Overview

The present study correlates religion and politics in Ancient Egypt by treating them as social and cultural fields that may change during history. The relationship between these two phenomena is always the result of varying power structures, conflicts, negotiations, and symbolic constructions. Our premise is that the distinction between religion and politics is not based on some essential difference between them, nor can it historically be taken for granted. The investigation focuses on the political and religious centre of the early First Millennium BC in Egypt, the city and region of Thebes, and includes textual, pictorial, art historical and architectural sources. The three parts of the project cover the period between the Twenty-second Dynasty and the transitional phase to the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. The first case study deals with the High Priest of Amun and later King Osorkon (B/III.) as well as the royal secretary Hor in the Twenty-second Dynasty, discussing the entanglement between their religious and political offices and ambitions. Although highlighting these two personalities, the interconnections between the most influential families of that time are another aspect of the social and political reality in Thebes. The second part is devoted to the political and religious legitimation of the Nubian kings Pi(ankh)y and Taharqo in the Twenty-fifth Dynasty. Apart from the difficult situation of a foreign Nubian to become pharaoh in Egypt, also a Kushite-type legitimation was necessary to rule the indigenous realm of Kush. The third case study deals with the influential personality of the governor of Thebes, Montuemhat, in the Twenty-fifth-Twenty-sixth Dynasty. His self-staging is most intriguing, visible first of all through the statues and their inscriptions in the Karnak temple. All three parts of this project together highlight Thebes as a hotspot of political and social changes leaving traces in the realm of religion. The diachronic examination of the representations reflecting the entanglement of religion and politics makes the fluctuation visible.

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