Identity, Burial Practice, and Social Change in Ptolemaic Egypt.

Abstract

This dissertation critically examines accepted ideas of ethnic identity in Ptolemaic Egypt through an archaeological analysis of patterns in mortuary behavior. Since the representation of individuals in death is intentionally arrayed by the living, mortuary practices provide an ideal means for investigating questions of identity and social distinctions. Ptolemaic-period funerary practices are often approached with an a priori assumption that they are “ethnic” in nature, reinforcing the traditional perspective that “Greek” and “Egyptian” identities were the primary organizing identities of Ptolemaic society. This work reassesses the archaeological evidence for mortuary activity in Ptolemaic Egypt, without any presumption that ethnic identity is explicitly expressed by the material culture, in order to determine whether ethnicity is expressed in the archaeological data, to determine what identities are expressed in mortuary practice, and how those vary over across regions. To achieve these goals, I employ a close analysis of funerary practices at three sites, Alexandria, Thebes, and Abydos. For Alexandria, I concentrate on the use of cremation and communal burial structures as identity markers, two practices which have largely been interpreted from a specifically Greek perspective. The analysis of Thebes focuses on the reuse of tombs and the complex system of funerary management undertaken by local priests. The Abydos analysis incorporates material from original fieldwork undertaken in 2011 and 2012, which focused on an elite tomb complex of two local priests. Rather than purposefully expressing an outwardly “ethnic” identity, the mortuary variability of these sites reflects specific local socio-cultural conditions and identities. Important factors were the diverse immigrant community in Alexandria, and the political and religious importance of both Thebes and Abydos. Social change due to cross-cultural interaction as expressed through mortuary practice is more obvious at Alexandria, the newly founded city of immigrants, than in the longstanding communities at Thebes and Abydos. Through a more contextualized analysis of each site, it is possible to gain a more nuanced understanding of Ptolemaic society, and move away from strict dichotomies of Greek versus Egyptian.