Die sakrale Legitimation Sesostris' I: Kontaktphanomene in konigsideologischen Texten.

• Author: Olabarria, Leire
• Position: Book review

Die sakrale Legitimation Sesostris' I: Kontaktphanomene in konigsideologischen Texten. By EILEEN HIRSCH. Konigtum, Staat und Gesellschaft fruher Hochkulturen, vol. 6. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 2008. Pp. viii + 253. [euro]64.

This is one of several books published by authors working on the theme "Ritual legitimation of central North African and West Asiatic rulerships," which form part of the multidisciplinary project "Cultural and linguistic contacts: Processes of change in historical areas of tension of North Africa and West Asia" at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz. This volume discusses the issue of royal ideology from the perspective of sacred legitimation, taking the Twelfth Dynasty king Sesostris I as a case study. Kingship has a long research tradition in Egyptology and has fascinated scholars and laymen alike, not least because of the geographical situation of Egypt where Africa meets Asia. Hirsch focuses precisely on this aspect of cultural contact and interaction, presenting familiar sources in a new perspective.

Two models at the heart of the wider project have inspired Hirsch's approach: contact theory and network theory. In the former, three components are analyzed in order to obtain a picture of contact phenomena: contact bearers (individuals or groups), media (language, texts, artifacts), and modes of contact (military actions, diplomacy, trade). Although this scheme is difficult to apply in a time of relatively few contacts, the aim is to evaluate whether interaction with other cultures left traces in the ideology of Sesostris I. Network theory, for its part, regards relations among contact bearers as a point of departure to determine the nature of the contact; here it should be borne in mind that for Egyptian royal ideology the sources are one-sided and centered on the king.

This theoretical framework is put into practice through an ingenious method for analysis of kingship ideology devised by Rolf Gundlach. Basing herself on the idea of contact bearers, the author analyzes four components of the ideological system in depth. First, the gods constitute the mythic-cultic layer of the network, since their interrelation with the king determines some features of his self-presentation. Second, the king is the central point of this network; all the other contact bearers relate to him. While some themes recur in the presentation of the king as an institutionalized figure, some are distinctive for a particular king...