Egypt in the eastern mediterranean during the old Kingdom : an
archaeological Perspective, Fribourg / Göttingen 2009, especially 245-255
EGYPTOLOGY B 20 SOW
34
Zaccagnini, C. Aspects of ceremonial exchange in the Near East during the late
second millennium BC, in M. Rowlands, M. Larsen and K. Kristiansen (eds.), Centre
and Periphery in the Ancient World, Cambridge 1987, pp.57-65 ISSUE DESK ROW 3
16. Moving to the individual: Qau and Badari. 26.2.16
The final part of the course considers the horizon of the body, as a physical register
rather than a bounded social atom. One prominent source of information on ancient
individuals, as opposed to couples or groups, has been the separate 'single burial'.
Where a single burial is intact, the location, body treatment and orientation, and
burial goods can provide a date for the person, and so allow us to see them in their
time-space human co-ordinates. Objects from single burials may seem to bring us
closer to the ancient person, than objects from a group burial or a town-site. For each
single burial, the individuality and social context need to be assessed. Nevertheless,
these objects may create the possibility of an encounter between an ancient and a
modern individual, and in the remaining sessions we will explore this possibility in
expressing our own view of object-groups from single burials through the museum
context of labeling for display. This will return us to the starting-point of the course, in
our own social setting and perceptions of ancient others.
For one main store of primary evidence, this seminar introduces the exceptional
archaeological record for the ancient province of Qau (Per-Nemty/ Antaeopolis). The
funerary archaeology of the local town and villages to its north is frequently cited from
the presentation of the evidence by 1920s excavators, and interpretations of their
publications in the last half-century. Using one find-group, this seminar introduces the
finds registers in 1920s publications, and the potential for assessing reliability of the
published archaeological record, as used in studies of ancient Egyptian society.
Essential:
Kemp, B. Dating Pharaonic Cemeteries: Part I: Non-mechanical Aprroaches to
Seriation. In MDAIK 31, 1975, pp.259-291 INST ARCH PERS
O'Connor, D. Political Systems and archaeological data in Egypt. 2600-1780 B.C. In
World Archaeology 6 no. 1 June 1974, pp.15-38 INST ARCH PERS and ON-LINE
READING-LIST
Further reading:
Seidlmayer, S. Wirtschaftliche und gesellschaftliche Entwicklung im Übergang vom
Alten zum Mittleren Reich. Ein Beitrag zur Archäologie der Gräberfelder der Region
Qau-Matmar in der Ersten Zwischenzeit. In J. Assman, G. Burkard, W.V. Davies
(eds.), Problems and Priorities in Egyptian Archaeology, London and New York 1987,
pp.175-217 EGYPTOLOGY E 5 PRO and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Digital Egypt for Universities page for introduction to the site:
http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/qau/index.html
Primary publications:
Brunton, G. Qau and Badari I. London 1927 EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E 30 [44]
Brunton, G. Qau and Badari II. London 1927 COPY IN PETRIE MUSEUM AND ON
MOODLE SITE FOR G200
35
Brunton, G. and G. Caton-Thompson. The Badarian civilisation and predynastic
remains near Badari. London 1928 EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E 30 [46]
Brunton, G. Qau and Badari III. London 1930 EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E 30 [50]
Brunton, G. Mostagedda and the Tasian culture. London 1937 EGYPTOLOGY
QUARTOS E 100 BRU
Brunton, G. Matmar. London 1948 COPY IN PETRIE MUSEUM
17. Age/ class/ gender/ ethnicity in the archaeological record. 6.3.16
A long-standing Egyptological point of entry for the study of social lives has been the
written evidence from Ramesside (13th-12th century BC) craftsmen at Deir el-Medina,
sometimes in combination with the 15th century BC burials at the same site. Under
the joint heading of age and gender, this seminar combines reading of recent reevaluations of evidence from the site, with the earlier findings from the Qau
archaeological record, to explore the instability of social categories of the individual.
