Monash University
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Object and Text: (Con)textualising Urban Amarna

thesis
posted on 2025-01-05, 11:20 authored by Erin Casey
The central purpose of this thesis is to examine the role of objects with writing – ‘text–objects’ – in the lives of the everyday Egyptians in urban Amarna (c. 1347–1332 BCE). The analysis and interpretation of Egyptian texts has long been central to Egyptology. It is only more recently that attention has begun to turn towards the artefacts that they are inscribed upon, and the ways texts intersect with objects. Through analysing three object groups: jewellery, ritual objects and household goods, this study highlights the diversity of methods in the production of text as a form of engagement with written culture. This thesis is situated in broader conversations surrounding literacy, materiality and urban life. This research explores the lived and material experience of text through the ways that people produced and engaged with text-objects in the urban landscape.

History

Principal supervisor

Anna Stevens

Additional supervisor 1

Andrew Connor

Year of Award

2025

Department, School or Centre

School of Philosophical, Historical & International Studies

Course

Master of Arts

Degree Type

MPHIL

Campus location

Australia

Faculty

Faculty of Arts