Die Zeit der Regionen im Spiegel der Gebelein-Region: Kulturgeschichtliche Re-Konstruktionen.

• Author: Darnell, Colleen Manassa
• Position: Book review

Die Zeit der Regionen im Spiegel der Gebelein-Region: Kulturgeschichtliche Re-Konstruktionen. By Ludwig Morenz. Probleme der Agyptologie, vol. 27. Leiden: Brill, 2010. Pp. xx + 685, illus. $272.

In this lengthy volume, Ludwig Morenz uses the region of Gebelein as a case study to examine the "period of regions" (a renaming of the "First Intermediate Period"). Morenz's study contains multiple excursuses, diverse themes, and dozens of monuments, and the detailed table of contents (complementing multiple indices) helps to guide the reader to specific topics. Beginning with nothing less than the role of the historian, Morenz uses the introduction to lay out his diverse theoretical framework, noting the significance of the new historicism, semiotics, and cultural memory among many others. While Morenz is to be applauded for his integration of modern historical theory into the study of pharaonic Egypt, particularly from a local perspective, Die Zeit der Regionen suffers from the inclusion of too much material extraneous to the central thesis and the lack of thorough discussions of several topics key to the main arguments, including the boundaries of hohe Kultur and literacy in ancient Egypt, the role of ceramics in culture, and the presence of an Egypto-Nubian population at Gebelein. The dense nature of the book as well as its multifarious contexts prevents a complete summary in the present review, which will highlight a few areas of consideration.

Chapter 1 provides an overview of the "histories" of the "period of regions," as well as a specific section that argues for this name over the typically used "First Intermediate Period." Morenz notes that a rk hnw "time of the Residence" is used to refer to the Old Kingdom in the Instruction for Merikare (a useful overview of the text remains Parkinson 2002: 248-57); "intermediate" has pejorative connotations; and "period of regions" captures the geopolitical nature of the time. A useful summary of the political system, economy, chronology, and military nature of the "period of regions" then follows.

The "mythological" encoding of the "period of regions" that Morenz discusses (pp. 45-48), however, has several methodological flaws. For example, he reads Coffin Text Spell 656 as a disguised political commentary on the conflict between the Thebans and the Heracleopolitans; yet the prominence of the "white crown" in the spell is due to its association with Osiris (Goebs 2008: 110-13), and a politico-historical interpretation...