Essential:
Gilchrist, R. Gender and archaeology. Contesting the past, London and New York
1999, pp.54-78 Chapter 4 Experiencing gender: identity, sexuality and the body
ISSUE DESK IOA GIL 4 and BD GIL and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Partner, N. No sex, no gender. In B. Fay et el. (eds.), History and theory:
contemporary readings, Malden Mass. and Oxford 1998, pp.268-296 MAIN LIBRARY
HISTORY 6 A FAY and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Further reading:
Theory and History:
Meskell. L. Private life in New Kingdom Egypt. London 2002 EGYPTOLOGY B 20
MES
Wilfong, T. Gender in ancient Egypt. In W. Wendrich (ed.), Egyptian Archaeology,
Malden MA and Oxford 2010, pp.143-163 EGYPTOLOGY A 6 WEN
Archaeological case-studies
Bagh, T. Early Middle Kingdom seals and sealings from Abu Ghalib in the western
Nile Delta – observations. In M. Bietak and E. Czerny, Scarabs of the second
millennium BC from Egypt, Nubia, Crete and the Levant: chronological and historical
implications, Vienna 2004, pp.13-25 EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E 7 BIE
Green, J. Anklets and the social construction of gender and age in the Late Bronze
and Early Iron Age Southern Levant. In S. Hamilton, R. Whitehouse and K. Wright
(eds.), Archaeology and Women. Ancient and modern issues, Walnut Creek 2007,
pp.283-311 ISSUE DESK IOA HAM 3 and BD HAM and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Meskell, L. Archaeologies of Social Life. London 1999, pp.178-183 and 193-195 on
the older woman Madja EGYPTOLOGY B 20 MES
O’Rourke, P. The `m`mt woman. In Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und
Altertumskunde 134, 2007, pp.166-172 INST ARCH PERS
Roth, A. Egyptian Phyles of the Old Kingdom: The Evolution of a System of Social
Organization, Chicago 1991, Initiation: Phyle Membership and Circumcision, pp. 6272 EGYPTOLOGY B 20 ROT and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Roth, A. Little women: gender and hierarchic proportion in Old Kingdom mastaba
chapels. In M. Barta, The Old Kingdom art and archaeology : proceedings of the
36
conference held in Prague, May 31-June 4, 2004, Prague 2006, pp.281-296
EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS B 12 BAR and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Sweeney, D. Forever young? The representation of older and ageing women in
ancient Egyptian art. In Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 41, 2004,
pp.67-84 INST ARCH PERS and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Sweeney, D. Women growing older in Deir el-Medina. In A. Dorn and I. Hofmann
(eds.), Living and Writing in Deir el-Medina, 2006, pp.135-160 EGYPTOLOGY
QUARTOS A6 DOR
Letters to the Dead:
Leithy, H. el- Letters to the Dead in Ancient and Modern Egypt. In Z Hawass (ed.),
Egyptology at the dawn of the twenty-first century, Cairo 2003, pp.304-313
EGYPTOLOGY A 6 CON
Digital Egypt for Universities page for two Letters to the Dead in the Petrie Museum:
http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/literature/religious/lettersdead.html
18. Individual agency with different abilities. 13.3.16
The focus on individual agency, characteristic of much archaeological theory, risks
imposing Eurocentric categories and assumptions from one economic system. The
varying abilities of each individual within localised social reception require of the
researcher a flexible and responsive approach, where the classificatory impulse of
theory may always burden and often block a human dialogue. In this seminar we
consider human response to pain and danger as temporal points of connection or
disconnection. From late third millennium BC Qau burials, amulets associated with
menarchy are introduced to set focus for the discussion.
