Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections IntroductIon : u djahorresnet and hIs World : a K ey FIgure oF cross -regIonal relatIons reconsIdered Melanie Wasmuth University of Helsinki/University of Basel in collaboration with Alex Aissaoui, Ladislav Bareš, Reinhold Bichler, Henry Colburn, Francis Joannès, Ivan Ladynin, Francesco Lopez, Nenad Marković, Allison McCoskey, Cristina Ruggero, Alexander Schütze, Květa Smoláriková, and Marissa Stevens ABSTRACT The contribution at hand provides a synthetic response to the special issue on “Udjahorresnet and his World,” published as Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 26. After introducing the aims and motivation behind the volume, I present a concise summary of the key questions, investigation lines and major results of the volume’s contributions. These fall into four major thematic blocks. Three papers are primarily concerned with a re-evaluation of the material culture commemorating Udjahorresnet, three take up the question of his professional and social environment, four focus on Udjahorresnet as a cross-regional agent, while the last three draw on Udjahorresnet and the textual evidence on his naophorous statue in the Musei Vaticani as a historiographical mediator. The final section showcases synthetically the key advances in the study of Udjahorresnet and his world jointly achieved by the author collective. INTRODUCTION explicit one is the so-called Naoforo Vaticano , a Sixth-century BCE Egypt spawned a key figure of naophorous commemorative statue of him now in ancient cross-regional diplomacy. The Egyptian the Musei Vaticani. It shows Udjahorresnet carrying politician and chief physician Udjahorresnet held a shrine, wearing an Egyptian garment, and Persian high inner-political functions in the former Egyptian ornaments around the arms. The long inscription kingship realm and became an important figure in covering most of the monument presents an account transforming Egypt into a regional center within of Udjahorresnet’s alleged career and influence the vast and exceedingly culturally diverse empire under the former Saitic pharaohs and the two of the Achaemenians. Persian Great Kings, which started the Twenty- In contrast to many other regions and contexts seventh Dynasty of Egypt, Cambyses (II) and Darius within the process of expanding and consolidating I. Hence, he is explicitly showcased as a member of the empire, for Egypt we are not reduced to later the highest Egyptian elite loyal to the Egyptian Saitic sources from an outside perspective, especially and both relevant Persian royal houses, the Teispid Greek historiography from the 5th century BCE and the Achaemenid dynasty. His major functions onwards. With the complex of monuments repre - are borne out by the inscriptions on the walls of his senting Udjahorresnet, an unusually dense corpus of tomb and on his sarcophagus, as well as by a statue contemporary sources from the inner political circle dating from the 4th century BCE, which testifies his is available. The most intriguing as well as most continued local reverence. Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections | EgyptianExpedition.org |vol. 26 (June 2020) | 1 –11 Wasmuth | Introduction FIGURE 1: Udjahorresnet’s world: the area of close connectivity in the late 6th century BCE (Wasmuth 2016, vii fig. 3). STATE of RESEARCH finally also includes Egypt and Egyptology. In The statue and its inscription are well known through - addition, Udjahorresnet has attracted interest in the out the relevant areas of specialization dealing with field of the history of medicine. 7 the Achaemenid Empire and are included in the Given the cultural and lingual diversity of major source compilations. 1 Nonetheless, detailed Egyptian society in the 6th to 4th centuries BCE, i.e., discussions are mainly to be found within Egyptology, the recorded times of accessibility of Udjahorresnet’s and here with focus on the inscription. 2 The reception monuments, a further aspect to be taken up is the of other aspects has been limited, as a synopsis of question of the potential contemporary perception the most popular translations and their accompanying of the statue and its iconographically and textually comments reveals. 3 Though the person of Udjahor - displayed messages. Though not specifically studied resnet and his statue in the Vatican have recently for the case of Udjahorresnet, this issue of narrative come more into focus, 4 a comprehensive discussion and historical mediation recently entered the cross- on his personal life, the actual social and political specialized study of the Eastern Mediterranean and relevance of his professional functions, and the West Asian Area of Connectivity in the 6th and 5th continuous social impact of his statues over time is centuries BCE ( fIG . 