Startseite Not Marginal, But Marginalised. The ‘Pan-Grave’ Archaeological Culture, Pharaonic Egypt, and Egyptology
Artikel
Lizenziert
Nicht lizenziert Erfordert eine Authentifizierung

Not Marginal, But Marginalised. The ‘Pan-Grave’ Archaeological Culture, Pharaonic Egypt, and Egyptology

  • Aaron de Souza ORCID logo EMAIL logo
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 12. Juli 2022
Veröffentlichen auch Sie bei De Gruyter Brill

Abstract

This paper focusses on the so-called “Pan-Grave” archaeological culture, and the extent to which communities attributed to it can or should be considered “marginal” based on the available archaeological and historical evidence. It will be argued that communities that archaeologists identify as “Pan-Grave” were likely to have been small and hence a minority in terms of population size, but that the wide distribution of evidence suggests that “Pan-Grave culture” was a recognisable component of the ancient Egyptian socio-cultural landscape. The frequency and variety of evidence for contact and exchange between the Pan-Grave and Egyptian cultural spheres points towards close social ties rather than Pan-Grave being marginal to the ancient Egyptian “core”. At the same time, it is proposed that Pan-Grave culture—and Nubian cultures in general—have been marginalised by Egyptology as an academic discipline, which has a tradition of implicitly (and explicitly) using ancient rhetoric to justify its own conception of ancient Egyptian dominance. It is also argued that a re-framing of “Pan-Grave” communities as an integral part of the cultural fabric of pharaonic Egypt would encourage Egyptology as a discipline to question its own perception of what defines “Egyptian” from both ancient and academic perspectives.


Corresponding author: Aaron de Souza, Austrian Archaeological Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Hollandstraße 11-13, 1020, Wien, Austria, E-mail:

Funding source: European Commission, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Award Identifier / Grant number: MSCA 796050

Acknowledgments

Research for this article was conducted within the framework of the InBetween project, which received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 796050. The author thanks Susan Cohen and Jana Mynářová for the invitation to participate in the ‘Outside the Pale’ research group, and to all of the group members for many interesting knowledge exchanges. Thank you also to the peer-reviewers for their thoughtful feedback.

References

Aston, D. A. 2013. “Mother’s Best Tea Service – Pottery as Diplomatic Gifts in the Second Intermediate Period.” In Functional Aspects of Egyptian Ceramics in their Archaeological Context. Proceedings of a Conference held at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, edited by B. Bader, and M. F. Ownby, Cambridge, July 24th–July 25th, 2009, 375–402. Leuven: Peeters.Suche in Google Scholar

Ayers, N., and N. Moeller. 2012. “Nubian Pottery Traditions During the 2nd Millennium BC at Tell Edfu.” In Nubian Pottery from Egyptian Cultural Contexts of the Middle and Early New Kingdom. Proceedings of a Workshop held at the Austrian Archaeological Institute at Cairo, 1–12 December 2010, edited by I. Forstner-Müller, and P. Rose. Ergänzungshefte zu den Jahresheften des Österreichischen Archäologischen Institutes in Wien 13, pp. 103–16. Vienna: Austrian Archaeological Institute.Suche in Google Scholar

Bader, B. 2021. Material Culture and Identities in Egyptology. Towards a Better Understanding of Cultural Encounters and their Influence on Material Culture. AESL 3. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences.10.1553/978OEAW87981Suche in Google Scholar

Bangsgaard, P. 2013. “Pan-Grave Faunal Practices – Ritual Deposits at Five Cemeteries in Lower Nubia.” Anthropozoologica 48 (2): 287–97, https://doi.org/10.5252/az2013n2a7.Suche in Google Scholar

Beatty, M. H. 2008. “Xsy “Wretched”: The Anatomy of a Foreign Relations Concept.” ANKH. Revue d’égyptologie et des civilisations africaines 17: 31–9.Suche in Google Scholar

Bietak, M. 1966. Ausgrabungen in Sayala-Nubien 1961–1965. Denkmäler der C-Gruppe und der Pan-Gräber-Kultur. Berichte über die Ausgrabungen in Sayala 3. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences.Suche in Google Scholar