Essential:
Wendrichs, W. Entangled, connected or protected? The power of knots and knotting
in ancient Egypt. In K. Szpakowska (ed.), Through a glass darkly. Magic, dreams and
prophecy in ancient Egypt, Swansea 2006, pp.243-269 EGYPTOLOGY B 20 SZP
and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Further reading:
Allen, J. The art of medicine in ancient Egypt, New York 2005 EGYPTOLOGY
QUARTOS S 5 ALL
Graf, F. How to Cope with a Difficult Life. A View of Ancient Magic. In P. Schäfer and
H. Kippenberg (eds.), Envisioning magic: a Princeton seminar and symposium,
Leiden 1997, pp.93-114 MAIN LIBRARY HEBREW W 510 SCH
Kousoulis, P. Spell III of the Metternich Stela: Magic, Religion and Medicine as a
Unity, in Göttinger Miszellen 190, 2002, pp.53-63 INST ARCH PERS
Nordh, K. Aspects of ancient Egyptian curses and blessings: conceptual background
and transmission, Uppsala 1996 EGYPTOLOGY R 5 NOR
Ritner, R. The mechanics of ancient Egyptian magical practice, Chicago 1993
EGYPTOLOGY R 5 RIT
Ritner, R. Religion vs. Magic. The Evidence of the Magical Statue Bases. In U. Luft
The Intellectual Heritage of Egypt. Studies Presented to László Kákosy by Friends
and Colleagues on the Occasion of his 60th Birthday, Budapest 1992, pp.495-501
EGYPTOLOGY A 6 KAK
37
Sweeney, D. Illness and Healer in Combat in Middle Kingdom and early New
Kingdom Medical Texts. In H. Felber (ed.), Feinde und Aufrührer: Konzepte von
Gegnerschaft in ägyptischen Texten besonders des Mittleren Reiches, Leipzig 2005,
pp.142-158 EGYPTOLOGY V 50 FEL
Szpakowska, K. Playing with fire: initial observations on the religious use of clay
cobras from Amarna. In Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 40, 2003,
pp.113-122 INST ARCH PERS and ON-LINE READING-LIST Tobin, V. A Reassessment of the Lebensmüde, in Bibliotheca Orientalis 48, 1991, cols. 341-363
INST ARCH PERS
Weeks, K. Medicine, Surgery, and Public Health in Ancient Egypt. In J. Sasson (ed.),
Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, New York 1985, vol. 3, 1787-1798 DBA 100
SAS and ON-LINE READING-LIST
19. Social exclusion in archaeological records 20.3.16
The experience of being the outsider in any social context may foster empathy or
sympathy, with contrasting effects. Here the focus is on the self-marking and
marking of the individual as made visible on the body and in ancient depiction and
writing of the self – what Assmann has called the anthropology or sense of being
human that is found within ancient Egypt. How we then relate to those senses,
returns us to the ethical questions discussed at the beginning of the course. The
seminar takes as its focus burial Qau 1989, recorded by Guy Brunton as the only
identifiably non-Egyptian individual in a village cemetery at Hamamia (his Cemetery
1900). The biography and language of that person are accessible to us only through
the items recorded from the burial, the immediate context as published by the
archaeologists, and the wider context of information about Nubian-desert nomads in
the lower Nile Valley during the first half of the second millennium BC.
Essential:
Hubert, J. Introduction: the complexity of boundedness and exclusion. In The
archaeology and anthropology of ‘difference’, London and New York, 2000, pp.1-8
BD HUB and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Jeffreys, D. and Tait, J. Disability, madness, and social exclusion in Dynastic Egypt.
In Hubert, J. The archaeology and anthropology of ‘difference’, London and New
York, 2000, pp.87-95 BD HUB and ON-LINE READING-LIST
The ideas from Hubert are developed in the German-language publication FischerElfert 2005, in further reading.
Case study:
Brunton, G. Qau and Badari III, London 1930, pp.5-6, with finds in pl.5 register, the
published record for burial Qau 1989 EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E 30 [50]
For the area of cemetery 1900 in relation to Qau, main town of the province, see:
http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/maps/qau.html
Further reading:
Eagleton, T. Sweet violence: the idea of the tragic, Oxford 2003, chapter 6 Pity, fear
and pleasure, pp.153-177 MAIN LIBRARY LITERATURE A 76 EAG and ON-LINE
READING-LIST
Fischer-Elfert, H.-W. Abseits von Ma'at: Fallstudien zu Aussenseitern im alten
Ägypten. Würzburg 2005 EGYPTOLOGY B 20 FIS
38
Loprieno, A. Topos und Mimesis: zum Ausländer in der ägyptischen Literatur,
Wiesbaden 1988 EGYPTOLOGY V 7 LOP review by S. Quirke in Discussions in
Egyptology 16, 1990 INST ARCH PERS
Rowlands, M. and B.Butler, The man who would be Moses, in R. Layton et al. (eds.),
A future for archaeology. The past in the present, London 2006, pp.97-105 AG LAY
and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Tobin, V. A Re-assessment of the Lebensmüde, in Bibliotheca Orientalis 48, 1991,
cols. 341-363 INST ARCH PERS
An ancient Egyptian literary work, presenting a dispute between a man who
wants to die and his ba-‘soul’.
