Ceramic Perspectives on Ancient Egyptian Society

This Element seeks to demonstrate how ceramics forward study of Egyptian society writ large, identifying key research questions and qualitative and quantitative methods.

Leslie Anne Warden (Author)

9781108744133, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 24 June 2021

75 pages
22.8 x 15.1 x 0.6 cm, 0.161 kg

This Element demonstrates how ceramics, a dataset that is more typically identified with chronology than social analysis, can forward the study of Egyptian society writ large. This Element argues that the sheer mass of ceramic material indicates the importance of pottery to Egyptian life. Ceramics form a crucial dataset with which Egyptology must critically engage, and which necessitate working with the Egyptian past using a more fluid theoretical toolkit. This Element will demonstrate how ceramics may be employed in social analyses through a focus on four broad areas of inquiry: regionalism; ties between province and state, elite and non-elite; domestic life; and the relationship of political change to social change. While the case studies largely come from the Old through Middle Kingdoms, the methods and questions may be applied to any period of Egyptian history.

1. Ceramics as Dataset
2. Integration of State and Province
3. Investigating Egyptian Regionalism
4. The Relationship of Political to Social Change
5. The Complexity of Private Life
6. Finding People through Potsherds
Glossary
References.

Subject Areas: Egyptian archaeology / Egyptology [HDDG], Archaeology [HD], Ceramic arts, pottery, glass [AFP]