Current Research in Egyptology 2005: Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Symposium by Mairs Rachel Stevenson Alice & Alice Stevenson

Author:Mairs, Rachel,Stevenson, Alice & Alice Stevenson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781782974482
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Published: 2013-09-25T16:00:00+00:00

Investigating Ancient Egyptian Towns: A Case Study of Itj-tawy

Claire Malleson

Introduction

The Middle Kingdom town of Itj-tawy has long been accepted as having been the principal royal residence and capital of the 12th and 13th Dynasties (Griffith 1898). Little research has been done on this issue, most probably due to the fact that there is (to date) no direct archaeological evidence for the town. The lack of physical evidence for the vast majority of ancient Egyptian towns has inhibited discussion about the nature and character of settlements. However, it is possible to address these issues if a strong holistic, theoretical framework is applied to the evidence. The socio-economic and political status of Itj-tawy, combined with this apparent lack of information make it highly suitable as a case study.

By utilising all available relevant source material and adopting an empirical approach to the data this paper will address this issue in a fully holistic framework. Throughout, it will refer to the character of the town as being the focus of the research question. The character of a town may be determined by the following: who lived there; what the inhabitants’ occupations were; where the inhabitants were buried; the social structure of the town; the physical appearance of the town; and the nature of the surrounding landscape.

In the first publication of part of the Petrie Museum Lahun Papyri archive in 1898, Griffith made the following statement: “The Turin papyrus, as we have seen, calls the XIIth dynasty that of the Residence Ath-taui… That the city of Ath-taui was founded by Amenemhat I is shown by the inscription of Hetep (CG20516)… It is therefore quite clear that Ath-taui was originally the Royal Residence (ẖnw)... In later times the locality reappears on the stela of Piankhy as in between Meidum and Memphis. It was then a garrisoned fortress…It may be placed with all probability at Lisht, which name may even retain a reminiscence of the old one. The position was doubtless chosen as central, and to all appearance Ath-taiu lay actually on the boundary between upper and lower Egypt” (1898, 87).

This statement sums up what was known in the nineteenth century about Itj-tawy, and scholars have added little more since (e.g. Hayes 1953, 1980; Helck 1958; Simpson 1963; Von Beckerath 1965, 78–81; Arnold 1991, 16; Kuhrt 1995, 164; Callender 2000, 159). It has continued to be generally accepted that Itj-tawy was in the vicinity of Lisht, and it is still viewed as the new capital of the country, but what role the town played in the administration of the country has not fully been examined. Since the revolution in archaeological methods in Egypt brought about by the Aswan dam projects of the 1970s and the adoption of more functional-processual (e.g. Butzer 1976; 1982) or empirical comparative (e.g. Eyre 1999) approaches in Egyptology there has been little discussion about Itj-tawy.

It must be borne in mind that the nature of the evidence for this issue means that no indisputable conclusions can be reached. This paper will re-evaluate previous discussions using the primary evidence, and where possible, suggest new theories.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.