Hostname: page-component-76dd75c94c-nbtfq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T07:49:43.258Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Monumental Walls, Sovereign Power and Value(s) in Pharaonic Egypt

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 April 2024

Oren Siegel Open the ORCID record for Oren Siegel [Opens in a new window]
Oren Siegel*
Affiliation:
Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations University of Toronto 4 Bancroft Avenue, Room 409 Toronto, ON M5S 1C1 Canada Email: oren.siegel@utoronto.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Large walling projects are among the most visible features in the archaeological record. However, enclosure walls remain relatively under-theorized relative to other monumental buildings. In an attempt to move beyond simple explanations that analyse walls solely as defensive features or symbols, I link monumental walls to notions of sovereign power and action-oriented theories of value(s). Using examples from Pharaonic Egypt, I argue that monumental enclosure walls were attempts to define and realize particular social totalities, whether these were a temple complex, a royal tomb or an urban centre. If all efforts at border-making are also an exercise in power, walls have the potential to illuminate some of the goals and values of those ordering their construction. By analysing changes and continuities related to which structures required the protection of a monumental enclosure wall over time, it is possible to shed light on the fluid priorities of the most important political actors in Pharaonic society. Yet the very presence of a wall implies potential dissent and alternative practices—otherwise a wall's construction would not have been necessary.

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , First View , pp. 1 - 14
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ando, C., 2017. States and state power in antiquity, in Ancient States and Infrastructural Power, eds Ando, C. & Richardson, S.. Philadelphia (PA): University of Pennsylvania Press, 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, D., 1988. The South Cemeteries of Lisht, Volume I: The Pyramid of Senwosret I. New York (NY): Metropolitan Museum of Art.Google Scholar
Arnold, F., 2022. Ancient Egyptian Architecture in Fifteen Monuments. New York/Cairo: American University in Cairo Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bestock, L., 2018. Violence and Power in Ancient Egypt: Image and ideology before the New Kingdom. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Blakely, E. & Snyder, M., 1997. Fortress America: Gated communities in the United States. Washington (DC): Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Brown, W., 2010. Walled States, Waning Sovereignty. Cambridge (MA): MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Díaz-Barriga, M. & Dorsey, M., 2020. Fencing in Democracy: Border walls, necrocitizenship, and the security state. Durham (NC): Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Dumont, L., 1980. Homo Hierarchichus: The caste system and its implications. (Complete rev. English edn.) Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Dumont, L., 1982. On value. Proceedings of the British Academy 66, 207–41.Google Scholar
Emery, V., 2018. Before the palace, the palace façade. Chronique d'Égypte 93, 295–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emery, W.B., Smith, H.S. & Millard, A., 1979. The Fortress of Buhen: The archeological report. London: Egypt Exploration Society.Google Scholar
Etienne, M., 1999. À propos des représentations d'enceintes crénelées sur les palettes de l’époque de Nagada III. Archéo-Nil: Revue de la société pour l'étude des cultures prépharaoniques de la vallée du Nil 9, 149–63.Google Scholar
Foucault, M., 1995. Discipline and Punishment: The birth of the prison (2nd edn). New York (NY): Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Frye, D., 2019. Walls. New York (NY): Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Gardiner, A., 1903. On the meaning of the preposition HA. Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology 25, 334–6.Google Scholar
Gasparini, A., 2017. The Walls between Conflict and Peace. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graeber, D., 2001. Towards an Anthropological Theory of Value. New York (NY): Palgrave.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graeber, D., 2011. The divine kingship of the Shilluk: on violence, utopia, and the human condition, or, elements for an archaeology of sovereignty. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 1(1), 1–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graeber, D., 2013. It is value that brings universes into being. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 3(2), 219–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haller, M., 2017. Why empires build walls: the new Iron Curtain around the European Union, in The Walls Between Conflict and Peace, ed. Gasparini, A.. Leiden: Brill, 97–125.Google Scholar
