Skip to Main Content

Death, Power, and Apotheosis in Ancient Egypt: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

Online ISBN:
9781501760174
Print ISBN:
9781501760150
Publisher:
Cornell University Press
Book

Death, Power, and Apotheosis in Ancient Egypt: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

Julia Troche
Julia Troche
Missouri State University
Find on
Published online:
19 May 2022
Published in print:
15 December 2021
Online ISBN:
9781501760174
Print ISBN:
9781501760150
Publisher:
Cornell University Press

Abstract

This book uniquely considers how power was constructed, maintained, and challenged in ancient Egypt through mortuary culture and apotheosis, or how certain dead in ancient Egypt became gods. Rather than focus on the imagined afterlife and its preparation, the book provides a novel treatment of mortuary culture exploring how the dead were mobilized to negotiate social, religious, and political capital in ancient Egypt before the New Kingdom. The book explores the perceived agency of esteemed dead in ancient Egyptian social, political, and religious life during the Old and Middle Kingdoms (c. 2700–1650 BCE) by utilizing a wide range of evidence, from epigraphic and literary sources to visual and material artifacts. As a result, the book is an important contribution to current scholarship in its collection and presentation of data, the framework it establishes for identifying distinguished and deified dead, and its novel argumentation, which adds to the larger academic conversation about power negotiation and the perceived agency of the dead in ancient Egypt.

Contents
Close
This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

Close

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

View Article Abstract & Purchase Options

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Close