Ritual, Symbolism and Social Cohesion. Hunting in Predynastic Egypt
Keywords:
hunting, cultural memory, ritual, predynastic Egypt
Abstract
Hunting has been understood on many occasions from an evolutionary perspective, as a stage prior to social, economic and political complexity. It is true that its contribution to the food sustenance of the Egyptian population decreased in predynastic times and that the relationship with wild, exotic animals was ritualized with the materialization of an ideology or culture associated with the pharaoh, but hunting, like fishing, continued to provide products that were demanded by society. It is an activity that must be analyzed considering anthropological, archeological and artistic approaches to better understand its symbolism and presence in the cultural memory of Pharaonic Egypt.Downloads
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References
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Hendrickx, S., Förster, F. y Eyckerman, M. (2019). Le toureau à l’époque prédynastique et son importance pour le development de l’iconographie royale -avec un excursus sur l’origine de sceptre héqa, en: Aufrère, S. H. (ed.), Les taureaux de l’Égypte ancienne. Nimes: S. H. Aufrère, 33-73.
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Kent, S. (1989). Cross-cultural perceptions of farmers as hunters and the value of meat, en: Kent, S. (ed.), Farmers as Hunters. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1-17.
Lankester, F. (2016). Predynastic Egyptian rock art as evidence for early elites’ rites of passage, en: Afrique: Archéologie & Arts 12: 81-92.
Lankester, F. (2017). Control of the Wild in Egypt’s predynastic rock art, en: Midant-Reynes, B. y Tristant, Y. (eds.), Egypt at its Origins 5. Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference “Origin of the State. Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt”, Cairo, 13th - 18th April 2014 (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 260). Lovaina: Peeters, 863-881.
LeBlanc, M. (2015). The Zoomorphic Transformation of the King in Early Egyptian Royal Military Victory Rituals and Its Relationship to the Sed Festival, en: Massiera, M., Mathieu, B. y Rouffet, F. (eds.), Apprivoiser le sauvage / Taming the Wild (Cahiers Égypte Nilotique et Méditerranéenne 11). Montpellier: ENiM, 229-243.
Linseele, V. y Van Neer, W. (2009). Exploitation of desert and other wild game in ancient Egypt. The archaeozoological evidence from the Nile Valley, en: Riemer, H., Förster, F., Herb, M. y Pöllath, N. (eds.), Desert Animals in the Eastern Sahara (Colloquium Africanum 4). Colonia: Heinrich-Barth-Institut, 47-78.
Linseele, V., Van Neer, W. y Friedman, R. (2009). Special animals from a special place? The fauna from HK29A at Predynastic Hierakonpolis, en: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 45: 105-136.
Marinova, E., Ryan, P., Van Neer, W. y Friedman, R. (2013). Animal dung from arid environments and archaeobotanical methodologies for its analysis: an example from animal burials of the Predynastic elite cemetery HK6 at Hierakonpolis, Egypt, en: Journal of Environmental Archaeology 18 (1): 58-71.
Maydana, S. (2020). Hippopotamus hunting in Predynastic Egypt: Reassessing Archaeozoological evidence, en: Archaeofauna. International Journal of Archaeozoology 29: 137-150.
Patch, D. C. (2011). Dawn of Egyptian Art. Nueva York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Pérez Largacha, A. (2019). El arte del Egipto predinástico. Ritual, significado y función, en: Espacio, Tiempo y Forma. Serie VII, Historia del Arte 7: 133-160.
Prezioso, E. (2020). Cognitive Archaeology and the ‘Ancient Mind’: Mesopotamian motifs in the formation of Egyptian elites in the fourth millennium, en: Iamoni, M. (ed.), From the Prehistory of Upper Mesopotamia to the Bronze and Iron Age Societies of the Levant. Trieste: Edizioni Università di Trieste, 125-144.
Renfrew, C. (2007). The Archaeology of Ritual, of Cult, and of Religion, en: Kyriakidis, E. (ed.), The Archaeology of Ritual (Cotsen Advanced Seminar 3). Los Ángeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, 109-121.
Russell, N. (2022). Wild Meets Domestic in the Near Eastern Neolithic, en: Animals 12: 1-14.
Smolik, J. (2022). The Hunters’ Palette: A Novel Explanation of the Enigmatic Double Bull, an Image that Survive through the Millennia, en: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 58: 209-231.
Van Neer, W. y De Cupere, B. (2021). Animals for Food, Prestige and Ritual. Evidence Off the Bone from Hierakonpolis, en: Nekhen News 33: 5-10.
Van Neer, W. y Friedman, R. (2017). More animal burials from the Predynastic elite cemetery of Hierakonpolis (Upper Egypt): the 2008 season, en: Mashkour, M. y Beech, M. (eds.), Archaeozoology of the Near East 9. Oxford: Oxbow books, 388-403.
