Memphis in Der Dritten Zwischenzeit

This book is concerned with the monumental display of different aspects of identity and personhood by members of the local elite in the ancient Egyptian metropolis of Memphis during the 21st and the first half of the 22nd Dynasty (corresponding to c. 1070-775 BCE). Whilst based on a corpus of 114 individual artefacts, the study aims at providing for the first time a holistic and fully contextualised perspective on the history of Memphis and its inhabitants during the Third Intermediate Period and the periods that immediately precede and follow it. Accordingly, the book's methodological scope and toolkit are multifaceted, giving due attention to traditional historical and archaeological enquiries, but also following avenues informed by art historical, philological, prosopographical, sociological and anthropological approaches. At the book's heart lies a detailed study of the primary sources (among them the burials of the 'high priests' of the 22nd Dynasty), which are meticulously contextualised in order to facilitate the integration of micro- and macro-perspectives. The analyses are complemented by prosopographical dossiers, an extensive plate section and genealogical charts.