The Knowledgeable as a Resource and Legitimation of Power during and after the Crisis. Egypt during the First Intermediate Period and the Middle Kingdom (A03)

这个项目把占卜作为美索不达米亚科学的一个重要学科来研究。它侧重于有文化的专家这一社会群体，他们的“知识文本”和他们的文化嵌入。从当代的角度展望未来(占卜)是一种理性的活动。普通民众和政治尺子都试图获取有关未来事件和发展的线索。神谕和预兆提供了避免未来灾难的可能性。该项目涉及那些掌握占卜知识的人的社会群体，以及他们在虚弱的话语中收到的归属。这种知识的优点和缺点是从当代和追溯的角度来处理的，总是考虑到当代对历史的考虑。

This project deals with divination as an important discipline of the sciences of Mesopotamia. It focuses on the social group of literate experts, their “knowledge texts” and their cultural embedding. Looking into the future (divination) from a contemporary perspective constituted a rational activity. Ordinary people as well as political rulers attempted to obtain hints on future events and developments. Oracles and omens offered the possibility to avert future disaster. The project deals with the social group of those who commanded the divinatory knowledge as well as the ascriptions that they received in discourses of weakness. The strengths and weaknesses of this knowledge are dealt with from a contemporary and a retrospective perspective, always taking into account present day considerations of history of