Hansen, T. & Stepputat, F., 2005. Sovereign Bodies: Citizens, migrants, and states in the postcolonial world. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansen, T. & Stepputat, F., 2006. Sovereignty revisited. Annual Review of Anthropology 35, 295–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, R., 2012. Border Walls: Security and the war on terror in the United States. London: Zed Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kemp, B., 2004a. The first millennium BC: temple enclosure or urban citadel?, in ‘Egypt's invisible walls’, by B. Kemp, N. Moeller, K. Spence & A. Gascoigne. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 14, 271–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kemp, B., 2004b. Final remarks: protecting assets, in ‘Egypt's invisible walls’, by B. Kemp, N. Moeller, K. Spence & A. Gascoigne. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 14, 284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lacovara, P., 1993. State and Settlement: Deir el-Ballas and the Development, Structure, and Function of the New Kingdom Royal City. PhD dissertation, University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Lauer, J.P., 1936. Le pyramide à degrés. Cairo: Institut français d'archéologie oriental.Google Scholar
Lauffray, J., 1980. Les travaux du Centre Franco-Égyptien d’Étude des Temples de Karnak, de 1972 à 1977. Cahiers de Karnak: Centre Franco-Égyptien d'Étude des Temples de Karnak 6, 1–65.Google Scholar
Leadbetter, M., 2021. The fluid city, urbanism as process. World Archaeology 53(1), 137–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lightbody, D., 2020. On the Origins of the Cartouche and Encircling Symbolism in Old Kingdom Pyramids. Oxford: Archaeopress.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Longo, M., 2018. The Politics of Borders: Sovereignty, security, and the citizen after 9/11. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Luiselli, M., 2011. The ancient Egyptian scene of ‘Pharaoh smiting his enemies’: an attempt to visualize cultural memory?, in Cultural Memory and Identity in Ancient Societies, ed. Bommas, M.. London: Continuum, 10–25.Google Scholar
Malafouris, L., Gosden, C. & Bogaard, A., 2021. Process archaeology. World Archaeology 53(1), 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Massey, D., 1995. The conceptualization of place, in A Place in the World? Places, cultures, and globalization, eds Massey, D. & Jess, P.. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 45–85.Google Scholar
Mertz, B., 1978. Red Land, Black Land. New York (NY): Dodd, Mead & Company.Google Scholar
Moeller, E., 2004. Evidence for urban walling in the third millennium BC, in ‘Egypt's invisible walls’, by B. Kemp, B., N. Moeller, K. Spence & A. Gascoigne. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 14, 261–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moeller, N., 2016. The Archaeology of Urbanism in Ancient Egypt. New York (NY): Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Moeller, N., 2017. The foundation and purpose of the settlement at Lahun during the Middle Kingdom: a new evaluation, in Essays for the Library of Seshat: Studies presented to Janet H. Johnson on the occasion of her 70th birthday, ed. Ritner, R.K.. Chicago (IL): Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 183–204.Google Scholar
Moeller, N. & Marouard, G., 2018. The development of two early urban centres in Upper Egypt during the 3rd millennium BC: the examples of Edfu and Dendara, in From Microcosm to Macrocosm: Individual households and cities in ancient Egypt and Nubia, eds Budka, J. & Auenmüller, J.. Leiden: Sidestone Press, 29–58.Google Scholar
Monnier, F., 2010. Les forteresses égyptiennes: du Prédynastique au Nouvel Empire. Brussels: Éditions Safran.Google Scholar
Monnier, F., 2014. Une iconographie égyptienne de l'architecture défensive. Égypte Nilotique et Méditerranéenne 7, 173–219.Google Scholar
Moreno Garcia, J. & Feinman, G., 2022. Power and Regions in Ancient States: An Egyptian and Mesoamerican perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Morris, E., 2005. The Architecture of Imperialism: Military bases and the evolution of foreign policy in Egypt's New Kingdom. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
O'Brien, A., 1996. The serekh as an aspect of the iconography of early kingship. Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 33, 123–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Connor, D., 2011. The Narmer Palette, in Before the Pyramids: The origins of Egyptian civilization, ed. Teeter, E.. Chicago (IL): Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 145–52.Google Scholar
Petrie, W.M.F., 1901. The Royal Tombs of the Earliest Dynasties 1901. Part II. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.Google Scholar
Petrie, W.M.F., 1953. Ceremonial Slate Palettes; The corpus of Proto-Dynastic pottery. London: British School of Archaeology in Egypt.Google Scholar
