Complex Identities on Egypt's Early Peripheries: A Focus on the 'Egyptian' Colonisation of Indigenous Landscapes of the Western Desert and Upper Nile

我提出的研究重点是古王国西部沙漠绿洲和上尼罗河谷城镇的互联网络。我建议我们将这些遗址视为边缘地区，将这些地区的新石器时代群体视为非洲土著文化，被入侵的尼罗河下游流域群体殖民。后者引入了埃及人的定居和管理，提供了一个早期的殖民模式。我的研究问，这些地方的土著群体在多大程度上受到埃及南部和西部边境周边行政中心发展的影响？在此之后，在“埃及”背景下，早期殖民如何影响精英和多个非精英群体的社会、政治和行政身份的出现？我将利用所有可用的证据，在古王国殖民之前和整个殖民过程中，在这个相互关联的遗址网络中追踪这些特定的土著社区。这将使我能够确定埃及物质文化和建筑在社会和政治景观中占据主导地位时出现了哪些类型的身份。关于跨文化、世界体系分析和土著民族后殖民分析的各种理论模型的应用，将使我能够加强我的解释，以主题的方式思考数据的各个方面，这些方面往往被忽视，因为随着国家影响力的扩大，它们正在“消失”或变得埃及化。

My proposed research focuses on the interconnected network of the Western Desert Oases and Upper Nile Valley towns in the Old Kingdom. I propose that we identify these sites as peripheries, and the Neolithic groups in these areas as indigenous African cultures, colonised by invading Lower Nile Valley groups. The latter introduced Egyptian settlement and administration, providing an early model of colonisation. My research asks, how far were the indigenous groups at these sites impacted by the development of administrative hubs within Egypt's south and western border peripheries? Following this, how did this early colonisation affect the emergence of social, political, and administrative identities of elites and multiple non-elite groups, within a heavily 'Egyptian' context? I will use all evidence available to trace these specific indigenous communities present throughout this interconnected network of sites, prior to and throughout their colonisation in the Old Kingdom. This will enable me to determine what types of identities emerged as Egyptian material culture and architecture supposedly dominated the social and political landscape. The application of a variety of theoretical models pertaining to transculturation, world systems analysis and post-colonial analysis of indigenous peoples will enable me to enhance my interpretations, thinking thematically about aspects of data that are often overlooked as 'disappearing' or becoming Egyptianized as state influence expands.