20 - Changes in Perceptions of the ‘Other’ and Expressions of Egyptian Self-identity in the Late Bronze Age

Summary

This chapter presents evidence from Theban tombs and mortuary temples to show that expressions of 'others' and of self-identity changed as the Egyptian elite adjusted to a new perceptual reality, one in which Egypt increasingly became part of the Mediterranean world. It states that texts and images included in Egyptian-mortuary contexts were not there primarily to record historical-events but to demonstrate the qualities of the person whom they commemorated. Representations in Theban private tombs of the Eighteenth Dynasty show northerners as offering-bearers. These tombs generally belonged to members of the Egyptian high elite, high priests of Amun, viziers, and mayors of Thebes, many of whom held several positions during their careers. A pertinent example is Menkheperreseneb, a High Priest of Amun under Thutmose III in the Eighteenth-Dynasty, interred in Theban Tomb. Northerners depicted at Medinet Habu, the mortuary temple of the Twentieth-Dynasty king now generally known as Ramesses III, serve a similar function, albeit in a different way.