Craft interactions in a New Kingdom industrial landscape (Egypt, 1550-1069 BCE)

• Antragstellerin: Dr. Anna Hodgkinson
• Fachliche Zuordnung: Ägyptische und Vorderasiatische Altertumswissenschaften
• Förderung: Förderung seit 2024
• Projektkennung: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 547419350

Craft interaction affords a fresh perspective on one of archaeology’s oldest challenges: how did people make things? This project advances new, interdisciplinary avenues of research to transform the field of ancient craft studies on a global scale by examining the limitations of modern craft perceptions. This project explicitly charts for the first time the interaction between high-temperature technologies in New Kingdom (NK) Egypt (1550–1069 BCE), the pivotal time in history when industrial-scale glass production was developed alongside growing copper alloy, faience and pigment manufacture and their conspicuous exchange throughout the Mediterranean. These high-temperature industries have been examined individually to varying extent. We propose an urgent paradigm shift is needed to fully understand them in the light of each other. This project introduces an integrated methodology, envisioning individual material production chains within wider production networks. To develop this model for the NK, we focus on the site of Amarna (Middle Egypt, 18th Dynasty), which provides exceptional evidence for various high-temperature crafts, making it the most suitable starting point. This project seeks to address three fundamental research questions: 1) Can cross-craft interaction better explain NK technologies? Identifying craft interrelations and integrating them into research designs can offer new pathways towards understanding the social contexts of production, the mobility of craftspeople and the exchange of materials and ideas throughout the Nile Valley and beyond. Our pilot studies have already shown such interplay existed during the NK, yet its explicit study is needed to assess the extent and complexity of these interactions and define a consistent approach. 2) How were high-temperature crafts organized at Amarna? We will examine the organization and interplay of high-temperature technologies, in particular with regard to the origins and cross-craft flow of materials on an urban level and beyond. This will be achieved through a novel implementation of state-of-the-art analytical methods contextualized by fresh excavation and guided by ground-breaking laboratory-based experimentation. 3) To what extent was craft organization at Amarna different to earlier and later NK sites? Parallels with other urban sites (Malqata, Amara West, Gurob, Pi-Ramesse) are examined to assess how craft organization at Amarna can serve as a model for urban practices in Egypt and the wider Mediterranean world. Thus, we will provide the first in-depth overview of craft interactions in ancient Egypt, greatly expanding our understanding of how ancient technologies were organized and embedded in their specific contexts. The resulting dataset will enable a fine-grained evaluation of models of production and consumption in NK Egypt, developing alternative narratives to traditional Egyptological knowledge, thus developing a novel research line for comparative archaeology.

• DFG-Verfahren: Sachbeihilfen
• Internationaler Bezug: Großbritannien
• Partnerorganisation: Arts and Humanities Research Council
• Kooperationspartner: Dr. Frederik Rademakers