Description
- Abstract:
- This is a study of formal, royal Egyptian stelae that were carved into living-rock outcrops. The driving research question is twofold: under what circumstances did Egypt’s kings choose to commission their stelae in living rock, and what role did this medium play in their creation and reception? This dissertation brings Egyptian texts into broader dialogues about human-environment interactions using a theoretical framework for an archaeology of inscribed natural places. The stelae cluster mainly in areas of strategic importance and those where one or more natural features were ritually significant. I divide the case study sites into three groups: sacred landscapes, expedition routes, and the sites of Egypt’s imperial boundaries. All three of these inscribed landscape types have clear parallels elsewhere in the ancient Near East. Despite differences in the motivations that lie behind the creation of individual stelae, I argue that in all of the situations where kings commissioned these monuments, the medium of living rock was an essential part of whatever message they wished to convey. As a group, the stelae were carved in liminal landscapes, especially at boundaries or in boundary zones, and were made mainly during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties. These monuments were usually carved into features that represented or were immediately adjacent to points of alterity in the local landscape: features that would have already seemed ‘monumental’ before they were carved. Some of their outcrops were conceived as points in the cosmic geography that had been transposed onto the landscapes of the living. Their texts relate directly to their spatial contexts or to broader geographic networks of which they were a part. Using the stelae as a proxy, this study demonstrates that there was a clear conceptual difference between living rock and cut stone in the Egyptian world: in-situ rock formations carried a sense of permanence and timelessness; were inherently linked with the deep time into which momentous events were entered; were associated with the primordial; and were conceived as points in the cosmic geography, poking through into the world of the living.
- Notes:
- Thesis (Ph. D.)--Brown University, 2019
Access Conditions
- Rights
- In Copyright
- Restrictions on Use
- All rights reserved. Collection is open to the Brown community for research.
Citation
Thum, Jennifer G.,
"Words in the Landscape: The Mechanics of Egyptian Royal Living-Rock Stelae"
(2019).
Graduate Research Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.26300/aq3f-c495
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Graduate Research Theses and Dissertations
Theses and Dissertations for the Graduate Research department....