This project investigates the emergence and development of monumental
enclosure walls in ancient Egypt, drawing on a wealth of evidence from
published excavation reports and new fieldwork conducted at the sites of
Tell Edfu, Dendara, and Uronarti. Enclosure walls were defining
features of ancient Egyptian communities: they divided sectors within
settlements, delimited temples, administrative buildings, citadels,
fortresses, mortuary monuments, or palaces, encompassed entire towns,
and in rare instances restricted access across broader regions. This
dissertation argues that ancient Egyptian monumental enclosure walls
should be reconceptualized as an architectural tool through which
Egyptian authorities attempted to exert control over the geographic and
symbolic landscape. Their ubiquity, monumentality, and physicality
readily facilitated their appropriation as a symbol of power,
protection, and control by the Pharaonic state—walls figured prominently
in metonyms for the traditional Egyptian capital at Memphis and even in
the etymology of the word “Egypt”, to say nothing of their prominence
in funerary spells and literary texts. The nature of the authorities
demanding the construction of such walls might vary, whether embodied in
the form of a royal decree from the Pharaoh himself, royal officials
acting on behalf of the Pharaonic state, or more communal impulses
towards defense in times of crisis and insecurity. Whatever defensive
functions they might have, walls, inevitably, are political
constructions: they divide the intramural from the extramural,
reinforcing socially imposed or negotiated boundaries. Particularly in
the case of mudbrick walls that require regular maintenance and
refurbishing, such walls could only could continue to function with the
support of local authorities, or else they would inevitably be replaced,
erode, and collapse into obsolescence. Yet even in these cases, the
memory of massive walling projects at times impacted much later
settlement planning. The dissertation begins by outlining functional
categories of enclosure walls and words in the Egyptian language used to
describe walls and various constructions typically surrounded by an
enclosure. The materiality of enclosure walls is then interrogated
before the walls of Tell Edfu are discussed in greater detail as a more
focused case study. Subsequent chapters detail how enclosure walls were
built and how such labor might have been organized, the symbolic and
political power of such constructions, and finally, the legacy of
monumental enclosure walls within ancient Egyptian settlements. A site
gazetteer is included as an appendix to aid future researchers.
Degree Type
Ph.D.
Content Type
Dissertation
Publication Date
2020-06
Language
en
Record Created
2020-06-29
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