Genealogy and the dating of provincial art: a case study from Akhmim
Résumé
Prosopography of commoners has long been neglected as a source to further our knowledge of Egyptian chronology, whether in the royal circles or in provincial settings. While study of families closely related to the kings is now used to refine the official chronology of the country, use of prosopography in order to improve the chronology of provincial cities is still largely lacking. Yet, where stylistic dating of objects is often rather imprecise to set a timeframe for local officials, prosopography and reconstruction of family trees may be decisive to build local timelines both for individuals and for provincial art.
Using a methodology I developed in the course of a postdoctoral research project and presented at the CRE 2019 in Alcalá, I will try to show through a case study of a family of seven generations of priests from Akhmim dated to the 26th dynasty and descended from a Theban vizier how genealogy can help improve provincial chronology. Indeed, local officials in cities remote from power centers are often completely disconnected from official chronology, since nothing left from their life and productions contains cartouches or other dating elements. Therefore, one has to look for other hints to determine a datation. Prosopography and family relationships may help in this respect but are not always enough by themselves. In the case of Akhmim, most of the sources stem from the funerary material of the inhabitants, which allows for cross-referencing prosopographical data with other information, such as palæography, identification of artists’ hands and ateliers or specific patterns. In doing so, one securely dated individual may provide a starting point to place his relatives and contemporaries on the local timeline with greater accuracy. This paper will thus deal with the challenges of family reconstruction, contemporaneity of individuals within a family and their relationship to chronology.