Investigating Ethnic and Gender Identities as Expressed on Wooden Funerary Stelae from the Libyan Period (c.1069-715 B.C.E.) in Egypt

Description

This work focuses on a corpus of 117 wooden funerary stelae, using it as a case study for investigating how identity (specifically ethnicity and gender) was expressed during the Libyan Period (Dynasties 21-24, c. 1069-715 BCE) in Egypt. Egyptian funerary stelae serve as a rich medium for researching issues of identity because they were made to preserve the quintessential characteristics of their owners in an idealized manner. Additionally, those that come from excavated contexts provide information on the general burial practices of the period. This case study takes a multi-disciplinary approach, considering the art historical, textual, and archaeological aspects of the stelae. Examining how Egyptians and Libyans negotiated their identity in the early first millennium BCE from both anthropological and Egyptological perspectives, it should benefit Egyptologists, anthropologists and other social scientists interested in issues of identity.