M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature I, Berkeley 1975 EGYPTOLOGY V 20 LIC
R. Parkinson, The Tale of Sinuhe and other ancient Egyptian poems, 1940-1640 BC,
Oxford 1998 EGYPTOLOGY V 50 PAR
W. K. Simpson, The literature of ancient Egypt: an anthology of stories, instructions,
stelae, autobiographies, and poetry, 3rd edition, New Haven 2003 EGYPTOLOGY V
20 SIM
20. Evaluating the object as a multi-personal identifier. 27.3.16
The course has been constructed as a comparative exercise drawing on written and
visual evidence within the archaeological record, combining library and screen
readings with object-handling. To evaluate the effect, students are asked to present
their label for one object-group, from single burials represented in the Petrie Museum
collections. The student may also use this as an illustration of their intentions for
further study, particularly on initial thoughts for their MA dissertation.
Essential:
Fabian, J. Memory against Culture: arguments and reminders, Durham NC 2007,
chapter 8 Memory and Counter-memory, pp.92-105 SCIENCE LIBRARY
ANTHROPOLOGY D 6 FAB and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Vergo, P. The Reticent Object. In P. Vergo (ed.), The New Museology, London,
pp.41-59 M 6 VER and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Further reading:
DeMarrais, E. et al. Rethinking materiality: the engagement of mind with the material
world, Cambridge 2004 INST ARCH AH Qto DEM
Henare, A. et al., Thinking through things. Theorising artefacts ethnographically,
London and New York 2007, chapter 1 Introduction: thinking through things, pp.1-31
SCIENCE LIBRARY ANTHROPOLOGY C 9 HEN and ON-LINE READING-LIST
Kopytoff, I. The cultural biography of things: commoditization as process, in A.
Appadurai (ed.), The social life of things: commodities in cultural perspective,
Cambridge 1996, pp.64-91 ISSUE DESK APP and INST ARCH BD APP and ONLINE READING-LIST
Martin, A. Agents in inter-action: Bruno Latour and agency. In Journal of
archaeological method and theory 12, 2005, pp.283-311 ON-LINE READING-LIST
Meskell, L. Object worlds in ancient Egypt: material biographies past and present,
Oxford 2004 EGYPTOLOGY B 20 MES
39
4
ONLINE RESOURCES
The full UCL Institute of Archaeology coursework guidelines are given here:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/administration/students/handbook
The full text of this handbook is available here (includes clickable links to Moodle and
online reading lists):
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/studying/masters/courses/ARCLG200
under the second tag ‘Course Information’.
Online reading list
There is a UCL Library Services online reading-list on the Institute of Archaeology
web-page for this course:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/studying/masters/courses/ARCLG200
under the second tag ‘Course Information’.
In addition to regular library shelfmark references, the online reading-list provides for
many items pdf downloads, or links through online Higher Education services such
as JSTOR. In some instances, a link is given to the Google Books service; this
provides initial access, but please note that Google Books omits pages at
random, and cannot be relied upon for full coverage at each reading.
The course coordinator may add reading (for example, if requested to assist
coursework options), on the Moodle Virtual Learning Environment site for this course:
students will be notified of any changes both on the Moodle news page and at the
next weekly seminar.
In accordance with the digital licence, the online reading-list is only available to UCL
students and staff, and to the intercollegiate students taking this course. Any
intercollegiate students not yet registered with UCL Information Services username
and password to obtain access to this list, should apply for this, upon registering for
the course, to IoA Academic Administrator, Judy Medrington by e-mail or at Room
411A (IoA fourth floor).
Online Egyptian archaeological collections: museum databases
In addition to the Petrie Museum database, other large collections are increasingly
becoming accessible online, with varying proportion of photographs of objects. As
with the Petrie Museum database, remember that online museum databases change
with research and editing, and all information must be checked wherever possible.
