Tenth International Congress of Egyptologists Abstracts of Papers

XICE – Abstract of Papers
recycling right from the start. In this way, the builders saved a considerable amount of
papyrus, leather or wood. Burnished stone was a handy material on any temple
building site and taken regularly to draw on, yet this is the first example of a mobile
architectural drawing on stone, let alone in such dimensions.
The drawing gives insight in aspects of Egyptian buildings which remain often
unnoted. The subject covers questions of archaeology, building history, technical
history and epistemic history. It also fits well in the discussion about cross-cultural
interactions and adaptions between Egypt and Greece, for the technique to design by
architectural drawings seems to arise at the same time in different cultures around the
Mediterranean, towards the end of the 2 nd century BC.
Egyptian mortuary liturgies: an updated overview
Frank Feder
Recently the number of published or known manuscripts of the so called Mortuary
Liturgies has substantially increased as well as our knowledge concerning their
composition and function. This paper gives an updated overview over the manuscripts
and the liturgies which they contain.
(a) Theorizing ancient Egypt: towards a new paradigm
Hasan Fekri
Claims have been made that Egyptology enjoys a sense of splendid isolation, and that
better insights into ancient Egypt may be by embracing approaches and
methodologies developed in archaeology, anthropology, sociology, cognitive
sciences, geography and history. Although there have been a few attempts in this
direction, there has been next to little attention either to the theoretical or intellectual
foundations of Egyptology or to the advantages of “borrowing” from other fields.
This silent treatment of theory is understandable given the special history of
Egyptology, but it is likely to lead to a fragmentation of the discipline, an ossification
of traditional methodologies, and even greater isolation not just from other disciplines
but also from society in general.
It would be beneficial and valuable to acknowledge, explore and debate the
theoretical underpinnings of Egyptology and Egyptian archaeology, and to go beyond
the stereotypical views of these two disciplines in order to find the means by which
texts, artefacts and architecture are articulated in a coherent theoretical matrix. To
open this theoretical exploration, I contend that we must at first query our
motivations, mission and objectives. I posit that we may wish to frame the study of
ancient Egypt in anthropological terms, as a study of one of the world ancient
civilizations. This will require a deeper understanding of the social dynamics by
which that civilization was shaped and modified through the millennia. In this regard
we can not, for example, ignore current discussions of the role of agents and
structures, cognitive schemata, and cultural geography. We may wish to consider
ancient Egypt through a reflexive methodology that moves back and forth from case
studies, sites, regions, periods or microscopic concerns to interpretive strategies and
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