Provincial Mastabas and the Expression of Elite Power: A Study of Two Upper Egyptian Provinces in the Old Kingdom

Tomkins, Jessica

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Year:: 2019
Contributor:: Tomkins, Jessica (creator); Allen, James (Advisor); Bestock, Laurel (Reader); Der Manuelian, Peter (Reader); Brown University. Department of Egyptology and Assyriology (sponsor)
Genre:: theses
Subject:: Old Kingdom; Egyptology; Provincial Elite
Extent:: xiii, 282 p.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.26300/7a08-8321

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Abstract:: This thesis questions and investigates how the mastabas at the case study sites of Dendera and Elkab express elite provincial power in order to understand how the relationships of power between the king, the provincial elite, and their local community intersected and shifted throughout the Old Kingdom. The increasing trend, particularly from the Fifth Dynasty onward, of elites being buried in the provinces rather than at the royal necropolis has led to the notion of the ‘rise of the provincial elite’, usually explained as the result of either an increase of royal or elite political power. Since this notion is based on the shift of burials from Memphis to the provinces, this research investigates how provincial mastabas themselves express elite power. By theorizing power in ancient Egypt, this work demonstrates that the provincial mastabas cannot be viewed so simplistically as they reflect different types of power dependent on the audience. The physical building expressed the power of the deceased through the location and materiality of the tomb. By building their tombs within sight of the town, the elite modified the provincial landscape and implanted themselves in it, remaining part of their local community. By clustering their tombs together based on both date and size, the elite used their mastabas to emphasize and reinforce the social relationships that existed between contemporaneous elites, so that the afterlife would mirror the social structures they engaged with while alive. An examination of the most common titles displayed in the mastabas shows few inherent ties to the central government. They express instead the religious power of the elite. It is argued that this religious power, legitimized through the divine institution of kingship rather than the physical person of the king himself, was expressed in order to attain a favorable afterlife, in lieu of being buried in physical proximity to the king. This research concludes that elite provincial mastabas at Dendera and Elkab were not simply reflections of changing political powers, but display a concurrent negotiation of political power, religious power, and social power between the elite, the king, and the local community.
Notes:: Thesis (Ph. D.)--Brown University, 2019

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Tomkins, Jessica, "Provincial Mastabas and the Expression of Elite Power: A Study of Two Upper Egyptian Provinces in the Old Kingdom" (2019). Egyptology and Assyriology Theses and Dissertations. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://doi.org/10.26300/7a08-8321

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Egyptology and Assyriology Theses and Dissertations

Theses and Dissertations for the Egyptology and Assyriology department.
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