Nevertheless, online collections provide a good starting-point for finding illustrations
of material, and for research into examples of a particular object type or period.
Major databases with thousands of Egyptian antiquities include:
The British Museum
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx
The Brooklyn Museum
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/collections/
Metropolitan Museum of Art New York:
http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online
University of Pennsylvania Museum:
http://www.penn.museum/collections/
Highlights from a group of museums including the Egyptian Museum, Cairo
http://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/advanced.aspx?lan=E
40
Moodle
The course is supported by the UCL Virtual Learning Environment Moodle, at
https://moodle.ucl.ac.uk/login/index.php
For access you will need your UCL username and password. The site provides ready
access to weekly resources for each seminar, with news page and discussion forum,
as well as supplementary reading.
5
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Libraries and other resources
In addition to the Library of the Institute of Archaeology, libraries in UCL with holdings
of particular relevance to this degree are:
Main Library (Ancient History, Papyrology, History, Art History)
Science Library (Anthropology)
Other accessible libraries in the vicinity of UCL which have holdings relevant to this
course include:
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
http://www.soas.ac.uk/library/
Warburg Institute, University of London http://warburg.sas.ac.uk/
British Library (including Manuscripts) http://www.bl.uk/ - please note that this
resource is primarily for doctoral students, but may be of help for details of more
advanced research in some coursework or MA dissertations
Egypt Exploration Society, 3 Doughty Mews, London EC1 (for Society members:
for more information see http://www.ees.ac.uk/)
Beside the Petrie Museum at UCL, and the British Museum, several London
museums hold material particularly relevant to this course:
John Soane’s Museum, Lincoln’s Inn Fields (sarcophagus of Sety I)
http://www.soane.org/
Victoria and Albert Museum (in Jewellery, Glass, Ceramics and Textiles displays)
http://www.vam.ac.uk/
Horniman Museum (Africa Gallery) http://www.horniman.ac.uk/
A visit is also recommended to the British Library public gallery (papyri, codices)
http://www.bl.uk/whatson/permgall/index.html
Information for intercollegiate and interdepartmental students
Students enrolled in Departments outside the Institute should obtain the Institute’s
coursework guidelines from Judy Medrington (email j.medrington@ucl.ac.uk), which
will also be available on the IoA website.
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APPENDIX:
INSTITUTE OF ARCHAELOGY COURSEWORK PROCEDURES
General policies and procedures concerning courses and coursework, including submission
procedures, assessment criteria, and general resources, are available in your Degree
Handbook and on the following website: http://wiki.ucl.ac.uk/display/archadmin. It is
essential that you read and comply with these. Note that some of the policies and procedures
will be different depending on your status (e.g. undergraduate, postgraduate taught, affiliate,
graduate diploma, intercollegiate, interdepartmental). If in doubt, please consult your course
co-ordinator.
GRANTING OF EXTENSIONS: .
New UCL-wide regulations with regard to the granting of extensions for coursework have
been introduced with effect from the 2015-16 session. Full details will be circulated to all
students and will be made available on the IoA intranet. Note that Course Coordinators are
no longer permitted to grant extensions. All requests for extensions must be submitted on a
new UCL form, together with supporting documentation, via Judy Medrington’s office and
will then be referred on for consideration. Please be aware that the grounds that are now
acceptable are limited. Those with long-term difficulties should contact UCL Student
Disability Services to make special arrangements.
WORD LENGTH:
UCL regulation 3.1.7 Penalties for Over-length Coursework
For submitted coursework, where a maximum length has been specified, the following
procedure will apply:
i) The length of coursework will normally be specified in terms of a word count
ii) Assessed work should not exceed the prescribed length.
iii) For work that exceeds the specified maximum length by less than10% the mark will be
reduced by ten percentage marks; but the penalised mark will not be reduced below the pass
mark, assuming the work merited a pass.
iv) For work that exceeds the specified maximum length by 10% or more, a mark of zero will
be recorded.
vii) In the case of coursework that is submitted late and is also overlength, the lateness penalty
will have precedence.
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