13

Nov

ARCE PA: A City for the Dead: Patronage and Tomb Construction in the Old Kingdom

Registration is required

Presented by: Dr. Violaine Chauvet, Liverpool University



If you are a member of ARCE-PA, you will find a link to register in the emails that are sent out about the lecture.



If you are not a member of ARCE-PA, please visit our website to sign-up for the link: arce-pa.org or contact us at info@arce-pa.org

  • 1:30 PM ETPennsylvania
  • Zoom
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If you are a member of ARCE-PA, you will find a link to register in the emails that are sent out about the lecture.

If you are not a member of ARCE-PA, please visit our website to sign-up for the link: arce-pa.org or contact us at info@arce-pa.org

Lecture Information: 

The objective of this paper is to look at the influence of patronage – the informal binding network of social relations operating within the official State hierarchy – on the construction of Old Kingdom private tombs, through the lens of third-party dedications or commemorative inscriptions. How do these tomb inscriptions reflect on this complex and fluid system which underpinned the occupation of royal cemeteries?

When looking at the settlement pattern of Old Kingdom royal cemeteries, Giza or Saqqara, it is generally understood that secondary burials come to encroach on an original, somewhat prescribed, settlement, thus embedding in death the social structure and the links of dependency that sustained the community in life. Equivalency criteria between the archaeological evidence and the social construct, however, are more complex and variable than usually accounted for; they are defined by changing socio-historical factors (and often geographical ones) and therefore cannot be blindly mapped out. A source critical analysis of the material is consequently needed to flush out the culturally and historically defined social parameter at play in any given setting (cemetery).