Chapter Four - Domestic Material Culture of the Third Intermediate Period

Summary

Chapter 4 demonstrates links back to Ramesside object preferences, and to precursors of Late Period object typologies. The material culture of everyday life and social practices of the people living at that time demonstrate the Third Intermediate Period as a distinctly defined cultural element within Egyptian society and Egyptology. There were changes in artefact usages and material culture, and implications for understanding characteristics of the object world of the period, and the lifecycles of the Third Intermediate Period population. The domestic material culture also demonstrates aspects of regionality in relation to the political fragmentation of the country. The ceramics of the period identify continuity or changes in storage, dining, and drinking cultures. Alongside ceramics, Chapter 4 also includes objects of personal adornment, tools, weapons, and re-used and salvaged stone. The artefacts and object-world of the settlements allow exploration of the social status of the population, their religious beliefs, the extent of elite emulation and self-sufficiency regarding elite object replication, the extent of object re-use and recycling, and the creation and availability of materials for object manufacture.