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1710_BIOR_2008/5-6_03_Tekst 30-01-2009 10:55 Pagina 599 604 FARAONISCH EGYPTE BAINES, J. — Visual and written culture in Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2007 (24 cm, XVII, 420). ISBN 978-0-19-815250-7. £75.00. This book assembles a selection of John Baines’s previous writings concerning two core areas of ancient Egyptian civi- lization, written and visual culture, complemented by three chapters of new material. A long introductory essay written specially for the volume explores theoretical and interpreta- tive frameworks that can be used to review the role of visual and written communication in early civilizations. The prologue additionally introduces the concept of “decorum”, which the author uses as an organizing principle in understanding the ancient Egyptian community, as well as works of art and texts. The second part on “written culture” explores the character and development of writing and its position in society. A sur- vey of uses of writing is followed by a discussion of rates of literacy, with detailed essays on the literacy of kings, women, and the village community of Deir el-Medina in chapters 2 and 3. Two studies (chapters 4 and 5) address writing’s early development and its implications for historical reconstructions that are profoundly influenced by the potential of writing. This part proceeds with a complementary chapter 6, which analy- ses contexts of writing within its setting of spoken languages, and concludes in chapter 7 with a study of “ancient uses of the past”. The third part of the book compiles a group of stud- ies on “visual culture”. Essays on pictorial representation (chapter 9-10), colour classification (chapter 11) and the posi- tion of art in elite culture deal with aspects of Egyptian elite 1710_BIOR_2008/5-6_03_Tekst 30-01-2009 10:55 Pagina 600 605 BIBLIOTHECA ORIENTALIS LXV N° 5-6, september-december 2008 606 culture that are also significant for cross-cultural analysis. The founding of Memphis as the centre of the new adminis- Other studies within this last part have a more specifically tration must have been a decisive event, but opinions differ Egyptian and historical focus (chapter 12-14) and some of with regard to its date. The significance of the Memphite them relate to topics dealt with in previous parts of the book. region can be measured by the dramatic increase in sites and Most of the previously published articles are presented with burials in the area at the end of the predynastic (Naqada IIIA).2) only minor changes. Details of the original publication are However, Memphis itself had only become a major centre given in a note at the start of each essay. where administrative staff and facilities were centralized by the This well illustrated volume brings together some of John reign of Narmer at the earliest (Naqada IIIC1, ca. 3150 BC). Baines’s valuable studies that are scattered in publications The invention of writing therefore predates the existence of a across a variety of disciplines, making better available key unified Egyptian state by at least 200 years and must be seen contributions on core problems of written and visual culture as part of the social, cognitive, and economic changes that in ancient Egypt. The book is organized as a synthesis of occur as society becomes more complex at the end of the excellent treated individual topics that offers numerous points fourth millennium BC. of departure for further research. Rarely in present day Egyp- Concerning the role of Hierakonpolis in this process, the tology would scholars take up the challenge of covering such author is rather vague. Archaeological material from this site a range of different aspects of Egyptological research. Most would not show the high degree of integration exemplified of the subjects dealt with, would therefore richly deserve of at Abydos and Minshat Abu Omar but rather developing extensive comment. However, because of limited space, this regional forms which seem less advanced for the same date review will instead focus on a few particular themes recur- (p. 99). Nevertheless, “they would clearly exemplify state ring throughout the book: the development of early writing, formation and the elaboration of a royal ideology” (p. 101). state formation, and literacy. It is to be expected that many will be confused by this rather With regard to these topics, one gets the impression of a contradictory statement. somewhat selective way in which latest developments in aca- On p. 98, the author states “Egyptian history crystallized demic research are evaluated. Several of the book’s chapters with the 1st dynasty, which marks the end of a transforma- focus on the formative period of the late fourth and early third tion that separated dynastic Egypt radically from its predy- millennia BC in Egypt, which is currently the object of intense nastic forerunners…but that transformation had