Foreigners in Ancient Egypt by Flora Brooke Anthony

Author:Flora Brooke Anthony [Anthony, Flora Brooke]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781474241595
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK
Published: 2016-09-19T00:00:00+00:00

International diplomacy and trade

Where an actual international system intersects with the Egyptian view of the world, the latter prevails within an Egyptian tomb setting; though it should be noted that, even in ancient times, the inaccuracy of the way the Egyptian king represented gifts was acknowledged by at least one foreign king. In one correspondence, the Babylonian king wrote to the Egyptian king complaining that his gifts, chariots, were displayed with tribute from Egyptian vassal states when they were to be received as gifts.8 Within the internal state the king portrayed himself as second only to the gods, with no equals. However, in the international diplomatic sphere, ‘kings of culturally disparate states interacted with one another in an idealized rhetorical mode of parity and reciprocity’.9

This diplomatic arena ascribed symbolic value to the objects, which in turn conferred prestige and status on their owners.10 Also, the luxury goods exchanged in this system – those that are found in the archaeological records – have complex and often confusing iconography. Such objects found in archaeological contexts have hybrid imagery that combines essential elements from numerous cultures. The gifts helped to create and maintain a complicated international multicultural system. Indeed these objects, when depicted in tomb paintings, would hold various meanings for the Egyptian within a tomb context. Not only were they displaying wealth, opulence, exoticism and a personal relationship with the king, they were also displaying their access to the foreign and exotic, and their involvement in the international culture of which they were a part.

This complex network of exchanges connected the continents of Africa, Asia and Europe. One of the most interesting sites, besides the Theban necropolis, to study this international exchange system is approximately 9 km off the coast of Turkey in the Mediterranean Sea. The Uluburun shipwreck, an underwater archaeological site, which gives us a rare glimpse inside a ship transporting goods in the Late Bronze Age, the time of Egypt’s early eighteenth dynasty.11 At this site many objects recovered were similar to those depicted on the Theban tomb walls. Such objects include copper ingots, animal head rhyta, metal vases, ivory tusks and copious amounts of pottery (filled with expensive trade goods: olive oil, resin, beads and other goods). This trade mission was likely on its way to mainland Greece from the Levant. As far as I am aware, we do not have images of foreigners bringing ‘tribute’ to sites in the Aegean or the Levant from the Late Bronze Age, though these trade missions clearly existed.12 The Uluburun shipwreck carried some of the same luxury goods seen on Theban tomb walls, the prestige items that the tomb owners, who were often international diplomats, wanted to take to the afterlife.

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