Violence and Power in Ancient Egypt

Violence and Power in Ancient Egypt examines the use of Egyptian pictures of violence prior to the New Kingdom. Starting with the assertion that making and displaying such images served as a tactic of power, related to but separate from the actual practice of violence, the book explores the development and deployment of this imagery across different contexts. By comparatively utilizing violent images from a variety of other times and cultures, the book asks that we consider not only how Egyptian imagery was related to Egyptian violence, but also why people create pictures of violence and place them where they do, and how such images communicate what to whom. By cataloging and querying Egyptian imagery of violence from different periods and different contexts-royal tombs, divine temples, the landscape, portable objects, and private tombs-Violence and Power highlights the nuances of the relationship between aspects of royal ideology, art, and its audiences in the first half of pharaonic Egyptian history.

Laurel Bestock is an Associate Professor of Archaeology and Egyptology at Brown University (USA). She received her PhD in Egyptian Archaeology and Art from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University (USA). She directs excavations in Egypt at the site of Abydos, where she investigates early kingship. In the Sudan, she co-directs excavations at the Egyptian fortress of Uronarti, seeking to understand lifestyles and cultural interactions in a colonial outpost from nearly 4000 years ago. For her next project, she hopes to work on a book focused on food and culture at Uronarti, both anciently and in the context of a modern excavation team camping in tents along the Nile.

List of figures Acknowledgements Chronological chart Chapter 1 Picturing violence The Structure of this Book Themes Chapter 2 The Origins of Violent Imagery The Earliest Images of Violence in Egypt The Evidence from Early Egypt: Naqada I The Evidence from Early Egypt: Naqada II Order and Chaos Chapter 3 The Violence Inherent in the System: Imagery and Royal Ideology in the Period of State Formation Violence in Egyptian Art in the Period of State Formation Violence in Early Dynastic Imagery Continuity and Discontinuity Chapter 4 To Live Forever: The Decoration of Royal Mortuary Complexes The Old Kingdom The Middle Kingdom Interpreting Imagery of Violence from Royal Tombs Chapter 5 Uniter of the Two Lands: Images of Violence in Divine Temples Egyptian Temples as a Context for Imagery Chapter 6 The Preservation of Order: Images in the Landscape The Early Dynastic Period The Old Kingdom Reading Rock Carvings of Smiting Chapter 7 Out and About: Images of Violence on Portable Objects Images of Triumph on Portable Objects Images of Captivity on Portable Objects Movement and Meaning Chapter 8 Who is Who? Private Monumental Images of War The Old Kingdom The First Intermediate Period The Middle Kingdom Inscriptions and Images in Private Tombs Interpreting Private Images of War Chapter 9 Violence, Power, Ideology Bibliography Index