Van Neer, W. y Linseele, V. (2016). Interaction between man and animals in the Prehistoric Nile Valley, en: Zakrzewski, S., Shortland, A. y Rowland, J. (eds.), Science in the Study of Ancient Egypt. Londres: Routledge, 109-112.
Van Neer, W., Udrescu, M., Linseele, V., De Cupere, B. y Friedman, R. (2017). Traumatism in the Wild Animals Kept and Offered at Predynastic Hierakonpolis, Upper Egypt, en: International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 27: 86-105.
Baines, J. (1990). Restricted Knowledge, Hierarchy, and Decorum: Modern perceptions and Ancient Institutions, en: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 27: 1-23.
Bell, C. (1992). Ritual theory, ritual practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Brémont, A. (2018). Into the Wild? Rethinking the Dynastic conception of the Desert beyond Nature and Culture, en: Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 17: 1-17.
Burkert, W. (2013 [1972]). Homo Necans. Interpretaciones de ritos sacrificiales y mitos de la antigua Grecia. Barcelona: Acantilado.
Darnell, J. (2009). Iconographic Attraction, Iconographic Syntax and Tableaux of Royal Ritual Power in the Pre and Proto-dynastic Rock Inscriptions of the Theban Western Desert, en: Archéo-Nil 19: 83-107.
Darnell, J. (2018). Homo Pictus and Painted Men: Depictions and Intimations of Humans in the Rock Art of the Theban Western Desert, en: Huyge, D. y Van Noten, F. (eds.), What Ever Happened to the People? Humans and Anthropomorphs in the Rock Art of Northern Africa. Bruselas: Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences, 397-418.
Darnell, J. (2021). Egypt and the Desert. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
DeMarrais, E., Castillo, L. y Earle, T. (1996). Ideology, materialization, and power strategies, en: Current Anthropology 37: 15-31.
Diego Espinel, A. (2017). A neglected hunting scene from Saqqara (Pitt Rivers 1926.14.6) and the iconography of the desert hunters during the Old Kingdom, en: Bárta, M., Coppens, F. y Krejčí, J. (eds.), Abusir and Saqqara in the Year 2015. Praga: Charles University, 85-121.
Eisenberg-Degen, D., Galili, R. y Rosen, S. A. (2021). Before God. Reconstructing Ritual in the Desert in Proto-historic Times, en: Entangled Religion 12 (2). En línea: https://doi.org/10.46586/er.12.2021.8943. [Consultado: 13-7-2023].
Friedman, R., Van Neer, W., De Cupere, B. y Droux, X. (2017). The Elite Predynastic Cemetery at Hierakonpolis HK6: 2011-2015 progress report, en: Midant-Reynes, B. y Tristant, Y. (eds.), Egypt at its Origins 5. Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference “Origin of the State. Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt”, Cairo, 13th - 18th April 2014 (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 260). Lovaina: Peeters, 231-289.
Graff, G. (2009). Les peintures sur vases de Nagada I-Nagada II. Nouvelle approche sémiologique de l’iconographie prédynastique. Lovaina: Leuven University Press.
Graff, G., Eyckerman, M. y Hendrickx, S. (2011). Architectural Elements on Decorated Pottery and the Ritual Presentation of Desert Animals, en: Friedman, R. F. y Fiske, P. N. (eds.), Egypt at its Origins 3. Proceedings of the Third International Conference “Origin of the State. Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt”, London, 27th July - 1st August 2008 (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 205). Lovaina: Peeters, 437-465.
Hamilakis, Y. (2003). The sacred geography of hunting: wild animals, social power and gender in early farming societies, en: British School at Athens Studies 9: 239-247.
Hendrickx, S. (2011a). Hunting and Social Complexity in Predynastic Egypt, en: Académie Royale des Sciences d’Outre-Mer, Bulletin des Séances / Koninklijke Academie voor Overzeese Wetenschappen, Mededelingen der Zittingen 57 (2-4): 237-263.
Hendrickx, S. (2011b). L’iconographie de la chasse dans le contexte social prédynastique, en: Archéo-Nil 20: 108-136.
Hendrickx, S. y Eyckerman, M. (2012). Visual representation and State development in Egypt, en: Archéo-Nil 22: 23-72.
Hendrickx, S., Förster, F. y Eyckerman, M. (2019). Le toureau à l’époque prédynastique et son importance pour le development de l’iconographie royale -avec un excursus sur l’origine de sceptre héqa, en: Aufrère, S. H. (ed.), Les taureaux de l’Égypte ancienne. Nimes: S. H. Aufrère, 33-73.
Hodder, I. (1990). The Domestication of Europe: Structure and Contingency in Neolithic Societies. Oxford: Blackwell.