Bietak, M. 1987. “The C-Group and the Pan Grave Culture in Nubia.” In Nubian Culture Past and Present. Main Papers Presented at the Sixth International Conference for Nubian Studies in Uppsala, 11–16 August, 1986, edited by T. Hägg. Stockholm: Almquist & Wiksell International, 113–28.Suche in Google Scholar

Bourdieu, P. 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice (Trans. Nice, R). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511812507Suche in Google Scholar

Bourriau, J. D. 1990. “The Pottery.” In Deir el-Ballas. Preliminary Report on the Deir el-Ballas Expedition, 1980–1986, American Research Centre in Egypt Reports 12, edited by P. Lacovara, 15–22. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.Suche in Google Scholar

Bourriau, J. 2009. “Mace’s Cemetery Y at Diospolis Parva.” In Sitting Beside Lepsius. Studies in Honour of Jaromir Malek at the Griffith Institute, edited by D. Magee, J. D. Bourriau and S. Quirke, 39–98. OLA 185. Leuven: Peeters.Suche in Google Scholar

Bourriau, J., and S. Giuliani. 2016. “Nubian Pottery.” In Survey of Memphis VIII. Kom Rabia: The Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period Pottery, edited by J. D. Bourriau, and C. Gallorini. EM 108, 239–42. London: Egypt Exploration Society.Suche in Google Scholar

Brunton, G. 1930. Qau and Badari III. Publications of the Egyptian Research Account and British School of Archaeology in Egypt 50. London: Quaritch.Suche in Google Scholar

Brunton, G. 1937. Mostagedda and the Tasian Culture. London: Quaritch.Suche in Google Scholar

Cohen, E. 1992. Egyptianization and the Acculturation Process: An investigation of the Pan-Grave, Kerman, and C-Group material cultures in Egypt and the Sudan during the Second Intermediate Period and Eighteenth Dynasty. New Haven: PhD dissertation submitted to Yale University.Suche in Google Scholar

Cooper, J. 2021. “Between the Nile and the Red Sea. Medjay Desert Polities in the Third to First Millennium BCE.” Old World: Journal of Ancient Africa and Eurasia: 1–22, https://doi.org/10.1163/26670755-01010001.Suche in Google Scholar

Cooper, J., and H. Barnard. 2017. “New Insights on the Inscription on a Painted Pan-Grave Bucranium, Grave 3252 at Cemetery 3100/3200, Mostagedda (Middle Egypt).” AAR 34: 363–76, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-017-9261-3.Suche in Google Scholar

de Meyer, M., N. Wim van, C. Peeters, and H. Willems. 2005–2006. “The Role of Animals in the Funerary Rites are Dayr al-Barshā.” JARCE 42: 45–71.Suche in Google Scholar

de Souza, A. 2013. “The Egyptianisation of the Pan-Grave Culture.” BACE 24: 109–26.Suche in Google Scholar

de Souza, A. 2019a. New Horizons: The Pan-Grave Ceramic Tradition in Context. Middle Kingdom Studies, Vol. 9. London: Golden House Publications.Suche in Google Scholar

de Souza, A. 2019b. “Nubians, Nubians Everywhere.” Nekhen News 31: 26–7.Suche in Google Scholar

de Souza, A. 2020a. “Melting Pots: Entanglement, Appropriation, Hybridity, and Assertive Objects Between the Pan-Grave and Egyptian Ceramic Traditions.” JAEI 27: 1–23.Suche in Google Scholar

de Souza, A. 2020b. “Pots, Gold, and Viceroys: Shifting Dynamics of Egyptian-Nubian Relations at the Transition to the New Kingdom, from the Viewpoint of Middle Nubian Pottery at Tell Edfu.” ÄuL 30: 314–43, https://doi.org/10.1553/aeundl30s313.Suche in Google Scholar

de Souza, A. 2021. “After ‘InBetween’: Disentangling Cultural Contacts Across Nubia During the Second Millennium BC.” Sudan & Nubia 25: 230–42, https://doi.org/10.32028/sudan_and_nubia_25_pp230-242.Suche in Google Scholar

