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要提供资源。为了资助大型建筑工程，国家征收税收，通常是用农业剩余的很大一部分来支付，与国王动员劳动力有关。皇家丧葬领域代表了特殊类型的国家机构，在古王国的经济体系中发挥着重要作用。当前研究项目第一阶段的起点是在Sahura的堤道上新发现的场景，展示了人格化的领域。国王创立这些公司是为了提供建造金字塔和其他皇家建筑项目的劳动力，以及执行葬礼仪式的牧师和仆人。这些地区的基础在国家的整合、基础设施的发展和中央政府的巩固中发挥了重要作用。它们还表明，域的体系及其组织是等级分明的。在第一阶段，我们进行了挖掘活动，以寻找更多的浮雕，这将有助于了解铜锣道的整体装饰计划。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之外，还发现了7个带有场景和铭文的大型石块，填补了我们对堤道装饰的了解。此外，还可以收集到寻找更多块的新迹象。这彻底改变了我们对Sahura堤道装饰方案的认识。在后续阶段，将在Abusir进行两项最后的运动，以完成堤道的北侧。然而，第二阶段的主要目标是对新发现的材料进行深入的研究和研究，以获得完整的出版物：一本专著将是完整的挖掘报告，以及考古发现目录，其中包括有关陶器分析，动物分析，3D文档技术和小发现等主题的章节。第二部专著将全面研究古王国时期埃及的状况及其“内部殖民化”的经济进程。这些墓葬领域的浮雕为萨胡拉统治时期的国家组织提供了新的视角，让人们对当时的埃及经济有了新的认识，也让人们对中央权力巩固其地位并因此控制剩余产品的政策有了新的认识。它们提供了域内部和域之间如何组织通信的概念。关于王室的新信息以及最古老的王室叙事文本的出版（到目前为止，这是唯一一个来自旧王国的文本）将提供杰出的新信息，将改变旧的范式。

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.