Covers Dedication Contents Introduction by Maria Mossakowska-Gaubert Contributor

This paper aims to present the preliminary results of an on-going research project hosted by the University of Cologne (Germany) entitled “An archaeology of the subordinate élite in Old Kingdom Egypt: museum objects and social analysis at Hebenu (Zawyet Sultan)”. The research project aims to explore the social life of the lower-ranking élite at Zawyet Sultan (Middle Egypt) and to reconstruct the local settlement through the re-contextualisation of artefacts, coming from the cemeteries excavations carried out by Raymond Weill in the 19th century, and today preserved in different museum collections. The site of Zawyet Sultan corresponds to the ancient Hebenu, the capital of the 16th province of Upper Egypt. Hebenu has been chosen as the research-program case-study because it offers an excellent opportunity to explore an ancient Egyptian settlement together with the cemeteries of its inhabitants and has the potential to shed light on the life of a provincial community over a long period of time. The project adopts an interdisciplinary approach, with the aim to create a relation between the artefacts, their archaeological context, and their social relationships within the landscape (local/regional context). This line of research will enable a more realistic sociological reconstruction of the subordinate élite of the site and also a comparison with neighbouring sites (e.g. Beni Hassan, Assiut, Deir el-Bersha, Asyut).

A small but distinct group of early Byzantine textiles from Egypt (dating between the fourth and sixth centuries) uses woven words and textual symbols for their primary decoration. Ornamented with bold letterforms created in brilliant colors, these objects are all inscribed with personal names—the names of individual men and women for whose lives we possess no other certain evidence. Far from simple labels indicating ownership, these names are integral parts of the textiles’ design and function both as text and as image. Investigating the epigraphic nuances, iconography, styles, and formats of these textiles will allow us to make some inferences about the identities and roles of these people in Late Antique Egyptian society. It will also shed light on some of their hopes and beliefs, for the inscriptions and iconography of these textiles can be interpreted as woven wishes for blessings and protection. This paper will consider this group of textiles as part of the tradition of protective inscriptions widespread in the ancient and Byzantine worlds but known primarily from more durable materials such as jewelry, carved inscriptions, and metalwork.

Cristina Alù, Some Remarks on the sx.tjw and their Overseers: The Multiple Meanings of sx.t and the Social Identity of the Marsh-dwellers Daphna Ben-Tor, James M. Weinstein, Scarabs from a Late Middle Kingdom Workshop at Tell el-Dab‘a Edward Brovarski, A Hitherto Unpublished Middle Kingdom Stela in the Field Museum of Natural History – Chicago Arkadiy E. Demidchik, Some Remarks on Neha’s Spell for Gaining Power over his Servant Statuettes Micòl Di Teodoro, The Preservation of Monuments in the Written Sources of Dynastic Egypt between 2000 and 1550 BC Gudelia García Fernández, Angela M.J. Tooley, Paddle Dolls from the Spanish Mission to Dra Abu el-Naga: Images and Contexts Wolfram Grajetzki, Middle Kingdom Coffins and Coffin Fragments in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge Ali Hassan Eid, The Journey from Authenticity to Forgery: A Case-study on an Adzeblade (Egyptian Museum Cairo JE 67944) of the Thirteenth Dynasty Khaled Hassan, Middle Kingdom Wooden Board with Hieratic Inscriptions from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (JE 30442/CG 25369/SR 920) Dinara Hereikhanova, Not only for a King: Nms-headdresses on the Objects of the Twelfth to Eighteenth Dynasties Lubica Hudáková, The Acquisition of a Coffin – Tracing the (Art) History of the Coffin of Neby (MFA 04.2058): From Dayr al-Barsha to Beni Hassan to Boston Alexander Ilin-Tomich, Minor contributions to Middle Kingdom prosopography Esmeralda Lundius, Processing Sites in the Funerary Landscape: Observations on Ancient Egyptian Offering Trays and ‘Soul houses’ Ahmed M. Mekawy Ouda, Seven Oyster Shells at the Egyptian Museum Cairo (CG 12825-12829, JE 28320 and JE 91753) Ahmed M. Mekawy Ouda, Khaled Hassan, Wooden Kohl Tube with Hieratic Inscriptions at the Egyptian Museum Cairo (CG 44703/JE 18553) Gianluca Miniaci, Cornelius von Pilgrim, An Unusual Mutilation of the Crocodile Hieroglyphic Sign in an Early Middle Kingdom Stela from the Sanctuary II of Heqaib at Elephantine Stephen Quirke, Three Types of inscribed Middle Kingdom objects in the Purchases by Flinders Petrie Patricia Rigault, A new Occurrence of CT 398 on two Coffin Fragments in the Louvre Museum Julien Siesse, The Late Middle Kingdom Stela Louvre N 196 = C 42 from the Louvre Museum Uta Siffert, ‘Death ends a Life, not a Relationship’. Some Thoughts on Designatin the Deceased Ax and Wsir NN in the Middle Kingdom Danijela Stefanović, The Administration of the Middle Kingdom Weaving Workshops: a Note on the Textual and Iconographic Data Mohamed Youssef Ali, The Statue of Ameny from his Tomb at Lisht

Textiles and clothing are perhaps the most significant markers of human existence. Large‐scale production of fabrics can be traced back to Neolithic times when human society transformed from a nomadic to a settled one with ever complicated systems of hierarchy – governmental and religious as well as economic. Textiles have naturally been an integral part of these systems, both as objects of monetary value but also as subjects of symbolic meaning. It is the latter aspect that is the subject of this chapter. This chapter focuses on a group of inscribed textiles from Egypt and the central Islamic lands commonly known as tiraz textiles that have largely, but not exclusively , survived in Islamic burials in Egypt. The great majority of these textiles date from the early/mid‐ninth up to the eleventh centuries and therefore provide one of the largest bodies of evidence relating to the period in which the Abbasid caliphate (750–1258) grew, declined, and was finally broken up by its rivals. The first part of this chapter will explore briefly how the idea of an Abbasid hegemony was manifested through the medium of inscribed textiles with their documentary and protocolary caliphal content, and how the Abbasids established a significant relationship between the empire's center and its provincial periphery through the administration of production, as well as the epigraphic form and content, and function of textiles as robes of honor (khilaʿ). The second part will look at the legacy of this model at a time when the Abbasid caliphate was in steep decline after the establishment of rival caliphates in Egypt and Spain around the mid‐tenth century (see Anderson and Pruitt, chapter 9). It is particularly after the conquest of Egypt by the Fatimids in 969 that we can see caliphal textiles taking on decisively different nuances to those of their Abbasid rivals. While the aesthetics and design of inscriptions continue at first Egyptian pre‐conquest traditions, the content of inscriptions reflects the Fatimid claim to

A small but distinct group of early Byzantine textiles from Egypt (dating between the fourth and sixth centuries) uses woven words and textual symbols for their primary decoration. Ornamented with bold letterforms created in brilliant colors, these objects are all inscribed with personal names—the names of individual men and women for whose lives we possess no other certain evidence. Far from simple labels indicating ownership, these names are integral parts of the textiles’ design and function both as text and as image. Investigating the epigraphic nuances, iconography, styles, and formats of these textiles will allow us to make some inferences about the identities and roles of these people in Late Antique Egyptian society. It will also shed light on some of their hopes and beliefs, for the inscriptions and iconography of these textiles can be interpreted as woven wishes for blessings and protection. This paper will consider this group of textiles as part of the tradition of protective inscriptions widespread in the ancient and Byzantine worlds but known primarily from more durable materials such as jewelry, carved inscriptions, and metalwork