Ingold, T, (1994). From trust to domination: an alternative history of human animal relations, en: Manning, A. y Serpell, J. (eds.), Animals and Human Society: Changing Perspectives. Londres: Routledge, 1-22.
Kent, S. (1989). Cross-cultural perceptions of farmers as hunters and the value of meat, en: Kent, S. (ed.), Farmers as Hunters. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1-17.
Lankester, F. (2016). Predynastic Egyptian rock art as evidence for early elites’ rites of passage, en: Afrique: Archéologie & Arts 12: 81-92.
Lankester, F. (2017). Control of the Wild in Egypt’s predynastic rock art, en: Midant-Reynes, B. y Tristant, Y. (eds.), Egypt at its Origins 5. Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference “Origin of the State. Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt”, Cairo, 13th - 18th April 2014 (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 260). Lovaina: Peeters, 863-881.
LeBlanc, M. (2015). The Zoomorphic Transformation of the King in Early Egyptian Royal Military Victory Rituals and Its Relationship to the Sed Festival, en: Massiera, M., Mathieu, B. y Rouffet, F. (eds.), Apprivoiser le sauvage / Taming the Wild (Cahiers Égypte Nilotique et Méditerranéenne 11). Montpellier: ENiM, 229-243.
Linseele, V. y Van Neer, W. (2009). Exploitation of desert and other wild game in ancient Egypt. The archaeozoological evidence from the Nile Valley, en: Riemer, H., Förster, F., Herb, M. y Pöllath, N. (eds.), Desert Animals in the Eastern Sahara (Colloquium Africanum 4). Colonia: Heinrich-Barth-Institut, 47-78.
Linseele, V., Van Neer, W. y Friedman, R. (2009). Special animals from a special place? The fauna from HK29A at Predynastic Hierakonpolis, en: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 45: 105-136.
Marinova, E., Ryan, P., Van Neer, W. y Friedman, R. (2013). Animal dung from arid environments and archaeobotanical methodologies for its analysis: an example from animal burials of the Predynastic elite cemetery HK6 at Hierakonpolis, Egypt, en: Journal of Environmental Archaeology 18 (1): 58-71.
Maydana, S. (2020). Hippopotamus hunting in Predynastic Egypt: Reassessing Archaeozoological evidence, en: Archaeofauna. International Journal of Archaeozoology 29: 137-150.
Patch, D. C. (2011). Dawn of Egyptian Art. Nueva York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Pérez Largacha, A. (2019). El arte del Egipto predinástico. Ritual, significado y función, en: Espacio, Tiempo y Forma. Serie VII, Historia del Arte 7: 133-160.
Prezioso, E. (2020). Cognitive Archaeology and the ‘Ancient Mind’: Mesopotamian motifs in the formation of Egyptian elites in the fourth millennium, en: Iamoni, M. (ed.), From the Prehistory of Upper Mesopotamia to the Bronze and Iron Age Societies of the Levant. Trieste: Edizioni Università di Trieste, 125-144.
Renfrew, C. (2007). The Archaeology of Ritual, of Cult, and of Religion, en: Kyriakidis, E. (ed.), The Archaeology of Ritual (Cotsen Advanced Seminar 3). Los Ángeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, 109-121.
Russell, N. (2022). Wild Meets Domestic in the Near Eastern Neolithic, en: Animals 12: 1-14.
Smolik, J. (2022). The Hunters’ Palette: A Novel Explanation of the Enigmatic Double Bull, an Image that Survive through the Millennia, en: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 58: 209-231.
Van Neer, W. y De Cupere, B. (2021). Animals for Food, Prestige and Ritual. Evidence Off the Bone from Hierakonpolis, en: Nekhen News 33: 5-10.
Van Neer, W. y Friedman, R. (2017). More animal burials from the Predynastic elite cemetery of Hierakonpolis (Upper Egypt): the 2008 season, en: Mashkour, M. y Beech, M. (eds.), Archaeozoology of the Near East 9. Oxford: Oxbow books, 388-403.
Van Neer, W. y Linseele, V. (2016). Interaction between man and animals in the Prehistoric Nile Valley, en: Zakrzewski, S., Shortland, A. y Rowland, J. (eds.), Science in the Study of Ancient Egypt. Londres: Routledge, 109-112.
Van Neer, W., Udrescu, M., Linseele, V., De Cupere, B. y Friedman, R. (2017). Traumatism in the Wild Animals Kept and Offered at Predynastic Hierakonpolis, Upper Egypt, en: International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 27: 86-105.
Published
2023-12-01
How to Cite
Pérez Largacha, A. (2023). Ritual, Symbolism and Social Cohesion. Hunting in Predynastic Egypt. Revista Del Instituto De Historia Antigua Oriental, (24). https://doi.org/10.34096/rihao.n24.13747
Issue
Section
Dossier. Egiptología iberoamericana (primera parte)
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