Excavating the Egyptian State and Economy in the Late Third Millennium BCE: a New Investigation of the Causeway of Sahura at Abusir

挖掘公元前三千年末的埃及国家和经济：对阿布西尔萨胡拉堤道的新调查

• 批准号: 389349558
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Martin Andreas Stadler
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Lehrstuhl für Ägyptologie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/389349558?language=en
• 关键词: Excavating; Egyptian; State; Economy; Late

The main reason for Egypt’s outstanding achievements during the Old Kingdom was a very efficient administration, capable to deal with the production and distribution of huge amounts of goods, which had to be resourced according to the needs of a complex culture. To finance the major building projects, the state collected taxes which was usually paid over a large portion of agricultural surplus, in connection with a mobilization of workforce for the king. The royal funerary domains represented special types of state establishments, which played an important role in the economic system of the Old Kingdom. Starting point for phase 1 of the current research project were the newly discovered scenes from Sahura’s causeway showing the personified domains in procession. The king founded them to provide, i.a., for the building workforce of his pyramid and other royal construction projects, as well as priests and servants executing his funerary cult. The domains’ foundations played an important part in the integration of the country, the development of its infrastructure and the consolidation of its central government. They show also that the system of domains and its organisation was hierarchic. In phase 1 excavation campaigns were undertaken to search for further reliefs that would help to understand the full decoration programme of the causeway. The results of the excavations in phase 1 have surpassed all expectations because seven additional large blocks with scenes and inscriptions have been found apart from a great number of fragments that fill gaps in our picture of the causeway’s decoration. Moreover, new indications to find more blocks could be collected. This revolutionizes our knowledge of the decoration programme of Sahura’s causeway.In the follow-up phase, two final campaigns shall be undertaken in Abusir to finish the causeway’s northern side. However, the chief objectives of phase 2 are an in-depth study and research to get a full publication of the newly discovered material out: One monograph will be the full excavation report alongside a catalogue of archaeological finds with chapters on topics such as a pottery analysis, faunal analysis, 3D documentation techniques and small finds. A second monograph will present a full study about the state of Egypt in the Old Kingdom and its economic process of “internal colonization”. The discovered reliefs of funerary domains shed new light on the organization of the state during Sahura’s reign, allow new insights into the Egyptian economy at that time, and into the policy that enabled the central power to solidify its position and, consequently, to control the surplus products. They give an idea of how the communication was organised inside and among the domains. New information regarding the royal family as well as the publication of the oldest royal narrative text (and up to now the only one of its kind from the Old Kingdom) will provide outstanding new information that will change old paradigms.

埃及在古王国时期取得杰出成就的主要原因是一个非常有效的行政管理，能够处理大量货物的生产和分配，这些货物必须根据复杂文化的需求进行资源配置。为了资助主要的建设项目，国家征收税收，通常是在农业剩余的很大一部分上支付的，与为国王动员劳动力有关。皇家墓地代表了一种特殊的国家机构，在古王国的经济体系中扮演着重要的角色。当前研究项目第一阶段的起点是新发现的Sahura堤道场景，显示了人格化领域的游行。国王建立他们提供，即，为他的金字塔和其他皇家建筑项目的建筑工人，以及执行他的葬礼崇拜的牧师和仆人。领地基金会在国家一体化、基础设施的发展和中央政府的巩固方面发挥了重要作用。他们还表明，系统的领域及其组织是分层的。在第一阶段，进行了挖掘活动，以寻找进一步的救济，这将有助于了解堤道的全面装饰计划。第一阶段的挖掘结果超出了所有人的预期，因为除了大量的碎片填补了我们对堤道装饰图片的空白之外，还发现了另外七个带有场景和铭文的大块。此外，可以收集发现更多区块的新迹象。在后续阶段，将在阿布西尔进行最后两项活动，以完成堤道北方一侧的装饰。然而，第二阶段的主要目标是深入研究和研究，以全面出版新发现的材料：一本专著将是完整的挖掘报告，以及考古发现的目录，其中包括陶器分析，动物群分析，3D文档技术和小型发现等主题的章节。第二本专著将全面研究古王国时期的埃及及其“内部殖民化”的经济进程。出土的墓葬浮雕为萨胡拉统治时期的国家组织提供了新的线索，使人们对当时的埃及经济有了新的认识，并对中央政权巩固其地位，从而控制剩余产品的政策有了新的认识。他们给出了一个想法，沟通是如何组织内部和之间的领域。关于皇家的新信息以及最古老的皇家叙事文本的出版（到目前为止，这是唯一一个来自旧王国的同类文本）将提供杰出的新信息，将改变旧的范式。