Emberling, G., and B. B. Williams. 2010. “The Kingdom of Kush in the 4th Cataract: Archaeological Salvage of the Oriental Institute Nubian Expedition 2007 Season. Part I. Preliminary Report on the Sites of Hosh el-Guruf and El-Widay.” Gdansk Archaeological Museum and Heritage Protection Fund African Reports 7: 17–38.Suche in Google Scholar

Emberling, G., B. B. Williams, M. Ingvoldstad, and T. R. James. 2014. “Peripheral Vision: Identity at the margins of the Early Kingdom of Kush.” In The Fourth Cataract and Beyond. Proceeding of the 12th International Conference for Nubian Studies, edited by J. Anderson, and D. Welsby. British Museum Publications on Egypt and Sudan 1. Leuven: Peeters, 328–36.Suche in Google Scholar

Firth, C. M. 1912. The Archaeological Survey of Nubia. Report for 1908–1909. Cairo: Government Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Firth, C. M. 1915. The Archaeological Survey of Nubia. Report for 1909–1910. Cairo: Government Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Firth, C. M. 1927. The Archaeological Survey of Nubia. Report for 1910–1911. Cairo: Government Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Friedman, R. 2001. “Nubians at Hierakonpolis. Excavations in the Nubian Cemeteries.” Sudan & Nubia 5: 29–38.Suche in Google Scholar

Gatto, M. C. 2014. “Peripatetic Nomads along the Nile: Unfolding the Nubian Pan-Grave Culture of the Second Intermediate Period.” JAEI 6/1: 11–28, https://doi.org/10.2458/azu_jaei_v06i1_gatto.Suche in Google Scholar

Gatto, M. C., A. Curci, and U. Alberto. 2014. “Nubian Evidence in the Egyptian First Nome: Results of the 2013–2014 field seasons of the Aswan – Kom Ombo Archaeological Project (AKAP).” JAEI 6/4: 38–41.10.2458/azu_jaei_v06i4_gattoSuche in Google Scholar

Harris, O. J. T., and C. N. Cipolla. 2017. Archaeological Theory in the New Millennium. Introducing Current Perspectives. London and New York: Routledge.10.4324/9781315713250Suche in Google Scholar

Köhler, E. C. 2020. “Of Culture Wars and the Clash of Civilisations in Prehistoric Egypt – An Epistemological Analysis.” ÄuL 30: 17–58, https://doi.org/10.1553/aeundl30s17.Suche in Google Scholar

Kraemer, B., and K. Liszka. 2016. “Evidence for Administration of the Nubian Fortress in the Late Middle Kingdom: The Semna Dispatches.” Journal of Egyptian History 9: 1–65, https://doi.org/10.1163/18741665-12340026.Suche in Google Scholar

Lemos, R., and Budka, J. 2021. “Alternatives to Colonization and Marginal Identities in New Kingdom Colonial Nubia (1550–1070 BCE).” World Archaeology 53: 1–18, doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2021.1999853.Suche in Google Scholar

Liszka, K. 2012. “We Have Come to Serve Pharaoh”: A Study of the Medjay and Pangrave as an Ethnic Group and as Mercenaries from c. 2300 BCE Until c. 1050 BCE. Philadelphia: PhD Dissertation submitted to the University of Pennsylvania.Suche in Google Scholar

Liszka, K. 2015. “Are the Bearers of the Pan-Grave Archaeological Culture Identical to the Medjay-People in the Egyptian Textual Record?” JAEI 7/2: 42–60.10.2458/azu_jaei_v07i2_liszkaSuche in Google Scholar

Liszka, K., and A. M. de Souza. 2021. “Pan-Grave and Medjay: At the Intersection of Archaeology and History.” In Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia, edited by G. Emberling, and B. B. Williams, 227–49. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190496272.013.13Suche in Google Scholar

Lorton, D. 1973. “The So-Called “Vile” Enemies of the King of Egypt (in the Middle Kingdom and Dyn. XVIII).” JARCE 10: 65–70, https://doi.org/10.2307/40001018.Suche in Google Scholar

