Figure 20.6 Funerary stela of Djedherbes showing a combination of several cultural affiliations.
Source: From Saqqara; Mathieson et al. 1995: p. 27 Figure 3; reproduced by permission of Elizabeth Bettles.
A continuation of Persian period settlements can be postulated throughout the Egyptian realm. For a preliminary compilation of archeological sites including settlements dating to the twenty‐seventh to thirty‐first dynasties in Egypt see Wuttmann and Marchand 2005, esp. pp. 102–119. Nonetheless, research of specifically Persian period settlement strata is still mainly restricted to the site of Tell el‐Herr in northwestern Sinai and to Elephantine at the first Nile cataract. However, pottery comparable to the Persian period levels from Tell el‐Herr have been found in Naucratis, Saïs, and Buto in the western Delta; Mendes, Tanis, Tell Defenneh, and Tell el‐Balamun in the Eastern Delta; Tell el‐Farama and Kedua in northwestern Sinai; Tell Muqdam/Leontopolis in the southern Delta; Tell el‐Maskhuta in Wadi Tumilat; Tebtynis in the Fayyum; Giza, Abusir, Saqqara, Memphis, Mostagedda, Karnak, Thebes, and Elephantine in the Nile Valley; as well as ‘Ayn Manawir in the Charga oasis (Defernez 2001: pp. 5–25, passim; Defernez and Marchand 2006: pp. 63–74; Aston 1999b: pp. 213–278, Figure 4). Similarly widespread are the coin hoards dating to the period from the twenty‐seventh to the thirty‐first dynasty and featuring Athenian and Levantine silver coins (Elayi and Elayi 1993: pp. 282–295; Colburn 2014: pp. 356–358).
Evidence that settlement and cultivation might even have been actively promoted has been unearthed in the Charga oasis. Building and decoration activities at several temples (Hibis, Ghueita, ‘Ayn Manawir) indicate increased administrative and cultic importance of the oasis (Willeitner 2003: pp. 22–53; Darnell 2007). Even more revealing are the findings of qanat systems, i.e. above‐ and below‐ground irrigation canals and galleries tapping the artesian water reservoir beneath the Libyan desert. Though the structures themselves still have not been securely dated, the textual evidence from ‘Ayn Manawir suggests their construction to have taken place in the early twenty‐seventh dynasty. With the exception of only a few texts documenting earlier settlement activity (but not the use of qanats), the texts administrating the use of these irrigation systems do not date before the reigns of Artaxerxes I and Darius II (Chauveau 2001: p. 137). Assuming that this is not due to a research deficit, it can be postulated that qanats were in use only then because of preceding construction work (probably during the reigns of Darius I and Xerxes I).
To sum up: the archeological sources from Egypt display a highly strategic approach to royal art. Either Persianhood is not expressed at all (e.g. objects and monuments that follow the Egyptian cultural tradition mentioning the foreign name rendered into Egyptian), or it is expressed through a combination of Egyptian and Persian (and to some extent also Mesopotamian) concepts of royal (or at least highest “elite”) representation. This may be deducted from the conspicuous use of attributes, gestures, and postures denoting similar ranges of meaning in both (or even all three) cultural traditions at the expense of solely royal imagery. Additionally, there is evidence for continuing cult and building activities carried out explicitly in the king's name in the Suez Canal region, the Delta, the Nile Valley, and the oases in the western desert.
With regard to “elite” self‐representation, definite assertions are impossible due to the current state of research. No object of representation can be securely attributed to a Persian official even though representational monuments of persons of mixed parentage and of foreign, non‐Persian extraction are known. We may presume that quite a number of Egyptian “elite” monuments are in existence but misdated to the twenty‐sixth dynasty or early Ptolemaic period. The few statues that definitely represent Egyptian officials in the service of the Persian administration or the court were fashioned within the Egyptian cultural tradition. They do, however, clearly state the owner's loyalty by means of specific attributes or inscriptions.
While further research is needed for objects of the “non‐elite” population living during the Persian period, the evidence from pottery and irrigation systems suggests a widespread continuation or even promoting of settlements throughout Egypt under the Achaemenians.
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