Subaltern elites in the funerary landscape of the late Old Kingdom and early First Intermediate Period at Zawyet Sultan

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Richard Bußmann
• Subject Area: Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 440396169

The project contributes to current research on the social differentiation of local communities in the late Old Kingdom and the early First Intermediate Period of Egypt, ca. 2400-2200 BC. Traditionally, the provincial governors ("Gaufürsten") and their extended households have been the focus of research. In contrast, the proposed project explores the lower elites that emerged in the course of Egypt's regionalization and were an important link between local communities and formalized state administration. The project focuses on the question of how the subaltern elite of the provincial capital Hebenu was embedded in the material practices and social fabric of the funerary landscape of Zawyet Sultan. In order to answer this question, selected tombs which, according to current knowledge, can be attributed to members of the lower elite are documented, compared with similar findings, classified in regional patterns and discussed against the background of current debates on the regionalization of Egypt in the Old Kingdom. The documentation includes archaeological, geophysical and scientific methods. On this basis, the project will draw a more nuanced picture of this important social group than is possible with previous excavations at other sites. The excavations currently being carried out at Zawyet Sultan open up an excellent opportunity to make the subaltern elite visible as part of a dynamic arrangement of social relations and distinctions in the cemetery, and to trace their emergence at this site. The project contributes to modelling the transition from the Old Kingdom to the First Intermediate Period, which is considered an era of "collapse" of centralized rule, in its local contexts.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants