Elite Emulation and Patronage Relationships in the Middle Bronze: The Egyptianized Dynasty of Byblos

FLAMMINI, ROXANA; FLAMMINI, ROXANA

Tel Aviv

Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University and the Emery and Claire Yass Publications in Archaeology

Lugar: Tel Aviv; Año: 2010 vol. 37 p. 154 - 168

0334-4355

The paper maintains that the adoption of Egyptianized language,administrative titles and religious traits by the rulers of Byblos in the Middle Bronze Age should be seen as an elite emulation practice. It proposes that the underlying reasons for embracing such practices are related to the existence of patronage inter-elite bonds in the northern Levant and the Euphrates area. The author argues that the Egyptianized features adopted by the Byblos rulers were a means of differentiating themselves from other local rulers and of garnering prestige from their association with the highly valuated Egyptian elite—a relationship that dated from the early Old Kingdom and that was based mainly on the exchange of prestige goods.