A Middle Class Family in Abydos. Study of Stela CG 20098

ROSELL PABLO MARTÍN

Conferencia; Egyptological Conference in Copenhagen 2021: Trade and Administration in Ancient Egypt.; 2021

During the Middle Kingdom, Abydos became a sacred landscape associated with the god Osiris and a place of pilgrimage for members of the different Egyptian elites and intermediate social groups, who erected stelae and set up offering chapels to ensure their own eternal participation in the Osirian rites after their own death. These Middle Kingdom private stelae are some of the most important sources of information to analyse, understand, and reconstruct the Egyptian society.In this paper, we are particularly interested in stela CG 20098, which belongs to a man with no titles called Nemtyemmer. In his stela, Nemtyemmer represents him and all his paternal family together with some servants. Its importance lies in the fact that Nemtyemmer and his family have no titles. This absence of titles might be related to the rise of a middle class during the Middle Kingdom. Moreover, we believe that Nemtyemmer has emphasised his social origin and identified his ancestors in his stela to show his social mobility from a non-traditional social background. Thus, in this paper, we will analyse the development of this middle class during that period, taking this stela and the material evidence found in Abydos into account.