Provincial residences and provincial temples at Bubastis: New archaeological contributions to the emergence of administrative central places of the Old Kingdom Nile Delta

• Applicant: Privatdozentin Dr. Eva Lange-Athinodorou
• Subject Area: Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 517238558

In the urbanization process at the end of the 4th and 3rd millennia B.C. in Egypt, provincial residences and provincial temples were both driving and constituting factors in the emergence of central places. As local hubs of provincial administration and physical manifestations of institutional power, they ensured the continuous connection between provinces, central places, and the royal capital. However, the lack of evidence in the archaeological horizon of the provinces of the 4th-5th dynasties and the lack of significant textual material on provincial residences has led to intensive but one-sided research on provincial temples. As a result, fundamental questions concerning the temporal, functional, and sociocultural relationships of both institutions and the actors operating within their spheres have remained unresolved, with far-reaching consequences for our understanding of the genesis of central sites and the functioning and change of provincial administration of the Old Kingdom, especially in the Nile Delta. The applicant has recently discovered a provincial residence of the 4th-5th dynasty on the western Kom of Bubastis near the local temple of Bastet, overbuilt by two royal ka temples of the 6th dynasty. Together with the possible existence of a provincial residence from the end of the Old Kingdom on the northern Kom this material offers for the first time the opportunity to address this topic on a firm basis. The above mentioned spatio-temporal and functional relations between provincial residence and provincial temple in their natural and cultural landscape can now be investigated at one place using the well-preserved archaeological remains of the 4th-6th Dynasty at Bubastis. The contextual archaeological and philological documentation of architecture and functional areas of provincial residence(s), provincial temples and local agents at Bubastis (the latter to be identified via titles and prosopography) will enable the project to investigate their contribution to the evolution of Bubastis as a central place of the Old Kingdom Nile Delta in the context of other factors generated by the regional natural and cultural landscape. In addition, we will use the obtained data to locate the place of provincial residences and provincial temples in the network of the administration of the Nile Delta in the Old Kingdom, their institutional reach and the relations between province and royal residence.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants