Personal Religion in Domestic Contexts during the New Kingdom

Contents

Preface ;

Introduction ;

Chapter One: The Domestic Practice of Personal Religion ;
Introduction ;
Religion and Magic in Ancient Egypt ;
The Domestic Setting around the Time of the New Kingdom ;
Origins and Early Evidence of Personal Religion in Ancient Egypt ;
The Domestic Expressions of Personal Religion ;
Religion in the Amarna Period ;

Chapter Two: Domestic Space in the New Kingdom: A Case Study ;
Introduction ;
The Lahun Case: A Middle Kingdom Template ;
Tell el-Amarna ;
Deir el-Medina ;
Inside the Houses ;
The Domestic Distribution of Religious Actions ;
Amarna and Post-Amarna Rooms ;

Chapter Three: The Archaeological Pieces of Evidence: Artefacts et alii ;
Introduction ;
Artefacts of General Cultic Application ;
Tell el-Amarna ;
Deir el-Medina ;
Other Sites ;
Artefacts to Interact with the Deceased ;
The Letters to the Dead ;
Anthropoid Busts ;
3h-ikr-n-R’ Stelae ;
The Royal Ancestors Worship ;
Artefacts to Communicate with the Divinities ;
Amulets ;
Female (Fertility) Figurines ;
Jeux de la Nature ;
Intermediary Statues, Statuettes, and Busts ;
Figured Ostraca ;
Votive Stelae ;
Comparative Study ;

Chapter Four: The Archaeological Pieces of Evidence: Structures ;
Introduction ;
Domestic Cultic Structures ;
Altars ;
Niches ;
Decorations ;
Singular Structures ;
Comparative Study ;

Chapter Five: Personal Religion in the Amarna Period: New Forms for Old Ways ;
Introduction ;
Religious Radicalization ;
The Archaeological ;
The Anthropological ;
The Signification of the Continuity of the Practice of Personal Religion throughout the Amarna Period ;

Bibliography

About the Author

Iria Souto Castro obtained her PhD in Heritage Cultural Protection in 2020 at the University of Vigo (Spain). From 2016 onwards, she has been a visiting researcher at the departments of Egyptology and Ancient History of the universities of Birmingham, Oxford and Alcalá de Henares. She has taken part in archaeological work in Spain, Portugal and more recently Egypt (Sais Project, University of Durham; Middle Kingdom Theban Project, University of Alcalá), as well as different national and international congresses. She is currently a Margarita Salas postdoctoral researcher at the University of Vigo, developing her project on personal religion in El-Fayum at the University of Trier.

Reviews

'Well illustrated with a range of line drawings and maps, and colour and greyscale images including archival images of Tell el-Amarna, this volume will be valuable for both general and scholarly readers, and will form a key text for students wishing to know more about this fascinating and innovative area of research.' – Anna Garnett (2024): Ancient Egypt 142