Archaeology of Everyday life in Ancient Egypt

Pre-requisites: The command of the English language and the basic use of German or French.

Course objectives: To enable the study and review of social processes using the remains of material culture based on complex and varied data using a theoretical and methodological approach, with the aim of training candidates for independent research.

Course description: The research of everyday life entails different aspects of social behavior, from the relation of a society to its environment, the collection and or production of raw materials and food, organization of living space and the way in which different activities are organized, across social rules of behaving, the question of social structure, family, religiousness and the rituals for the dead, to the institutions and interaction of individuals or a group with them. The essence of the course is analysis of the manner in which social and historic processes influence the form of everyday life and how, based on material remains, it may be reconstructed. During the introductory part of the curse these processes will be reviewed using particular examples, and prepared to accommodate the needs of the candidate’s research (the analysis of primary sources and interpretation).

Learning Outcomes: Essay, oral examination

Literature/Reading:

• Ambridge, L.J., Searching History: Non-Elite in Ancient Egypt, History Compass 5/2 (2007) 632-645.
• Bloxam, E., Miners and Mistresses. Middle Kingdom mining on the margins, Journal of Social Archaeology 6:2 (2006) 277-303.
• Fischer, H.G., Egyptian Women of the Old Kingdom and of the Heracleopolitan Period, New York 2000. http://www.gizapyramids.org/code/emuseum.asp?newpage=authors_list#F
• Ezzamel, M., Work Organization in the Middle Kingdom, Ancient Egypt, Organization 11:4 (2004) 497-537.
• Grajetzki, W., The Middle Kingdom of ancient Egypt: history, archaeology and society, London : Duckworth, 2006.
• Meskell, L., Cycles of life and death: narrative homology and archaeological realities, World Archaeology 31-3 (2000) 423-441.
• Meskell, L., Private Life in New Kingdom Egypt, Princeton and Oxford 2002.
• Roth, A. M., The Absent Spouse: Patterns and Taboos in Egyptian Tomb Decoration, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 34 (1999) 37-55.
• Riad, S., Organization’s Engagements with Ancient Egypt: Framing and Claiming the Sublime?, Organization 15:4 (2008) 475-512.
• Seidlmayer, S.J., People at Beni Hassan: Contributions to a Model of Ancient Egyptian Rural Society, in: Z.Hawass and J. Richards (Eds.), The Archaeology and Art of Ancient Egypt. Essyas in Honor of David B. O’Connor, Vol. 2, Le Caire 2007, 351-368.
• Vasiljević, V., Neka pitanja o funkciji portreta u dinastičkom Egiptu, Glasnik SAD 9 (1993) 25-30.
• Vasiljević, V., Der Grabherr und seine Frau. Zur Ikonographie der Status- und Machtverhältnisse in den Privatgräbern des Alten Reiches, in: Studien zur altägyptischen Kultur 36 (2007) 333-345.
• Bowman, A.K. and E. Rogan (eds.), Agriculture in Egypt: from pharaonic to modern times, Proceedings of the British Academy 96, Oxford: Oxford University Press for The British Academy 1999.
• David, A. R., The pyramid builders of ancient Egypt: a modern investigation of pharaoh’s workforce, London and New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986
• Gillam, R., Performance and Drama in Ancient Egypt, London 2005, 1-25, 149-155.
• James, T.G.H., Pharaoh’s people. Scenes from life in imperial Egypt, Oxford and Melbourne 1985. (prevod na nemački: James, T.G.H., Pharaos Volk: Leben im alten Ägypten, Zürich & München 1988).
• Meskell, L., Object Worlds in Ancient Egypt. Material biographies past and present, Oxford and New York 2004.
• J.M.Sasson (ed.), Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, vols. I-IV, New York 2000.
• Szpakowska, K., Daily Life in Ancient Egypt. Recreating Lahun, Oxford 2008.
• Tyldesley, J., Daughters of Isis: women of ancient Egypt, London 1995.
• Toivari-Vitala, J., Women at Deir El-Medina. A Study of the Status and Roles of Female Inhabitants in the Workmen’s Community during theRamesside Period, Leiden 2001.
• Uphill, E.P., Egyptian Towns and Cities, Shire Egyptology 8, 1988.
• Vasiljević, V., Untersuchungen zum Gefolge des Grabherrn in den Gräbern des Alten Reiches, Zentrum für Archäologische Untersuchungen, Band 15, Belgrad 1995.