Mace, A. C. 1901. “The Tombs of the XIIIth to XVIIIth Dynasties.” In Diospolis Parva. The Cemeteries of Abadiyeh and Hu, edited by Flinders Petrie, W. M., 50–53. London: Quaritch.Suche in Google Scholar

Manassa, C. 2012. “Middle Nubian Ceramics from Umm Mawagir, Kharga Oasis.” In Nubian Pottery from Egyptian Cultural Contexts of the Middle and Early New Kingdom. Proceedings of a Workshop Held at the Austrian Archaeological Institute at Cairo, 1–12 December 2010, edited by I. Forstner-Müller, and P. Rose, pp. 129–48. Ergänzungshefte zu den Jahresheften des Österreichischen Archäologischen Institutes in Wien 13. Vienna: Austrian Archaeological Institute.Suche in Google Scholar

Manzo, A. 2017a. Eastern Sudan in its Regional Setting. The Archaeology of a Region far from the Nile Valley. Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology, Vol. 94. Oxford: Archaeopress.10.2307/j.ctv1zcm1zsSuche in Google Scholar

Manzo, A. 2017b. “The Territorial Expanse of the Pan-Grave Culture Thirty Years Later.” Sudan & Nubia 21: 99–112.Suche in Google Scholar

Manzo, A. 2020. “Clash of Civilisations on the First Cataract? A Southern Point of View, from Old Assumptions to New Complexities.” ÄuL 30: 101–13, https://doi.org/10.1553/aeundl30s101.Suche in Google Scholar

Moers, G. 2015. “‘Egyptian Identity’? Unlikely, and Never National.” In Fuzzy Boundaries. Festschrift für Antonio Loprieno, edited by H. Amstutz, A. Dorn, M. Müller, M. Ronsdorf, and S. Uljas, 693–704. Hamburg: Widmaier Verlag.Suche in Google Scholar

Näser, C. 2012. “Nomads at the Nile: Towards an Archaeology of Interaction.” In The History of the Peoples of the Eastern Desert, edited by H. Barnard, and K. Duistermaat, 80–9. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology UCLA.10.2307/j.ctvdjrr5t.8Suche in Google Scholar

Näser, C. 2017. “Structures and Realities of the Egyptian Presence in Lower Nubia from the Middle Kingdom to the New Kingdom: The Egyptian Cemetery S/SA at Aniba.” In Nubia in the New Kingdom. Lived experience, pharaonic control, and indigenous traditions, edited by N. Spencer, A. Stevens, and M. Binder, 557–74. Leuven: Peeters.Suche in Google Scholar

Peet, T. E. 1914. The Cemeteries of Abydos Part II. 1911–1912. Egypt Exploration Fund. Memoir 34. London: Egypt Exploration Society.Suche in Google Scholar

Petrie, W. M. F. 1901. Diospolis Parva. The Cemeteries of Abadiyeh and Hu. Egypt Exploration Fund. Memoir. London: Egypt Exploration Society.Suche in Google Scholar

Raue, D. 2002. “Nubians on Elephantine.” Sudan & Nubia 6: 20–4.Suche in Google Scholar

Raue, D. 2012. “Medja vs. Kerma at the First Cataract – Terminological Problems.” In Nubian Pottery from Egyptian Cultural Contexts of the Middle and Early New Kingdom. Proceedings of a Workshop held at the Austrian Archaeological Institute at Cairo, 1–12 December 2010, edited by I. Forstner-Müller, and P. Rose, 49–58. Ergänzungshefte zu den Jahresheften des Österreichischen Archäologischen Institutes in Wien 13. Vienna: Austrian Archaeological Institute.Suche in Google Scholar

Raue, D. 2018. Elephantine und Nubien vom. 4.-2. Jahrtausend v. Chr. Berlin: De Gruyter.Suche in Google Scholar

Raue, D. 2019. “Nubians in Egypt in the 3rd and 2nd Millennium BC.” In Handbook of Ancient Nubia, Vol. 2, edited by D. Raue, 567–88. Berlin: de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110420388-024Suche in Google Scholar

