On the endurance of indigenous religious culture in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt : evidence of material culture
The aim of this thesis is to examine changes in the status of traditional Egyptian religious culture during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, from 331 BCE to 313 CE. Four distinct categories of material culture are examined: monumental construction of temples and civic buildings, traditional hard-stone sculpture, Alexandrian tombs, and Roman coins. These bodies of evidence were chosen because each offers a unique perspective, reflecting respectively the personal inclinations and official attitudes of both the culturally Hellenic and indigenous elites, which have not previously been studied in this context. Examined together for the first time, these categories reveal commonalities that show clearly the progression of the status of indigenous religious culture. From this, it is argued that, despite being economically disadvantaged by the Roman administration, the high status of this culture persisted in Egyptian society under both the Ptolemies and the Romans. Patterns of Egyptian temple and classical civic building show that Egypt's indigenous elite controlled the resources allocated for temple construction under the Ptolemies, but that the Romans gradually transferred this land into the management of the culturally
Chezum, Tiffany
Egyptology ; Materials studies (archaeology) ; History of the ancient world ; Religions of antiquity ; Egyptian religious culture ; Graeco-Roman Egypt ; Egyptian numismatics ; hard-stone statuary ; Egyptian temples ; Alexandrian tombs ; Egyptian priests
On the endurance of indigenous religious culture in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt : evidence of material culture. The aim of this thesis is to examine changes in the status of traditional Egyptian religious culture during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, from 331 BCE to 313 CE. Four distinct categories of material culture are examined: monumental construction of temples and civic buildings, traditional hard-stone sculpture, Alexandrian tombs, and Roman coins. These bodies of evidence were chosen because each offers a unique perspective, reflecting respectively the personal inclinations and official attitudes of both the culturally Hellenic and indigenous elites, which have not previously been studied in this context. Examined together for the first time, these categories reveal commonalities that show clearly the progression of the status of indigenous religious culture. From this, it is argued that, despite being economically disadvantaged by the Roman administration, the high status of this culture persisted in Egyptian society under both the Ptolemies and the Romans. Patterns of Egyptian temple and classical civic building show that Egypt's indigenous elite controlled the resources allocated for temple construction under the Ptolemies, but that the Romans gradually transferred this land into the management of the culturally
endurance indigenous religious culture ptolemaic roman egypt evidence material_culture aim_examine change status traditional egyptian religious culture ptolemaic roman period_bce four_distinct category material_culture examine monumental construction temple civic building traditional hard stone_sculpture alexandrian tomb roman coin body_evidence choose offer_unique perspective reflect respectively personal inclination official attitude culturally hellenic indigenous elite previously_study context examined together first_time category reveal commonality show clearly progression status indigenous religious culture argue_despite economically disadvantage roman_administration high_status culture persist egyptian society romans patterns egyptian temple classical civic building show egypt indigenous elite controlled resource allocate temple construction romans gradually transfer land management culturally