This novel work uses case studies of both familiar and unfamiliar
materials, expanding consideration of ancient Egyptian elite culture to
encompass lived experience and exploitation of the natural environment.
The opening chapter sets out the conceptual ground for the analyses that
follow, arguing that the relatively ephemeral activities under
investigation were centrally important to the actors. The first and
largest study treats human organization of the landscape and its use to
create and transmit elite meanings, especially through pictorial and
encyclopaedic forms, and to mobilize emotional values. Next, a treatment
of the planning of primarily third millennium settlements on the
floodplain argues that Egypt offers a partly rural perspective that
provides an alternative to the urban focus of many early civilizations
but has parallels in elite culture in much of the world. The third study
discusses how a single year's events were orchestrated to culminate in a
celebratory hunt in which the king, his court, and high officials
participated. The concluding chapter presents an initial synthesis of
Egyptian treatments of elite experience, drawing in particular upon
additional evidence from literary texts and attitudes to travel.
Throughout the book, aesthetics and the cultivation of pleasure and
delight are emphasized as essential to ancient elite life.
