Search results for ""author wolfram grajetzki""

During the late Middle Kingdom (about 1850-1700 B.C.E.), ancient Egyptian women of high standing were interred with lavish ornamentation and carefully gathered possessions. Buried near the pyramids of kings, women with royal connections or great wealth and status were surrounded by fine pottery and vessels for sacred oils, bedecked with gold and precious stones, and honored with royal insignia and marks of Osiris. Their funerary possessions include jewelry imported from other ancient lands and gold-handled daggers and claspless jewelry made only to be worn in the tomb. Extensively illustrated with archival images and the author's own drawings, Tomb Treasures of the Late Middle Kingdom describes and compares the opulent tombs of eminent and royal women. In addition to the ornaments, many of which are considered masterpieces of Middle Kingdom craft, Egyptologist Wolfram Grajetzki examines the numerous grave goods, artifacts of daily life, and markers of social status that were also placed in tombs, presenting a more complete picture of funerary customs in this period. By considering celebrated examples of female burials together for the first time, Tomb Treasures of the Late Middle Kingdom sheds new light on the role and status of women in the royal court and explores how the gendered identity of those women was preserved in the grave.

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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. Here archaeological 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 centres of power. One main aim of the book is the interaction between farmers and the ruling classes at the centres of power and locally. How did decisions at the royal centre 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 analysed 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.

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'Death on the Nile: Uncovering the Afterlife of Ancient Egypt' reflects the continuing public fascination with Egyptian coffins, mummies and burials. This new volume draws on 100 objects from the Fitzwilliam Museum's Egyptian collection, and deepens our understanding of the lives and concerns of ancient Egyptians as they prepared themselves for death and burial. The book builds on the growing trend in Egyptology to use techniques of scientific analysis and imaging to examine artefacts from Egyptian antiquity. The Fitzwilliam Museum has carried out an extensive project, involving Egyptologists, research scientists and conservators, to investigate every aspect of its impressive collection of coffins and shed new light on their production in the workshops of ancient Egypt. 'Death on the Nile' traces the religious beliefs of the people for whom the coffins were created, and how those beliefs changed over time. Comparisons of contemporaneous coffins likewise reveal how the economic and political structure of the period determined the burial options available to individuals in different social strata. Choices of materials and methods used to create the coffins add to the human story of the daily concerns and aspirations of the customer, and practical realities for the craftsman. AUTHOR: Helen Strudwick is curator of the Egyptian galleries at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. SELLING POINTS: . Features 90 objects from the Fitzwilliam's remarkable Egyptian collection, with additional contextual drawings, paintings, diagrams and photographs . A fascinating insight into the daily concerns and aspirations of the customer and practical realities for the craftsman. 200 colour illustrations

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