Rethinking the materiality of Abydos stelae

SCARO, AGUSTINA; SALEM, LEILA; CALOMINO, EVA AMANDA

Alcalá de Henares

Congreso; Current Research in Egyptology CRE 2019; 2019

University of Alcalá

The historical-archaeological analysis of a site artifacts propose conceptualizationsand classifications -from selected theoretical-methodological frameworks- for theordering and creation of databases, among other contributions. Throughout thisprocess the artifacts are included in categories (and subcategories) that in many casesbecome diffuse. This presents different problems; on one hand that of defining objectsas actors of a particular technological, social or ideological function; when they aresupposed inseparable in practice. On the other hand that of differentiating features thathave utility value from those that do not. The use of functional terms for certainartifacts supposes an analytical functionality by providing categories of analysis thatsuppose and presuppose a direct relation between their form and function.In the field of Egyptology, the case of the Abydos site is a good example of anuncritical application of the stelae concept. Since the first excavarion works started inthe mid-nineteenth century by Auguste Mariette and Flinders Petrie, and morerecently by the University of Pennsylvania research group, hundreds of these objectshave been found, rendering it an important case study. In this paper, we first presentthe multiplicity of categories and the absence of clear theoretical frameworks thatallow to systematize and problematize the stelae. Secondly, we will consider thetheory of materiality, allowing us to advance in new theoretical-methodologicalproposals for the reconceptualization of the stelae of Abydos.