more to do research and debate. Particularly with regard to the interface with the development of ideology and display — including between the aliterate and literate phases at the beginning of writing — and perhaps with a change of dynasty, than with Egyptian history and its connection to the emergence of the change in the political picture”. Manetho’s historical divi- state, the amount of new information has increased dramati- sion, based upon reigns and dynasties, as well as the idea of cally in recent years. However, most of the published articles “radical transformations” is challenged by modern research. date to the late 1980s but are presented here with only slight Scholars often acknowledge a rather smooth transition from adjustments. For example, the discovery of tomb U-j at Aby- the Naqada II period towards the First Dynasty with a grad- dos in 1989 is only briefly mentioned, although it is crucial to ual increase in material wealth.3) Many transformations in a discussion on development of early writing and state forma- material culture are explained as the result of a long, grad- tion. Not only did the number of sources dating to before the ual, complex, and multi-linear process. First Dynasty more than double, the new inscriptions also show With regard to the development of the writing system, that the beginning of hieroglyphic writing must be situated ear- accounts are sometimes contradictory depending on the degree lier than was previously thought. In what follows, I will give of update. On p. 59, the author remarks that the writing sys- a few examples where new developments and more recent tem “endures some centuries without great change or loss” finds affect or even invalidate previously published ideas. during stage I (the invention and early development of writ- The author often expresses the idea that writing came at a ing) whereas the best detectable reformations would only be late stage in the formation of the centralized Egyptian state visible during stage II, which includes the 3rd Dynasty and the (pages 35, 36, 98, 112, 115). Since the discovery of tomb U- Old Kingdom. The latter stage would be the first phase of j, however, scholars assume that the first Egyptian writing is related to the growing complexity of interaction between dif- ferent regional entities and the establishment of a central 2) E.C. Köhler, “On the Origins of Memphis — The new Excavations “court” culture in the proximity of Abydos at the very end of in the Early Dynastic Necropolis at Helwan”, in S. Hendrickx, R.F. Fried- the Naqada II period (ca. 3350 BC). Although the process of man, K.M. Cialowicz & M. Chlodnicki (eds.), Egypt at its Origins. Stud- state formation was well in progress by the beginning of the ies in Memory of Barbara Adams, OLA 138 (Leuven, 2004): 306; cfr. D. Jeffreys, “Investigating Ancient Memphis, Pharaonic Egypt’s Northern Naqada IIIA period, it is uncertain when exactly the northward Capital” Archaeology International 3 (1999-2000): 24-27; C.E. Köhler & expansion of the southern court culture culminated in the estab- J. Smythe, “Early Dynastic Pottery from Helwan-Establishing a Ceramic lishment of a centralized state presided over by a single ruler.1) Corpus of the Naqada III period” Cahiers de la céramique égyptienne 7 (2004): 123-144. 3) B.G. Trigger et al., Ancient Egypt. A Social History (Cambridge, 1983): 1-69; C.E. Köhler, “The State of Research on Late Predynastic 1) The literature on this subject is abundant. A few recent studies are: Egypt: New Evidence for the Development of the Pharaonic State?” GM T.A.H. Wilkinson, State Formation in Egypt. Chronology and Society, BAR 147 (1995): 84; K.M. Cialowicz, “La Dynastie 0. Conquérants ou admin- International Series 651, Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology istrateurs?”, in J. Sliwa (ed.) Studies in Ancient Art and Civilization 7 40 (Oxford, 1996): 5; R.J. Wenke, “City-States, Nation-States, and Terri- (Krakow, 1996): 9, 13; T.A.H. Wilkinson, State Formation: 21; R.J. torial States. The Problem of Egypt”, in L.D. Michels & D.H. Charlton Wenke, in The Archaeology of City-states: 27-49. Although the distribu- (eds.), The Archaeology of City-States; Cross Cultural Approaches (Wash- tion of pottery in the cemetery of Tura shows a slight change in the reign ington - London, 1997): 27-49; K. A. Bard, “Origins of Egyptian Writ- of Narmer; T.A.H. Wilkinson, State Formation: 65; S. Hendrickx, “Pre- ing”, in R. Friedman & B. Adams (eds.), The Followers of Horus. Studies dynastic–Early Dynastic Chronology”, in E. Hornung, R. Krauss & D. War- Dedicated to Michael Allen Hoffman, Oxbow Monographs 20, Egyptian burton (eds.), Ancient Egyptian Chronology, HdO 83 (Leiden - Boston, Studies Association Publication 2 (Oxford, 1992): 297. 2006): 55-93. 1710_BIOR_2008/5-6_03_Tekst 30-01-2009 10:55 Pagina 601 607 BOEKBESPREKINGEN — FARAONISCH EGYPTE 608 transformation of “all aspects of the record” (p.