University of Chicago Graduate Student Symposium
ARCE Chicago Chapter
Saturday, April 2, 2016
5:00 pm
LaSalle Banks Room
Oriental Institute
Speaker: Brandan Hainline
Features of Early Dynastic Year-Labels
The year-labels of the Early Dynastic Period are among the most important sources of textual evidence that can inform us about this early and often obscure stage in Egyptian history. These labels, which include year-names, among other information, reflect the first known attempt by the Egyptians to keep track of the passage of years in a king’s reign. Many scholars have treated individual or small groups of year-labels, using them as sources from which to try and reconstruct Early Dynastic history. In these treatments, focus has largely been upon the year-name itself. Far less work has examined the other information included on the labels besides the year-names, or has treated these year-labels as a single corpus. This paper will focus on an initial step of identifying key features of the year-labels, regarding both the structural layout and the informational content, and will examine how these features changed over the course of the Early Dynastic. The selection of features included on the year-labels shows a clear development, from sources in the Pre-Dynastic to a form that eventually was adopted and adapted by the editors of the Palermo Stone. Whether or not the information on the year-labels should be considered accurate sources for chronological studies, as is debated, the development of their form and content provides a window into the development of the kingship and administration, and the inception of the Egyptian system of chronology.
Speaker: Kathrine E. Bandy
The coffin of Ipihaishutef (OIM E12072) and First Intermediate Period Memphite Coffin Traditions
Private burials in the Memphite necropolis span the entirety of pharaonic history. While Old Kingdom remains are extensive, far fewer First Intermediate Period and early Middle Kingdom burials and funerary goods are well preserved. The state of preservation of many of the coffins and the ways in which they were excavated has significantly limited our understanding of First Intermediate Period Memphite traditions. Examples from Middle Egypt have been used as the basis for typological studies on the evolution of private decorated coffins due to their preservation and decoration, with a general scholarly consensus that the established dating criteria do not work well in the Memphite area. This paper will explore Memphite coffin traditions, focusing on the coffin of Ipihaishutef, now in the Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago (OIM E12072). The coffin has been recently restored through ARCE/AEF. Despite not being a high state official, Ipihaishutef’s coffin is a valuable example of local funerary tradition and developments in the First Intermediate Period. Through an examination of the coffin’s archaeological provenance, radiocarbon date, and art historical criteria, this paper will analyze existing typologies and the coffin’s relationship to contemporary material from the Memphite zone.
Speaker: Ariel Singer
Upon the Good Ways of the Necropolis: An Assessment of the Oriental Institute Coffin E17332
Museums throughout the world house many ancient Egyptian objects, which, having been excavated or purchased around the turn of the 20th-Century, have never been closely studied. One such object is the 11th Dynasty wooden coffin OI 17332, currently in the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. It was originally purchased around 1894 and scholars at the time proposed that it may have come from the Theban region. Through an analysis of its quality, construction, decoration, and inscriptions, this paper will evaluate the coffin’s provenance, and will also attempt to elucidate more specifically the details of the original location and context. The high quality evident in the construction of the coffin and its unusual inscriptions convincingly confirm that the original burial location was Thebes, and more specifically Deir el-Bahri. Evidence suggests that it may have belonged to a man with significant ties to the group of priestesses of Hathor buried there, often called the ‘harem’ of Nebhepetre Mentuhotep. In addition, analysis of this object allows for the possible identification of a few more comprehensive patterns found in the decoration and paleography of 11th Dynasty Theban coffins, thereby contributing not only to the study of an individual object, but also to the larger artifact group to which it belongs.
