Pottery and Economy in Old Kingdom Egypt

343 Pages·2014·5.229 MB·English

by  Leslie Anne Warden

Pottery and Economy in Old Kingdom Egypt
Culture and History of the
Ancient Near East
Founding Editor
M.H.E. Weippert
Editor-in-Chief
Thomas Schneider
Editors
Eckart Frahm
W. Randall Garr
B. Halpern
Theo P.J. van den Hout
Irene J. Winter
VOLUME 65
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/chan
Pottery and Economy
in Old Kingdom Egypt
By
Leslie Anne Warden
LEIdEN • BOSTON
2014
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CONTENTS
List of Tables  .................................................................................................... xi
List of Figures and Charts  ............................................................................ xiii
Abbreviations  ................................................................................................... xvii
Acknowledgements  ........................................................................................ xix
1 Egyptian Economic History: Locating Power, Placing Agency  ... 1
Employing Theory  .............................................................................. 2
The durability of Redistribution  .................................................... 8
Keynesian Economics and Complex Economies  ...................... 13
Patrimonialism: The Patrimonial Household Model and
Complex Adaptive Systems  ........................................................ 16
Patronage  .............................................................................................. 20
Cohesion and Malleability  .......................................................... 23
Spheres of Power  ........................................................................... 27
Moving Forward—data and Frameworks  .................................. 28
2 Wages and Payers  .................................................................................... 31
Wages and Payers  ............................................................................... 33
Government as Payer  ................................................................... 33
Private Individuals as Payers  ..................................................... 38
Wage Value and Accounting  ...................................................... 43
Production of Wages: A View from Titles and Iconography  ... 47
Iconographic Evidence ................................................................. 49
Conclusion  ............................................................................................ 51
3 Archaeology, Pottery, and Economy .................................................. 53
Archaeological data, distribution, and Production  ................. 54
Egyptian Archaeology and Economy: Case Studies  ............ 54
The Archaeology of Bread and Beer  ............................................. 57
Beer, Bread, and Ceramic Research  ......................................... 61
Valuing Beer Jars and Bread Moulds  ....................................... 62
Standardization Studies  ............................................................... 67
Volumetric Studies  ........................................................................ 70
Ceramics and Microeconomic Systems: Craft Production  .... 72
Agency through Ceramic Production  ...................................... 72
The Corpus  ........................................................................................... 78
viii contents
4 Beer Jars, Standardization, and Economy  ....................................... 81
Typology and Methodology  ............................................................. 81
Measuring Standardization  ............................................................. 85
Measuring Human Perception in the Archaeological
 Record  .......................................................................................... 86
Beer Jars: Introduction to a Form .................................................. 89
description and Technical Features  ........................................ 90
Beer Jar distribution  ..................................................................... 97
The Beer Jar Sample  ..................................................................... 99
Economic Analysis  ............................................................................. 104
Methodology  ................................................................................... 104
Means and Standard deviations for Volume  ........................ 110
The CV for Volume, Applied to dynastic Corpora  .............. 110
Analysis of Corpora by Regnal divisions  ............................... 117
Analysis by Stylistic Subtypes  .................................................... 123
Conclusion  ............................................................................................ 128
5 Bread Moulds: An Independent Economic Unit?  ......................... 131
Bread Moulds: Introduction to a Form  ........................................ 133
Moulds and Mould Baked Bread  .............................................. 135
bḏꜣ Manufacture  ............................................................................. 139
bḏꜣ distribution  .............................................................................. 140
The bḏꜣ Corpus  ............................................................................... 145
Challenges of Our Bread Mould Sample  ................................ 146
Economic Analysis  ............................................................................. 148
Methodology  ................................................................................... 149
Means and Standard deviations for Volume  ........................ 150
dynastic Corpora and the CV for Volume  ............................. 155
CVs Above the ‘Random’ Value: Working within
 Typologies  ................................................................................... 158
CVs Above the ‘Random’ Value: Finding Outliers  ............... 164
Bread Moulds versus Beer Jars  .................................................. 166
Conclusion  ............................................................................................ 168
6 Microeconomic Systems: Ceramic Production   ............................. 169
Potters as Economic Agents  ............................................................ 170
Potters as Specialists  .......................................................................... 174
Beer Jars and Bread Moulds as Evidence for Specialist
 Production  .................................................................................. 175
Beer Jars and Rim Values  ............................................................ 183
contents ix
bḏꜣ Moulds and Rim Values  ....................................................... 186
Rim Measurements and Specialization  .................................. 188
The Structure of Pottery Production  ............................................ 190
The Iconographic Record and Workshop Production  ....... 193
Scale of Production in the Tomb of Ptahshepses  ................ 203
The Relationship of the Ceramic Industry to Other
 Industries  .................................................................................... 205
Workshops within the Archaeological Record  ..................... 206
Controlling Workshops   .................................................................... 213
Controlling Production and Restricting Resources  ............. 214
Conclusion   ........................................................................................... 221
7 Placing Royal Administration and State Revenue  ........................ 223
Royal Administration and the Provinces  .................................... 223
The Economic Powers of the State  ............................................... 232
State Finance ................................................................................... 234
Royal domains  ............................................................................... 238
Conclusion  ............................................................................................ 242
8 The State of the Egyptian Economy  .................................................. 245
Old Kingdom Egypt and Economic Models  ............................... 246
Informal and Self-Structured Economy  .................................. 247
Monolithic Authority as a Bad Fit  ............................................ 256
Relationship of State and Private Enterprise   ............................ 259
Bread, Beer, and Grain  ...................................................................... 262
The First Intermediate Period . . . and Beyond  ........................... 264
Appendices
1 Sites and Corpora Used in This Study  .............................................. 269
2 Individual Beer Jar Volumes in Samples Where n≥15  ................. 280
3 Individual Bread Mould Volumes in Samples Where n≥14  ...... 286
Bibliography  ..................................................................................................... 289
Index  ................................................................................................................... 319