par Vanhulle, Dorian
Référence Stone Canvas: Towards a Better Integration of "Rock Art" and "Graffiti" Studies in Egypt and Sudan (1: 10th-12th November 2019: Institut français d'archéologie orientale & Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, Cairo)
Publication Non publié, 2019-11-12
Communication à un colloque
Résumé : The modern recording and study of Pre- and Early Dynastic rock art has a relatively long history. However, since Flinders Petrie recognized the prehistoric age of some Egyptian rock art at the end of the 19th century, rock art studies have largely remained a subsidiary, if not a completely distinct, research field which is not very well integrated within the traditional Egyptological discipline. Although more and more research in the field of rock art studies - particularly during the last two decades - goes beyond the mere cataloguing of rock art and provide significant new insights, rock art research remains rather peripheral and is largely overlooked or neglected in many Egyptological discussions.Fortunately, promising recent research is transforming this global state of affairs. Indeed, new methodologies, notably involving holistic approaches, cross-media corpora, landscape archaeology and semiology, allow us more firmly to integrate Neolithic rock art into its global Egyptian-Nubian context. Interestingly, preliminary results of ongoing research also show the huge potential of rock art in providing unexpected information regarding the complex political, economic, and religious phenomena that took place in the Nile Valley during the 4th millennium B.C. Illustrated by several case studies, this paper aims at presenting how the study of rock art can improve our current conceptions of the formation of the incipient Egyptian state, and how it can lead to a better understanding of the dynamics behind the establishment of the territorial limits of Egypt and the development of the first administration of the land.