The book delivers a history from below for the first half of Egyptian
history covering the earliest settlements, state formation and the
pyramid age. The focus is on the Wadjet province, about 350 km south of
modern Cairo in Upper Egypt. Herearchaeological records provide an
especially rich dataset for the material culture of farmers. Histories
of Ancient Egypt have focussed heavily on the kings, monuments and
inscriptions, while the working population is hardly mentioned. The book
investigates the life of people far from the centers of power. One main
aim of the book is the interaction between farmers and the ruling
classes at the centers of power and locally. How did decisions at the
royal center affect the life of ordinary people? The Introduction offers
a critical survey of Egyptologists and their attitudes towards the
working class. The social and cultural background of these researchers
is analyzed to assess how heavily they are influenced by time and their
political and cultural background.
The first chapter then describes the location and gives a history of
previous research and excavations. The archaeological sites and the
recorded ancient place names of the province are presented to provide a
geographical framework for the book. The following chapters are arranged
in chronological order, mainly according to the archaeological phases
visible in the province. It appears that in phases of a weak central
government, people in the provinces were much better off, while in
phases of a strong central government burials of poorer people are
almost absent. The reasons for this are discussed.
A substantial part of the book comprises descriptions of single burials
and the material culture in the province. The archaeology of the poorer
people is the main focus. Burial customs and questions of production are
discussed. For a fuller picture, evidence from other parts of Egypt is
also taken into account. Thus settlement sites in other regions are
presented to provide contemporary evidence for living conditions in
particular periods.
As the book will focus on the lower classes, the Tributary Mode of
Production will be used as the main theoretical framework. The Tributary
Mode of Production (previously known as the Asiatic Mode of Production)
is a term that goes back to Karl Marx, but was mainly used in the 20th
century to describe ancient societies whose economies were not based on
slaves. A constant question will be the status of the working
population. Were they slaves, serfs or free citizens? It will be argued
that they were most often in a dependent position comparable to that of
serfs, while there is little evidence for slavery. The numerous burials
presented in the volume are important for highlighting the diversity of
burials in the different periods. Many will be placed in special
subchapters. Readers can skip these chapters when they prefer to
concentrate on the main text
