High Culture and Experience in Ancient Egypt

This novel work uses case studies of unfamiliar materials to expand discussion of aesthetic aspects of ancient Egyptian civilization in order to encompass elite lived experience and problems of elite interaction with other sectors of society. The opening chapter sets out the conceptual ground for the detailed analyses that follow, emphasizing the great importance to the actors of the relatively ephemeral activities under investigation. The first study treats human organization of the landscape and its exploitation to create elite meanings and to mobilize emotional values. Next, a treatment of the planning of settlements on the floodplain argues that Egypt offers a ruralizing ideal that presents an alternative to the urban focus of many early civilizations but has parallels in elite culture in much of the world. The third study analyses how a single year's events were orchestrated to culminate in a celebratory hunt by the king, his court, and high officials. The concluding chapter presents an initial synthesis of the Egyptian elite's treatment of experience, drawing in additional categories of evidence from material culture, literary texts, and the concept of travel.

John Baines is Professor of Egyptology at the University of Oxford. His principal publications are on Egyptian art, literature, and religion. He has also studied the role of writing in Egyptian society and high-cultural legitimations and concerns of elites. His publications include Visual and Written Culture in Ancient Egypt (2007) and The Disappearance of Writing Systems (co-edited with John Bennet and Stephen Houston, Equinox, 2008).