The funerary landscape of the greater Dayr al-Barsha region (Middle Egypt). Developing socio-archaeological approaches to ancient Egyptian cemeteries.

This archaeological/egyptological project aims to determine trends in population dynamics and cultural variability, based on spatial analysis of the (mostly Old Kingdom Middle Kingdom) cemeteries in the greater Dayr al-Barshâ region (Middle Egypt). Data obtained in 2002-2009 will be supplemented on the basis of geophysical, remote sensing, and surface survey programmes aimed at locating other cemeteries in the region, determining their relative size, and population density. Deploying methods of contrastive analysis it will be possible to relate the evolving use of cemeteries at the site-level to inter-site relationships and more encompassing regional interdependencies. Specific questions to be tackl-ed are a) how the early OK presence of so-called preformal tombs and the later OK emergence of formal tombs relates to initiatives by the central administration in this provincial region; b) the determination of landscape features that are important for understanding mutual relationships between sites by means of geophysical techniques. c) the question of whether and how burial on the desert edge and in settlements may reflect more deeply rooted social differences between cemetery popula-tions. Determination of the similarities and differences between OK and MK cemeteries in different parts of the region will lead to a ranking in terms of population densities and site uses. The results will be confronted with historical data on political and administrative initiatives in the region. d) All the above initiatives serve to place the use of the site of Dayr al-Barshâ in perspective. While previous campaigns have greatly clarified its inner structure, its southern- and northernmost parts are still entirely unexplored. Here, a programme of surveys and small-scale excvations will be needed to ap-preciate developments over the site as a whole. The method of integrated site studies deployed here opens up innovative social archaeological approaches to the study of cemeteries in Egypt as a whole.

Keywords:Archeologie, Egyptologie, Geomorfologie, Sociale geschiedenis

Disciplines:History, Physical geography and environmental geoscience, Archaeology, Theory and methodology of archaeology, Other history and archaeology, Economic history