Quack, J.F., 2000. Das Buch vom Tempel und verwandte Texte. Ein Vorbericht. Archiv für Religionsgeschichte 2, 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quack, J.F., 2013. Conceptions of purity in Egyptian religion, in Purity and the Forming of Religious Traditions in the Ancient Mediterranean World and Ancient Judaism, eds Frevel, C. & Nihan, C.. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 115–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quétel, C., 2012. Murs: une autre histoire des Hommes. Paris: Perrin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Redford, D., 1984. Akhenaten: The heretic king. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Redford, D., Orel, S., Redford, S. & Shubert, S., 1991. East Karnak Excavations, 1987–1989. Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 28, 75–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richardson, S., 2017. Before things worked: a ‘low-power’ model of early Mesopotamia, in Ancient States and Infrastructural Power, eds Ando, C. & Richardson, S.. Philadelphia (PA): University of Pennsylvania Press, 17–62.Google Scholar
Rio, K. & Smedal, O., 2008. Totalization and detotalization: alternatives to hierarchy and individualism. Anthropological Theory 8(3), 233–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ritner, R.K., 1987. The Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice. Chicago (IL): Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Scott, J.C., 2009. The Art of Not Being Governed: An anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia. New Haven/London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Shafer, B.E., 1997. Temples, priests, and rituals: an overview, in Temples of Ancient Egypt, ed. Shafer, B.E.. Ithaca (NY): Cornell University Press, 1–30.Google Scholar
Shaw, I., 1993. The Red Land, the Black Land, in Egypt: Ancient Culture, Modern Land, ed. Malek, J.. Norman (OK): University of Oklahoma Press, 12–25.Google Scholar
Siegel, O., 2022. Reevaluating the role of inter-polity boundaries (tASw) in Middle and New Kingdom Egypt. Journal of Egyptian History 15(1), 1–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, H., 1994. Ma'at and Isfet. Bulletin of the Australian Centre for Egyptology 5, 67–88.Google Scholar
Spence, K., 2004. Royal walling projects in the second millennium BC: beyond an interpretation of defence, in ‘Egypt's invisible walls’, by B. Kemp, N. Moeller, K. Spence & A. Gascoigne. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 14, 265–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tallet, P. & Laisney, D., 2012. ‘Iry-Hor et Narmer au Sud-Sinaï (Ouadi ‘Ameyra): un complément à la chronologie des expéditions minières égyptiennes. Bulletin de l'institut français d'archéologie orientale 112, 381–98.Google Scholar
Turner, T., 1984. Dual opposition, hierarchy and value: moiety structure and symbolic polarity in central Brazil and elsewhere, in Différences, valeurs, hiérarchies: Textes offerts à Louis Dumont, ed. Galey, J.-C.. Paris: Editions de l'EHESS, 335–70.Google Scholar
Turner, T., 2008. Marxian value theory: an anthropological perspective. Anthropological Theory 8(1), 43–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vogel, C., 2004. Ägyptische Festungen und Garnison bis zum End des Mittleren Reiches. Hildesheim: Gebrüder Gerstenberg.Google Scholar
Vogel, C., 2010. Storming the gates? Entrance protection in the military architecture of Middle Kingdom Nubia, in Cities and Urbanism in Ancient Egypt: Papers from a workshop in November 2006 at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, eds Bietak, M., Czerny, E. & Forstner-Müller, I.. Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 299–320.Google Scholar
Vogel, C., 2013. Keeping the enemy out – Egyptian fortifications of the third and second millennium BC, in The Power of Walls: Fortifications in ancient northeastern Africa, eds. Jesse, F. & Vogel, C.. Cologne: Heinrich-Barth-Institut, 73–100.Google Scholar
von Pilgrim, C., 2011. Untersuchungen zur Stadtbefestigung: Die Stadtmauer des Mittleren Reiches, in ‘Stadt und Tempel von Elephantine: 36./37./38. Grabungsbericht’, by D. Raue, F. Arnold, P. Kopp & C. von Pilgrim. Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Abteilung Kairo 67, 198–201.Google Scholar
von Pilgrim, C., 2016. Die Stadtmauer des Mittleren Reiches, in ‘Stadt und Tempel von Elephantine: 39./40./41. Grabungsbericht’, by S. Seidlmayer, F. Arnold, J. Drauschke, P. Kopp, C. von Pilgrim & S. Wefers. Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Abteilung Kairo 72, 207–10.Google Scholar
Williams, B., 1999. Serra East and the mission of Middle Kingdom Fortresses in Nubia. Gold of Praise: Studies on ancient Egypt in honor of Edward F. Wente, eds Teeter, E. & Larson, J.. Chicago (IL): Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 435–53.Google Scholar
Zibelius, K., 1978. Ägyptische Siedlungen nach Texten des alten Reiches. Wiesbaden: Reichert.Google Scholar
Ziermann, M., 1993. Elephantine XVI: Befestigungsanlagen und Stadtentwicklung in der Frühzeit und im frühen Alten Reich. Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern.Google Scholar
Zivie, C. 1982. ‘Memphis’, in Lexikon der Ägyptologie. Band IV, Megiddo-Pyramiden, eds Helck, W., Otto, E. & Wolfhart, W.. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 24–41.Google Scholar