Beyond Politics: Material Culture in Second Intermediate Period Egypt and Nubia

The Second Intermediate Period (ca 1800-1570/30 BC) is one of the most complicated eras in Egyptian history. It begins after the Middle Kingdom and comprises the later 13th to 17th Dynasties. Political instability is indicated by short reign lengths of ca 80 pharaohs in 200-250 years. The Second Intermediate Period ended about 1570/30 BC with the wars of liberation won by Theban rulers unifying Egypt (18th Dynasty). But it is a well-known trope also that order is brought by pharaoh after chaos. The sources for the political/historical reconstruction are corrupted and fragmentary texts, far removed from the original period. Archaeological sources contribute considerably to reconstruction of cultural and social processes in history but remain neglected. The material culture shows a certain regionalisation in this period, where the regions are interpreted as singular partly independent and even political units. The project sets out not only to test whether such a regionalisation can be proved, but how it becomes manifest, and which possible reasons might exist beside the political explanation currently favoured. A major difficulty is the unclear relative chronology. Many well stratified archaeological contexts will be collated, consisting of various object categories (e.g. pottery, scarabs, tools, metal finds, etc) throughout Egypt and Lower Nubia. These objects will be analysed in a multi- scalar approach, from the objects themselves, within their contexts to site specific relative sequences and finally to inter-site comparative analysis. Thus, a dense relative-chronological network will be established for further consideration of diachronic and spatial developments of material culture and whether regional differences can be pinpointed in the composition of contexts or the morphology of objects. In order to reach this task modern documentation of finds from current excavations and museum objects from early excavations are combined, which will provide a large amount of new information enabling the construction of a sound relative chronology. To this end qualitative and quantitative analyses will be conducted. A common terminology for phasing will also be developed as it is currently rather vague. The stress on contextual study and material culture, both hitherto neglected in Egyptology, will provide an additional level of interpretation revealing behaviour, and identity of the people who created and engaged with their objects. Theoretical aspects of material culture enable interpretation of objects representing beliefs, ideas and values and identity unconsciously inherent in the production of objects (chaine operatoire). Therefore a better understanding social and cultural processes such as burial rites and the formation of identity (and ethnicity) will be achieved, as well as critical assessment of cultural affinity between Egyptian regions and beyond (Syria/Palestine, Nubia). Theoretical models will also explain relationships between object and individual and therefore also aspects of their behaviour and identity.

The Second Intermediate Period (c. 1830-1550 BC) is a very complicated era in Egyptian history. It begins with the later 13th Dynasty after the gradual political disintegration of the Middle Kingdom. Political instability is indicated by short reign lengths of c. 80 pharaohs in 200-250 years. The Period ended c. 1550 BC with the ' liberation wars' won by Theban rulers unifying Egypt (17th-18th Dynasty). While this historical tradition may well be influenced by ancient ideology, the sources for the political/historical reconstruction are fragmentary texts, restricted spatially and often later than the events. Archaeological sources contribute to reconstructions of cultural and social processes but still depend on historiographic interpretations. Accordingly, 'regions' in Egypt and Nubia were seen as partly independent, even political, units taking into account the then known extent of regionalisation of material culture, although synchronisations of sites were largely based on few artifacts. The project set out to test if such regionalisation can be proved, how it becomes manifest and why it happened. For this purpose many well stratified archaeological contexts were collated and (re)documented. While some diversity of object categories (e.g. pottery, scarabs, jewellery, stone vessels, etc) was achieved, the frequency of non-elite and settlement contexts resulted in a restricted object variety with enough examples of each object type to assess homo- or heterogeneity and distribution patterns. This task required modern documentation of finds combined from current excavations (in international co-operations) and museum objects from early excavations in qualitative and quantitative approaches, which provided a large amount of new information enabling the construction of a better relative chronology. The stress on contextual study and material culture provided an additional level of interpretation revealing behaviour, and identity of the people who created and engaged with their objects. A study of identities and material culture refutes a simplistic congruence between biological origins of people and items of material culture in a fossilized culture-historical paradigm, whose ancient 'sign language' in purely archaeological settings remains largely unknown. The proposition of open cultural systems, within which members of social groups chose elements creatively for their 'things' better explains objects with traits from multiple systems. Moreover, the simplistic connection of (uninscribed) object typologies to dynastic dating schemes and external application of such dates at other sites needs to be avoided. Pottery, as most frequent object category, shows regional heterogeneity very clearly: in fabric recipes, surface treatments, chanes opératoires of vessel manufacture and local preference of certain vessel types. The analogy of an original template/'pattern book', which was then adapted by various actors in different ways, thus leading to changes changes its features overtime, describes these developments well. Other object types occurred too rarely to be certain whether, or not, similar features emerge.