Object Worlds in Ancient Egypt: Material Biographies Past and Present (Materializing Culture)

From the Valley of the Kings to Las Vegas, Egypt looms large in the Western imagination. So why are we intrigued by pyramids and practices of mummification? Is it because the ancient Egyptians fetishized material objects? And what do Egyptian remains tell us about biography, embodiment, memory, materiality, the self, and, indeed, ourselves? This book considers how excavated objects reveal ancient Egyptians' experiences of their material world. It also explores existential questions that not only preoccupied ancient Egyptians, but continue to fascinate people today. What is the essence of persons and things? How might we understand the situated experiences of material life? How might objects successfully mediate between worlds? Meskell ultimately moves forward through time and examines the consumption of Egyptian material objects in the contemporary world, including Las Vegas. Meskell provides an elegant analysis of the aesthetics of ancient Egyptian material culture and insights into its mysteries, including our own ongoing fascination. Egypt looms large in the Western imagination. Whether it is our attraction to pharaonic art, the pyramids or practices of mummification, Egypts unique understanding of materiality speaks to us across space and time. Is it because the ancient Egyptians fetishized material objects that we find their culture captivating today? And what exactly do Egyptian remains tell us about biography, embodiment, memory, materiality, and the self? Object Worlds in Ancient Egypt takes New Kingdom Egypt (1539-1070 BC) as its starting point and considers how excavated objects reveal the complex ways that ancient Egyptians experienced their material world. From life to death, the material world instantiated, reflected and influenced social life and existence for ancient Egyptians. Thus, in Meskells unique approach to the materiality and sensuousness of subjects and objects, we uncover the philosophical, spiritual and human meanings embedded in these cultural artefacts. Meskells book explores the fundamental existential questions that not only preoccupied ancient Egyptians, but continue to fascinate people today. What is the essence of persons and things? How might we understand the situated experiences of material life, the constitution of the object world and its shaping of human experience? How might objects successfully mediate between worlds? In the final analysis, Meskell moves forward through time and examines the consumption and appreciation of these Egyptian material objects in the contemporary world. Materiality is our physical engagement with the world, our medium for inserting ourselves into the fabric of that world and our way of constituting and shaping culture in an embodied and external sense. From that perspective it is very much the domain of anthropology and archaeology. Drawing on a wide range of objects, artefacts, and artwork, from the Valley of the Kings through to Las Vegas, Meskell provides an elegant analysis of the aesthetics of ancient Egyptian material culture and insights into some of its more intriguing mysteries, including our ongoing fascination. In this excellent new study, Lynn Meskell studies materialism in an ancient archaeological context arguing that, both in this instance and in broader terms, we must free ourselves from the boundaries of meaning that we impose on objects from the past based on our own experiences. Beginning in New Kingdom Egypt, she examines how material objects `reflected and influenced social life' and how people engaged with objects in all types of activities. Although ancient Egypt is her chosen case study, this book addresses much more fundamental issues to do with how societies conceive of, use and discard objects and this book will appeal to a much wider scholarly audience. In the final chapter Meskell looks at how these ancient cities are experienced and appreciated in the contemporary world, how and why they are replicated and how they are presented to the public through museums. ^G248p, b/w figs (Berg Contents......Page 8 List of Figures......Page 10 Acknowledgements......Page 12 Introduction......Page 14 1 Objects In The Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are......Page 26 2 Taxonomy, Agency, Biography......Page 52 3 Material Memories: Objects as Ancestors......Page 72 4 Statue Worlds and Divine Things......Page 100 5 On Hearing, Phenomenology and Desire......Page 130 6 Sketching Lifeworlds, Performing Resistance......Page 160 7 Object Lessons from Modernity......Page 190 Bibliography......Page 234 A......Page 254 D......Page 255 G......Page 256 K......Page 257 M......Page 258 P......Page 259 S......Page 260 Z......Page 261