Communities Reassembled-Rethinking Identity in Ancient Egypt

This project aims to achieve a better understanding of the concept of communities in ancient Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period and early New Kingdom (ca. 17801500 BCE) and to shed light on how diverse identities are constructed, maintained, and negotiated by means of material culture and social practice. In modern societies, we understand that identity and community membership is complicated, but the question of how we can understand this in past societies is more difficult. Current understanding of community and identity in the multicultural landscape of ancient Egypt is hindered by the assumption of sharply defined cultural groups based on the outdated culture-historical approach, as well as the practice of forcing objects and behaviours to fit into inflexible categories. This project will work to identify the different levels of community in a way not yet achieved in Egyptology. It will be the first theory-based investigation of identities in funerary and settlement landscapes targeted specifically at archaeological contexts that display combinations of material culture and practices that do not fit with the current views of "Egyptian- ness". Data from old and new excavations will be analysed using a tailored combination of both well- established and new technologies. The project data comes from four sites: Saqqara, Qau el-Kebir and Badari, Thebes, and Tell Edfu. This dataset includes a wide variety of objects (e.g. pottery, jewellery, scarabs, stone vessels, textiles, figurines, etc.) and behaviours (e.g. the position of objects in a burial, treatment of the body, refuse formation, etc.). Using this data in conjunction with a new combination of theoretical approaches will make it possible to identify the complex and overlapping communities that more accurately reflect the reality of how identities can be constructed, maintained, and changed by the interactions of people and objects. Project results will lead to new ideas and perspectives by moving beyond the rigid object typologies that ignore diversity in technology, function, and different sets of choices that do not fit neatly into current Egyptological boxes for Egyptian-style or Nubian-style material culture. The resulting communities identified in this project are expected to be more complex, overlapping, and accurate than what is currently distinguishable in Egyptology.

This project was the first theory-based exploration of identity specifically targeted at archaeological contexts in both towns and cemeteries in ancient Egypt that do not conform to the distinct cultural groups of the culture-historical approach (e.g. exclusively Egyptian or Nubian). The aim was to challenge an overly-simplistic view of community and identity in ancient Egypt and shed light on the diverse communities of practice that existed in the Second Intermediate Period and early New Kingdom (ca. 1780-1500 BCE). To achieve a more accurate understanding of the varied concepts of community and identity, the project applied a multi-theory approach (Communities of Practice, Assemblage Theory, and Behavioral Chain) to the material culture and social practices evident at four sites: Saqqara, Qau el-Kebir and Badari, Thebes, and Tell Edfu. The extensive project dataset was recorded from the archives of 20th century excavations, objects in museum collections, and newly excavated material using time-tested methods, such as technical drawing, in combination with newer technologies, such as ceramic petrography and RTI photography. Indeed, when this data was analysed without the mindset of "cultural boxes", but rather through a communities of practice lens, a wealth of diversity in material culture and behaviors became visible. Multifaceted identities co-existing and adapting to new situations were identified. It was possible to confirm the original hypothesis that multiple, overlapping and nested communities of practice existed in ancient Egypt in this period and are visible when this theoretical framework and material culture analysis are combined. For example, a unique community of practice at Saqqara with burial practices unknown from elsewhere in Egypt was identified and the mid-20th century interpretation of this burial community along ethnic boundaries could be refuted. The outdated culture-historical approach and strict adherence to object typologies can impose cultural borders that did not always exist in ancient Egypt. This project raises new questions about the complex relationship between material culture and identity and serves as a call for wider experimentation with the communities of practice approach in Egyptology.