Egyptian Objects – Periodization

We are used to thinking of the various historical periods of ancient Egyptian history.  These generally include, Pre-history, Early-dynastic, Old Kingdom, 1^st Intermediate Period, Middle Kingdom, 2^nd Intermediate Period, New Kingdom, 3^rd Intermediate Period, Late Period, Greek Period, Roman Period, and Islamic Periods.  But is this the only way to think of dividing up Egypt’s past? 

There is a movement in Egypt today to be more inclusive in the display of the history of all of Egypt as opposed to just ancient Egypt.  But that has not always been true.  The Museum of Egypt in Cairo is really just a museum of ancient Egypt.  To fill in this gap other museums were erected.  How each of these museums chose to display their wares helps to show that Egyptian history is much more than just Pharaonic Egypt.

When Marriette designed the Museum of Egypt, he admitted that sometimes he chose aesthetic rather than “scientific” arrangements.  The Greco-Roman Museum was clearly focusing on a period of Egyptian history.  The Museum of Arabic Art divided up their displays based on material: glass, metal, ceramics, wood, etc.  The Coptic Museum tried to fill the gap left in all three of these museums to tell a story that still continues today.

However, this is not the only way to think of history.  Besides dividing history by who ruled Egypt we can use other factors to identify periods.  What if we divided up Egyptian history by religion (naturally with overlap)?  [Ancient Egyptian cult, Amarna, Cult, Greco-Roman, Coptic, and Islamic.]  Or what if we divided it by script?  [Early Egyptian Hieroglyph, Middle Egyptian, Late Egyptian, Hieratic, Demotic, Coptic, Greek, Latin, Arabic.]  Language spoken? [Egyptian, Coptic, Koine Greek, Latin, Arabic.]  There are also geographic divisions, aesthetic divisions, material divisions, etc.

The point is that there are more ways than just the one that we usually fall into by default.  Sometimes, the narrative is better told from a different perspective.  If you are doing history and you have having trouble telling a story, it might be because you are looking at things from the wrong angle.  You might have to re-invent the way you think of history.