Interregional exchange in First Intermediate Period and early Middle Kingdom pottery: Interdisciplinary approaches to regional variation in Middle Egypt

The First Intermediate Period (FIP) is characterised by profound political and cultural change and a process of regional fragmentation, which only came to an end—at least politically—when the state was reunited in the Middle Kingdom (MK). The study of this process has long been the almost exclusive domain of philological and historical studies. This doctoral research approached it from the perspective of material culture by studying the distribution of pottery and regional variation in its production techniques and raw materials. The overarching goal of this research is to provide new empirical evidence that may bring the issue of transfer in terms of material culture into the debate on historical developments and assumed socio-political and cultural change during the FIP and early MK.

The geographical focus of this research is on Middle Egypt, which covers a transitional region with a curious ‘gap’, devoid of archaeological sites. The ceramic assemblages north and south of this ‘gap’ are very different, although some northern types seem to have moved south, showing there was contact. So far, scant attention had been paid to quantifying to proportion of ‘extraneous shapes’ across the ‘gap’, whether actual vessels or ideas on vessels shapes were transferred and what this can tell us about ancient Egyptian social practices. This study set out to discern regional ‘fingerprints’ in the pottery to reveal interactions between regions and mediating social features.

To document regional variation in FIP and early MK pottery, both quantitative comparisons of ceramic assemblages and different ceramic aspects of selected shapes were studied. Focused upon in this study are jars with conical, cylindrical and funnel-shaped necks, bag-shaped jars and jars with undulating rims. The studied pottery originates from both recent excavations (e.g., published finds from Iḥnāsīya al-Madīna, al-Ashmūnayn and Asyūṭ, as well as unpublished finds from Dayr al-Barshā) and from late nineteenth and early twentieth century excavations in Middle Egypt. Pottery from the latter is known by type drawings and was (re‑)recorded in museums to obtain new information with regard to their morphology, fabric, technology, firing, etc. Samples of these vessels were also gathered for petrographical and chemical analysis (ICP-OES and ICP-MS). As such, the raw materials and technological processes could be considered in the debate.

An integration of the various analyses in the synthesis revealed clear differences among artefacts from the sites studied here. No exact parallels were found for any of the studied ‘extraneous vessels’ across the ‘gap’. Many of the similar shapes moreover showed variation in morphological details and technological aspects (e.g., base technologies, surface treatments and fabrics). These are ceramic characteristics that cannot be discerned in most traditional typo-chronologies. More vessels that allow detailed comparisons of their technologies remain to be studied, but our first results suggest that the pottery production of vessels from Nile clay fabrics seems to have been organised within small regional units and perhaps even at a local scale. Clearly ideas on vessels shapes were exchanged, but no compelling evidence is discerned of a transfer of actual vessels. Pottery does not appear to be (re-)distributed within the research area, indicating that its production and exchange were organised without direct interference of the state. This contradicts the idea that ancient Egyptian economy was completely based on redistribution. Regional distribution is usually assumed for marl clay vessels, but interesting petrographic and chemical differences discerned for some examples in this thesis suggest that this hypothesis should be studied in greater detail.

To relate to observations to social features, more aspects of the chaînes opératoires of pottery need to be reconstructed and the findings should to be studied in their spatial and chronological contexts. Moreover, an aggregated approach considering regional variation and exchange displayed by various material sources is needed. Even though many questions still remain, this research illustrated the value of detailed pottery comparisons in discussions of regionality and the socio-economic organisation of society.