“Territory and Territoriality in ancient Egypt. An alternative interpretation for the Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom periods”

SILVIA LUPO

Göttinger Miszellen

Seminar für Ägyptologie und Koptologie

Lugar: Göttingen; Año: 2007 vol. 214 p. 71 - 83

0344-385X

Abstract: The concepts of “territory” and “territoriality” are analyzed on the basis of the anthropological and archaeological data. It is assumed that “territory” and territoriality exerted by human groups are more complex concepts than the simple occupation of space. In the case of Egypt in the Old Kingdom, we must consider different variables related to the ideology and to the socio-political and economic system of the Egyptian state. Its consolidation, the royal power legitimization and that of the elite, and the socio-political and economic system are considered from their unification in the Early Dynastic to the Old Kingdom, when the state expanded and its political and ideological reproduction was carried out. In order to understand the concept of “territory” in the Egyptian language and thought, we have analyzed Egyptian words that allude to terms related to it. We consider the practical character of the Egyptian mentality as well as the manner in which the complementary duality of balanced opposites is expressed. This duality of balanced opposites is the basis of the Creation from which the land -- i.e. the "territory" -- of Egypt has emerged. Understanding the abstract concepts of an ancient civilization is a difficult task. We have tackled it by analyzing the hieroglyphs that, as semantic determinatives, accompany the writing of words that reflect recognition of space and landscape. The Egyptian language has a clear conception of space according to landscape and the people who inhabit it. The writing emphasizes the differences between the Egyptian land and its dwellers with respect to the territories and inhabitants of the periphery whom the Egyptians consider enemies and foreigners.