Download PDF | [Routledge Worlds] Toby A. H. Wilkinson - The Egyptian World , Routledge_ Ashgate 2009.
589 Pages
THE EGYPTIAN WORLD
The Nile valley produced one of the most sophisticated, and certainly the longestlived, civilizations of the ancient world. Yet remarkably few books have looked at the broad topics of ancient Egyptian culture as expressed down the centuries. The Egyptian World presents an authoritative, up-to-date, single-volume work on Egyptian civilization, organized along thematic lines. Readers will gain a broader understanding of ancient Egyptian society in all its complexity without having to contest with the rigid chronological divisions often imposed on pharaonic history.
The volume comprises 32 original contributions written by leading specialists from the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Austria, Germany and Egypt. Each chapter aims to give a broad overview of its particular topic, while also reflecting its author’s specialist research interests. With previously unpublished drawings and photographs, the volume as a whole presents a digest of current research trends in Egyptology as well as a unique examination of the Egyptian world. Throughout, the contributors have drawn on the latest fieldwork and analysis to provide a fresh perspective on an ancient culture.
Toby Wilkinson is a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, and an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Archaeology, University of Durham. His publications include Early Dynastic Egypt, The Thames and Hudson Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, and Lives of the Ancient Egyptians.
INTRODUCTION
Toby Wilkinson
This volume is intended to fill a gap in the extensive literature on ancient Egypt, by presenting an authoritative, up-to-date, single-volume work on pharaonic civilization, organized along thematic lines. By eschewing the usual chronological approach, the book has been able to concentrate instead on exploring each individual topic from a variety of angles. In this way, it is hoped that readers will gain a broader understanding of ancient Egyptian society in all its complexity, liberated from the rather artificial chronological divisions that we impose on pharaonic history. The book comprises 32 original contributions written by leading specialists from the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Austria, Germany and Egypt. Each chapter aims to give a broad overview of the subject under discussion, while also reflecting its author’s particular research interests.
The volume as a whole, therefore, presents a digest of current research trends in Egyptology as well as a unique examination of the Egyptian world. Throughout, the contributors have drawn on the latest fieldwork and analysis to provide fresh perspectives on an ancient culture. The chapters are arranged in seven thematic sections. Part I, Environments, looks at the physical parameters within which ancient Egyptian civilization developed and operated. Egypt is often taken to be synonymous with the Nile Valley, and this most important geographical feature is, indeed, the subject of the opening chapter. However, the ancient Egyptians had to come to terms with, and learn to exploit, a range of distinctive environments.
Each of these is examined in turn, from the broad, green expanses of the delta – with all the constraints its environment imposed on settlement and communication – to the harsher, arid conditions of the eastern and western deserts. New archaeological work is transforming our understanding of both regions, and the chapters take full account of recent discoveries. The oases of the Western Desert have, likewise, emerged from relative obscurity to a much more central place in our picture of the ancient Egyptian world. Finally, in this part, a chapter explores the urban environment; towns and cities formed the backdrop for the lives of large numbers of Egyptians, but this facet of their experience is often neglected because of its relative invisibility in the artistic record of temples and tombs. 1
Part II, Institutions, concentrates on the human groupings that characterized the structure of ancient Egyptian society. At the very apex was the king, supported by his close relatives. The monarchy exercised a tremendous influence on all areas of Egyptian culture, dictating the styles of art, architecture and literature that dominate in the surviving record. The nature of royal power and the true extent of its political influence are important questions that go to the heart of Egyptian civilization. Besides the king and the royal family, other self-interest groups emerge as key players in internal politics.
The literate bureaucracy of central and regional government, the powerful priesthoods attached to the major state temples, and the military hierarchy: all were at some times supporters, at other times rivals, of royal power. By exploring the ambitions and internal strains of these institutions, the fabric of authority in ancient Egypt can be laid bare. Part III, Economies, examines the patterns of economic activity in ancient Egypt. The productive sector was dominated by farming, and by the complex system of land tenure, taxation and redistribution that maintained the royal court and financed its lavish building projects. The organization of labour required for pyramid-building ranks as one of the ancient Egyptians’ greatest achievements, yet the composition and control of the workforce is rarely studied. Other chapters focus on the technologies employed in craft production, and on the balance between state and private enterprise, an evolving debate within Egyptology.
Part IV, Societies, forms the core of the book, both spatially and conceptually, and represents one of its most distinctive aspects. There have been very few detailed discussions of ancient Egyptian social factors, even though topics such as gender, sexuality, ethnicity, morality and law lie at the heart of any society, ancient or modern. They circumscribed the lives of the ancient Egyptians as much as any geographical, political or economic factors, yet social influences are rarely given due consideration in studies of pharaonic civilization. Moreover, there is a tendency to regard ancient Egyptian culture as monolithic, rarely departing from the dictates of the royal court except during periods of political turmoil. Yet, throughout pharaonic history, local identities existed, even if they left weak traces in the official record. The chapters of Part IV comprise an original and ground-breaking series of insights into the fundamental nature of ancient Egyptian culture. Part V, Ideologies, looks at ancient Egyptian beliefs in their many forms.
The ideology of kingship permeated, indeed defined, state religion. Inextricably bound up with the myths about Egypt’s creation and the daily rites of the major cults, it was one of the most important determinants of ancient Egyptian court culture. While the great temples are enduring symbols of pharaonic civilization, they have little to say about the spiritual beliefs and practices of ordinary people. Our knowledge of private religion is, instead, based upon the study of smaller artefacts and is constantly evolving. The belief in an afterlife, reflected in the elaborate preparations made for burial, was a universal concern for all levels of society, and – from pyramids to mummies – has provided many of the quintessential symbols of ancient Egypt. Part VI, Aesthetics, focuses on the cultural expressions that have survived from ancient Egypt, and which continue to entrance the modern mind.
The Egyptians’ highly distinctive artistic and architectural legacies are, perhaps, more familiar than their literary output; yet all three areas provide important insights into ancient — Toby Wilkinson — 2 Egyptian sensibilities and modes of self-expression. All three represent means by which the ancient Egyptians projected their consciousness onto the world around them. Part VII, Interactions, which forms the final section of the book, examines the contacts between ancient Egypt and its neighbours, and the influence that pharaonic civilization had on the development of other cultures.
Egypt stands at the meetingpoint of Africa, Asia and Europe, and has always been a melting-pot of peoples, beliefs and cultural influences. Egypt’s significance in the ancient world extended far beyond its own borders. Only by looking at ancient Egypt from without, as well as from within, can its distinctive achievements be placed in proper context. Of course, ancient Egypt continues to have an impact on today’s world, and the final chapter will look at our enduring fascination for ‘The Egyptian World’.
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