Table Of Content

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 This project is being presented with financial assistance from the West Virginia Humanities Council, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations do not necessarily represent those of the West Virginia Humanities Council or the National Endowment for the Humanities. This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 1566-2055 ISBN 978-90-04-25984-3 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-25985-0 (e-book) Copyright 2014 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IdC Publishers and Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood drive, Suite 910, danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. For david 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