1). 8 Most prominently, this was still missing. This has become possible by now. The considered in a workshop on Cambyses from a social and institutional history at the transition cross-specialized perspective held in Heidelberg in between the Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh June 2017, 9 which triggered the design of the Dynasties, i.e., the Egyptian dynasty originating in publication venture at hand with its focus on the Sais in the western Nile delta and Egypto- close reading and contextualization of a key source. Achaemenid rule, when Egypt became part of the Achaemenid Empire, has become a focal point of AIMS AND MAJoR RESEARCH QUESTIoNS interest over the last years. 5 The same applies to the The current state of research highlights the challenges question of the role of Egypt in the Achaemenid and chances of contextualizing the representational Empire, which has been the topic of several PhD monuments created for Udjahorresnet. on the one theses over the last two decades. 6 As a consequence, hand, the inscriptions on his Naoforo Vaticano have the formerly strongly classics-dominated area of to be reconsidered concerning its actual wording Achaemenid studies, which has been established in and their implications. This poses a number of diffi - the last decades as a cross-specialized research focus, culties due to the object genre and its inherent 2 Wasmuth | Introduction challenges of traditional formulaic expressions versus Persians, and within the cross-regional political reflection of actual events, the strategic motivation context. 5) Udjahorresnet as a historical mediator: for creating such a monument, and the degree of as historiographer, as narrator, and regarding the description, individual perception, and deliberate later reception of Udjahorresnet, his monuments history construction for a contemporary and a later and messages. audience. In addition, it has to be questioned whether A substantial amount of the issues sketched above an Egyptological interpretation rooted in the still are taken up in the volume at hand. The papers re- prevalent perception of the 1st millennium BCE as a contextualize Udjahorresnet’s material sources, his period of decline, does justice to the changed professional and social environment, his role as a circumstances of 6th-century BCE society (see cross-regional agent, and his potential for acting as teaching curricula). Did meanings devised and a historical and historiographical mediator. To this transmitted from times of a rather circumscribed end, archaeological, philological, and social historical Nile valley and delta context apply in the much more approaches within Egyptology are combined with culturally diverse and cross-regionally entangled expertise in classics, especially Greek historiography, context of the Achaemenid Empire? in history of medicine, in ancient Near Eastern on the other hand, the questions of the person philology (Babylonia), in ancient cross-area studies Udjahorresnet, his social background, his professional with focus on cross-regional identity display, and in functions, and his political agency leap to the fore. medieval and modern art history. He was embedded in a number of social contexts: the Saite and the Achaemenid court in Egypt, the UDJAHORRESNET ’S MATERIAL SOURCES Achaemenid court in Elam, his family and friends, RECONSIDERED his personal, professional, and political adversaries, As already highlighted above, several primary sources etc. As a consequence, a more diversified contextu - shed light on Udjahorresnet, namely his tomb and a alization of this key source is of tremendous impact number of statues dating from the later 6th and 4th for a wide scope of area specializations and research centuries BCE. Three papers in JAEI 26 focus on the questions, but also a huge challenge. It requires re-evaluation of the available material evidence for studying the preserved output of all the people Udjahorrenet. Květa Smoláriková and Ladislav Bareš potentially involved in the political and everyday life took the opportunity to reintroduce Udjahorresnet’s of Udjahorresnet and of those who potentially had tomb at Abusir, i.e., in one of the segments of the access to his statues throughout their object histories. sprawled-out cemetery of Egypt’s capital Memphis. 10 To meet this challenge, the volume at hand draws on The key questions addressed in the paper include an international workshop on Udjahorresnet, which where the burial structure of Udjahorresnet is to be took place in Munich, Germany, in September 2018 positioned within the development of this type of (co-organized by Melanie Wasmuth, Alexander tomb in Egypt and whether this dignitary had indeed Schütze, and Andreas Schwab) and an open call for been buried there or whether the structure