Katharina Zinn

(Libraries, archives, and the organization of collective wisdom in Ancient Egypt)
In our times of multimedia networking, libraries are important service institutions. However, libraries are certainly much more than merely an aid for academic research and teaching. The recent multimedia revolution has brought back into focus a traditional function of libraries that has been largely neglected or considered secondary since the beginning of the 20th century: The important role libraries play in the preservation of the collective wisdom and knowledge of a society as well as in the transmission of its cultural inheritance to both the present and the future. Books in libraries are storage space of writings and as such they are at all times representatives and mediators of what the Egyptologist Jan Assmann has called the “cultural memory” of a community.
My dissertation describes and systematically analyses the existence, function, and working of libraries in Ancient Egypt in its whole social, political and religious context. By providing a clear definition of the distinctive, yet complementary functions of libraries and archives, I give an answer to the question of how ancient Egyptian libraries operated as a place for keeping and circulating written knowledge. My goal is to write a social and cultural history of the management of tradition by the ancient Egyptians. Moreover, by focusing on one of the earliest library traditions in the world, I extend the time frame of library studies beyond the Graeco-Roman antiquity and in this way contribute to the general history of libraries.
While egyptological scholarship on libraries has so far taken only such sources into account that promised to contribute to an institutional topography of archaeologically verifiable libraries, my work takes a different approach, utilising insights of media-sciences as well as Jan Assmann’s ideas about “cultural memory” and its transmission. In addition to material that refers to libraries directly, either in the form of archaeological evidence or in the form of texts that use one or more of the known terms for library/archive in connection with a specific location, I base my study on a significantly extended range of primary sources from all historical periods. These sources include official titles and tomb inscriptions from the Old Kingdom, offering formulas from all periods, king novels and other literary texts from the Middle and New Kingdom, religious papyri of the Late Period and Graeco-Roman times, to name just a few. Close scrutiny of this material revealed a significant number of new terms that were used synonymously with library/archive. The large number of official titles and epitheta associated with libraries and archives further suggests the existence of a developed library/archive system in Ancient Egypt. Finally, sifting through the available evidence, I brought to light phrases, topoi, and intertextual links that do not necessarily include any explicit reference to a library or archive, but clearly constitute a shared discourse centering on the preservation and transmission of knowledge. Because these textual passages stem from the same historic and/or semantic context, I call this group of evidence “cognate sources”.
The dissertation forms the gateway between library science and Egyptology. I present a functional definition of libraries and books as the sine qua for the inclusion of ancient libraries. Important are questions concerning the transmission of knowledge, the usage of this knowledge and its connection to the institution of the library in Ancient Egypt. Amongst others, I describe the position and function of the Ancient Egyptian libraries as part of the all-embracing cosmic and divine order – the Maat. In order to be able to do so, I scrutinise several terms for library, determine their differences and applications. This is essential because different institutions existed which fulfilled the function of transmission of tradition (“Überlieferungsfunktion”). In this context, I also delineate the differences between archive and library, both of which existed from the Old Kingdom onwards: All documents that were not or no longer related to the business of everyday life were stored in a library. Although these documents were no longer relevant for the administrative concerns of the day, they nevertheless retained their significance as records and events that confirmed the Maat. On the other hand, archives collected documents concerning everyday administrative affairs in order to save them as official files for later reference, for instance, in case of juridical or tax conflicts. They have no primary religious or political meaning. Overlap between archives and libraries is thus possible and their stock could sometimes be the same. Additionally, I interpret the archaeological material, translate the written sources – both direct and cognate ones –, give an overview over titles of officials as well as gods, include with an excursus on ancient Egyptian librarians, and discuss the known library catalogues.

When discussing the creation, manipulation and transformation of sacred landscapes for ancient Egypt, two sites immediately spring to mind – Abydos and Amarna. While comparing these two ancient Egyptian sacred landscapes, one main question materialises: what is the major difference between them? To help us answer this issue, we should examine the importance of permanence and temporality of sacred landscapes. Could cultural shifts permanently “kill” a sacred landscape or does it survive dormant? To further shed light on these issues and discuss the temporality and dwelling perspective of sacred landscapes, this paper aims to develop a matrix of comparison between different religious site.

full issue open access here - https://historyandcultures.com/issue-10-now-available/
Journal of History and Cultures (2019) – Special Issue 10: Myth and Magic: Interdisciplinary Readings of the Reception of Ancient Egypt. 165-190.
This article introduces the activities of and ideas behind the MUSEUM OF LIES pas the latest component of the Cyfarthfa Castle Project started in 2011/12 with cooperation between the museum and the University of Wales Trinity Saint David Wales (UWTSD) led by the author. The overarching venture is aimed at the literal and cultural (re-)discovery of ancient Egyptian artefacts.
The Museum of Lies component outlines a very interesting and innovative case study within a framework of the contemporary discourse regarding the emotional power of both objects and storytelling.It uses alternative narratives (in addition to academic Egyptological object biographies) as a means to structure our understanding of the world.
Storytelling unlocks inherent potential in material culture and forges ‘bonds’ between people and things. This is discussed by focusing on  ‘charismatic’ objects, questions about academic vs emotional truth and the negotiation of meaning.

Abstract (engl.)
The article presents a new conceptual framework for understanding literacy in ancient civilisations to conceptualise ‘literacy’ more broadly as a cultural and social practice. For this it is necessary to focus on the complex relationship between orality and writing, accentuate the materiality of writing as well as questions of agency and acknowledge the social role of texts and writing as part of Egyptian memory culture.

Abstract (dt.)
Der vorliegende Artikel schlägt einen erweiterten konzeptuellen Rahmen für das Verständnis von Schriftlichkeit vor. Das Konzept ‘Schriftlichkeit’ wird darin als kulturelle und soziale Anwendung und Tätigkeit verstanden. Das wird möglich bei Beachtung der vielschichtigen Beziehung von Mündlichkeit und Schriftlichkeit/Schreiben. