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

埃及在旧王国时期取得杰出成就的主要原因是一个非常高效的政府，有能力处理大量商品的生产和分配，这些商品必须根据复杂文化的需要提供资源。为了资助主要的建筑项目，国家征收税款，通常是在农业剩余的很大一部分上支付，与为国王动员劳动力有关。皇家墓地代表着特殊类型的国家机构，在旧王国的经济制度中发挥着重要作用。目前研究项目第一阶段的起点是新发现的萨胡拉堤道上的场景，展示了队伍中的人格化领域。国王建立它们是为了提供，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。这些领域的基础在国家的一体化、基础设施的发展和中央政府的巩固方面发挥了重要作用。它们还表明，域名系统及其组织是层级的。在第一阶段中，进行了挖掘活动，以寻找更多的浮雕，这将有助于了解堤道的全面装修计划。第一阶段的发掘结果超出了所有人的预期，因为除了大量填补我们对堤道装饰图片的空白的碎片外，还发现了另外七个带有场景和碑文的大型街区。此外，可以收集新的迹象来发现更多的区块。这彻底改变了我们对萨胡拉堤道装饰方案的认识。在后续阶段，将在阿布希尔进行两次最后的战役，以完成堤道的北侧。然而，第二阶段的主要目标是深入学习和研究，以全面出版新发现的材料：一本专著将是完整的挖掘报告，以及考古发现目录，其中包括陶器分析、动物群分析、3D文档技术和小发现等主题的章节。第二本专著将全面研究埃及在旧王国的状况及其“内部殖民”的经济过程。这些发现的墓地浮雕为萨胡拉统治期间的国家组织提供了新的线索，使人们能够对当时的埃及经济以及使中央权力巩固其地位并因此控制过剩产品的政策有了新的见解。他们给出了一个概念，即通信是如何在域内和域间组织的。关于王室的新信息以及最古老的王室叙事文本(也是迄今为止唯一一本来自旧王国的此类文本)的出版将提供将改变旧模式的出色的新信息。

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.