Tenth International Congress of Egyptologists Abstracts of Papers

XICE – Abstract of Papers
have been extensively catalogued and studied. More recently, such scenes have been
viewed as not just art, but as a tool for comparative purposes, and it has been
illustrated that art and scene types can be used as a means of understanding Egyptian
culture, as well as tracing decorative elements through time and across cemeteries.
Among these studies, however, one group of tombs stands out as being
underrepresented. While the tombs of the Memphite necropolis have been thoroughly
documented and examined, the documentation of the provincial cemeteries is not as
extensive. Provincial tombs are broadly labeled as not conforming to the “Memphite”
standards of orientation and style, and as a result, provincial cemeteries are frequently
viewed in isolation from those of Memphis and one another. Although searching for
ties between Giza and Saqqara seems logical, looking for ties between Saqqara and
Deir el-Gebrawi or Deir el-Gebrawi and Zawyet el-Maiyitin is often dismissed as
unproductive. While previous artistic studies have included provincial examples, they
are almost never the exclusive focus of the study. Instead, the vast majority of
comparative studies limit the conclusions that can be drawn about provincial tombs
due to their lesser numbers and geographic distribution.
This paper looks specifically at provincial cemeteries in order to evaluate the
commonly held assumptions about provincial art using scenes of fish and fishing
found in Middle Egypt. Although not present in every tomb, representations of fishing
are quite common in both Memphis and the provinces and present an ideal sample for
analysis due to the potential for artistic variation, despite their relative standardization.
Artists had to choose which species to depict, what methods of fishing to represent,
how to group these various elements together and where to place them within the
tomb. An examination of such scenes, therefore, provides a chance to not only
investigate the general character of fishing scenes in the provinces, but also to explore
the level of detail for comparative purposes.
Using Middle Egypt as a sample provides several additional advantages. It
contains the provincial cemeteries closest to the Memphite necropolis and also has
several cemeteries that contain tombs of the Old Kingdom, First Intermediate Period
and the Middle Kingdom, allowing for both geographic and chronological study. The
paper takes into account over thirty-five tombs with representations of fish and fishing
between modern day Cairo and Asyut. Attention was paid to not only the artistic
representations, but also their placement within the tombs and associated texts and
other scenes. In taking these various elements into account, it becomes evident that
the geographic and chronological isolation of provincial tombs of the Old Kingdom
through Middle Kingdom is likely outdated, and that further study is likely to reveal
more about ties between the provincial cemeteries and the Memphite necropolis.
The study of Eastern Desert Ware
Hans Barnard
Eastern Desert Ware (EDW) is a small corpus of well-finished hand-made cups and
bowls found in 4th 6th century CE contexts in the Nile Valley between the First and
Fourth Cataracts and in the Eastern Desert between there and the Red Sea coast
(BARNARD 2002; 2006; 2007a; SIDEBOTHAM et al. 2002; see also
http://www.barnard.nl/EDWdata/). Almost 300 EDW sherds from recent excavations,
among which Berenike (BARNARD and ROSE, in press), the Mons Smaragdus area
(BARNARD, in press; BARNARD and Rose, in press; SIDEBOTHAM et al. 2005), and
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