s 7 Preface 17 Salima Ikram, Jessica Kaiser and Roxie Walker

Egyptian Bioarchaeology. Humans, Animals, and the Environment

Copper model tools were usually part of the elite burial equipment during the Old Kingdom in the Ancient Egypt. Definition of tool types is based on the semiotic triangle and a correct reading and interpretation of the artefacts is approached here. Model tools present in the burial equipment were tools for stone- and wood-working, these being materials of conspicuous consumption in the period. Tools are examined as symbols of the patron–craftsman relationship, where the ownership of the copper tools was the patron’s. Copper model tools were standardized and a connection between the size and amount of copper model tools and social status of the buried persons is explored. Persons with higher status had access to larger amounts of copper; however, the rules of the access were changing and access to copper was widening during the Old Kingdom.

Social context of the Old Kingdom copper model tools

The early to mid-4th Dynasty (c. 2600-2500 BCE) stands out as a peak of monumentality in the early historical periods of Pharaonic Egypt. Within 100 years, Sneferu, Khufu, and Radjedef built pyramids on an unprecedented scale at Maidum, Dahshur, Giza, and Abu Rawash. Pyramid construction absorbed enormous resources and reflects a new quality of large-scale organization and centralization. Pyramids are the nucleus of Old Kingdom court cemeteries. The early 4th Dynasty examples were a template for the generations following the 4th Dynasty. Like few other sites, the workmen settlements and ancillary buildings in Giza and Dahshur allow for a “contextual approach,” embedding pyramids in the interplay of people, materials, and landscape. The areas outside the political center are less well-known, although the body of evidence is constantly growing. The imbalance of the record makes the relationship of center and periphery one of the key questions for research on the 4th Dynasty.

https://escholarship.org/content/qt9wz0c837/qt9wz0c837.pdf?t=qxvc0j

Pyramid Age: Huni to Radjedef

This paper explores how recent anthropological methodologies (materialities approach) as well as concepts at the interface between archaeology and anthropology (experiential and sensual archaeology) inevitably widens the boundaries of Egyptology. Egyptology however does not only have to be the recipient of new ideas. The material culture of ancient Egypt can equally enrich the discussion of new intellectual frameworks like New Materialism or New Materialities within anthropology. Testing advantages, practicalities and limitations of such theories with the help of the materiality of objects can lead either to their verification and subsequent implementation or in contrast to a – partial – falsification and rework. 
The crossing point between anthropology and Egyptology is especially interesting and beneficial for the discussion of unprovenanced museum objects whose information regarding the context of origin and any indication of what happened with the artefacts between the moment of discovery and today is completely or partially lost.
Taking inspiration from Latour’s actants, Barad’s agential realism and Bennett’s thing power – relating the potential of agency to materials and objects in human lives – the presented case study contributes to a discussion of the physical relationship of material objects and the human body focusing on states when materiality seeps deliberately and dangerously into immateriality. This is explored at the example of unpublished headrests from the Cyfarthfa Castle Museum, Merthyr Tydfil (Wales, UK) by looking on the intersection of bodies with the material that also could be interpreted as inter-material communication. Impressions of fabric on their wooden surface are presumably the imprint of bedding intended to ensure comfortable sleep telling us about the sensual experience using these artefacts. The contact between skin and rough wood needed to be alleviated. This theoretical discussion is then set against an experimental and experiential archaeological approach focusing on sensual experiences with these headrests.

Did You Sleep Well on Your Headrest?—Anthropological Perspectives on an Ancient Egyptian Implement

In ancient Egypt, both textual and archaeological sources point to a tie between sleep and death. This connection takes different shapes such as the usage of beds and headrests in burials, the role of the sun in beliefs about the afterlife and the linkage between the netherworld and the world of dreams. It is argued here that the complementary conceptual metaphors death is sleep and awakening is resurrection allow for a unitary explanation of these observations. The theoretical background of conceptual metaphor and conceptual blending offers a useful approach to elucidate past imaginations due to its grounding in embodied realism. By recognizing material and multimodal metaphors in Egyptians burial customs, the infusion of magical agency into funerary rituals can be better understood. Especially the headrest acquired a reputation as an aid in entering the afterlife through a conflation of several layers of symbolism, thereby touching upon the mental, bodily and social aspect of religion.

Death is sleep

The undisturbed shaft deposit G7000x in front of the Great Pyramid at Giza has been regarded as the tomb of Queen Hetepheres I, even though it did not contain a mummy. The absence of the mummy has posed problems for the finds categorization as a tomb and has given rise to elaborate hypotheses. As shown here, these difficulties can be largely eliminated if the find is understood as a funerary deposit and not a tomb. The new categorization is also significant for the understanding of Old Kingdom funerary practices.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0003598X00060543

Categorizing archaeological finds: the funerary material of Queen Hetepheres I at Giza

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Categorizing archaeological finds: the funerary material of Queen Hetepheres I at Giza