Ancient Egyptian Biographies

One particular highlight [of the collection] for English readers is that all the contributions are in English, but include significant new works (and reflections on previously published pieces) from scholars who usually write in French or German.

Biography is perhaps the quintessential form of ancient Egyptian nonroyal written texts; these are widely discussed but discussion is rarely collected between the covers of a single volume, which makes the present work of great value. The papers here will collectively be of interest to scholars, but also fill a ‘gap in the market’ for students studying individual examples and looking for wider contextualisation.

I certainly know this would have been useful when I was a student! Especially valuable are the initial cross-cultural comparisons, which draw parallels with Mesopotamian examples and with linguistic theory, emphasising that Egyptian texts are not a total anomaly and can be studied from a variety of perspectives. The whole volume is set into context in term of the physical manifestation of (monumental) biographical texts by John Baines, one of the grand masters of the study of the genre.

Chapters are then grouped in a roughly chronological order in terms of the material they discuss, beginning with the Old Kingdom and moving through into the Late Period. Close attention is paid throughout to the setting of the inscribed biography, the social context of its content and the identity of the speaker: are biographies written about people, or are the autobiographies voiced by the person themselves? Individual chapters address the claims to veracity in some biographical texts, the role of the town(speople), the themes of promotion, religious piety and participation in rituals.

The larger, A4 format of the book allows for decent-sized, clear illustrations, which are welcome. An index of all the biographies cited in the book is included at the end, making this an accessible and very useful work that will be of considerable importance in future for both scholars and students – but also to anyone who has wondered what so many monumental texts contain.
Campbell Price, Ancient Egypt No. 129 (Vol 22.3) January/February 2022