Reisner, G. 1910. The Archaeological Survey of Nubia. Report for 1907–1908. Cairo: Government Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Säve-Söderbergh, T. 1941. Ägypten und Nubien. Ein Beitrag zue Geschichte altägyptischer Aussenpolitik. Lund: Håkan Ohlssons Boktryckeri.Suche in Google Scholar

Säve-Söderbergh, T. 1989. Middle Nubian Sites. SJE Volume 4. Partille: Paul Åström Editions.Suche in Google Scholar

Schneider, T. 2003a. Ausländer in Ägypten während des Mittleren Reiches und der Hyksoszeit. Teil 2. Die ausländische Bevölkerung, Vol. ÄAT 42. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Suche in Google Scholar

Schneider, T. 2003b. “Foreign Egypt: Egyptology and the Concept of Cultural Appropriation.” ÄuL 13: 155–61.10.1553/AEundL13s155Suche in Google Scholar

Schneider, T. 2010. “Foreigners in Egypt. Archaeological Evidence and Cultural Context.” In Egyptian Archaeology, edited by W. Wendrich, 143–63. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.Suche in Google Scholar

Seiler, A. 2005. Tradition und Wandel. Die Keramik als Spiegel der Kulturentwicklung Thebens in der Zweiten Zwischenzeit. SDAIK 32. Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern.Suche in Google Scholar

Smith, V. 2010. Modelling the Mechanics of Temple Production in the Middle Kingdom: An Investigation of the Shena of Divine Offerings Adjacent to the Mortuary Temple of Senwosret III at Abydos, Egypt. Philadelphia: PhD Dissertation submitied to the University of Pennsylvania.Suche in Google Scholar

Steindorff, G. 1935. Aniba I. Glückstadt and Hamburg: J. J. Augustin.Suche in Google Scholar

Stockhammer, P. W. 2012. “Conceptualizing Cultural Hybridity in Archaeology.” In Conceptualizing Cultural Hybridization. A Transdisciplinary Approach, edited by P. W. Stockhammer. Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context, 43–58. Heidelberg: Springer.10.1007/978-3-642-21846-0_4Suche in Google Scholar

Stockhammer, P. W. 2013. “From Hybridity to Entanglement, From Essentialism to Practice.” In Archaeology and Cultural Mixture. Archaeological Review from Cambridge, Vol. 28/1, edited by van Pelt, W. P., 11–28.Suche in Google Scholar

Van Pelt, W. P. 2013. “Revising Egypto-Nubian Relations in New Kingdom Lower Nubia: From Egyptianization to Cultural Entanglement.” CAJ 23/3: 523–50, https://doi.org/10.1017/s0959774313000528.Suche in Google Scholar

Voss, S. 2019. “Weiße Pharaonen. Bemerkungen zu Menschenbild, Zeitgeist und Terminologie in ägyptologischen Schriften des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts.” In En détail – Philologie und Archäologie im Diskurs. Festschrift für Hans-Werner Fischer-Elfert, Volume 2. ZÄS Beiheft 7/2, edited by M. Brose, P. Dils, F. Naether, L. Popko, and D. Raue, 1211–34. Berlin: De Gruyter.10.1515/9783110629705-062Suche in Google Scholar

Wainwright, G. 1920. Balabish. Egypt Exploration Fund. Memoir 37. London: George Allen & Unwin.Suche in Google Scholar

Wegner, J. 2007. The Mortuary Temple of Senwosret III at Abydos. Publication of the Pennsylvania-Yale Expedition to Egypt, Vol. 8. New Haven: Yale Egyptological Seminar.Suche in Google Scholar

Weigall, A. E. P. 1907. A Report on the Antiquities of Lower Nubia (The First Cataract to the Sudan Frontier) and their condition in 1906–7. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Wenger, E. 1998. Communities of Practice. Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive, and Computational Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511803932Suche in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2022-07-12
Published in Print: 2022-11-25

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Heruntergeladen am 30.9.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/janeh-2021-0015/html
Button zum nach oben scrollen