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Prestigious research funding for work on the organization of social inequality in ancient Egypt / up to 2.9 million euros over five years
Professor Dr Richard Bußmann from the Institute for African Studies and Egyptology at the University of Cologne has been awarded the coveted Advanced Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). Bußmann will receive up to 2.9 million euros of research funding over a period of five years. The ERC Advanced Grant is considered the most prestigious research prize across the European research landscape. “I congratulate Professor Bußmann on this great success with his project, which makes an innovative contribution to our understanding of social relationships. This important award underlines the excellent quality of the research being undertaken at our university, including smaller fields of study”, says Professor Dr Joybrato Mukherjee, Rector of the University of Cologne.
In his project SUBALTERNEGY, Bußmann investigates the social organization of low-ranking and disempowered groups in ancient Egypt. “In Egyptology, the focus has traditionally been placed on texts and impressive monuments of privileged social groups. There is an extensive body of archaeological evidence for everyday life in local communities, but this recrod has received little attention in our interpretations of ancient Egyptian society so far. The picture that we have of ancient Egypt is still biased towards ancient elites. The project will change this,” says Bußmann. SUBALTERNEGY uses new archaeological finds and an innovative theoretical approach to investigate how the lower social groups of Ancient Egypt responded to hegemonic concepts of privileged groups during the first phase of political centralization in Northeast Africa, the early phase of the Ancient Egyptian state (2700 to 2200 BC).
SUBALTERNEGY utilizes an interdisciplinary pool of methods from archaeology, anthropology, geophysics, visual studies and cultural history. The premise of the project is that people of all social groups strive for a meaningful life and, for this purpose, position themselves and are positioned within social relationships These relationships are expressed in the material culture and built environment and may reflect, reproduce or question the prevailing social order.
In the project, an international excavation team will document the cemetery of the ancient Egyptian provincial capital Hebenu, modern Zawyet Sultan, south of the city of el-Minia. The human remains of the buried individuals provide information about the diversity of lived realities across social groups. By contrast, the funerary culture, as argued in the project, draws an idealized picture of the local community as an “imagined community”. The project participants examine how the inhabitants of Hebenu used the human body in burials, the landscape and material culture to establish social relationships that are not addressed in the written and visual discourse of the elites. The project thus offers a panorama of ancient Egyptian society from the perspective of subaltern, i.e. underprivileged, groups. By changing perspectives, it contributes to current debates of the early history of social inequality.
The ERC Advanced Grant is awarded to outstanding scholars and scientists for projects that promise ground-breaking results but carry a certain risk of failure due to the novelty of the chosen approach. To be eligible, candidates must apply with a European research institution and must have demonstrated excellent research results over at least ten years. The selection is largely based on the originality and the scientific impact of the expected contribution.
Professor Dr Richard Bußmann
Institute for African Studies and Egyptology
+49 221 470 3876
r.bussmann@uni-koeln.de
https://erc.europa.eu/news-events/news/erc-2024-advanced-grants-results
Remains of the pyramid of Zawyet Sultan, upstream along the Nile from Cairo. The pyramid is a symbol ...
Source: Richard Bußmann
Copyright: Richard Bußmann
Professor Dr. Richard Bußmann from the University of Cologne's Institute of African Studies and Egyp ...
Source: Thomas Oberniedermayr
Copyright: Thomas Oberniedermayr
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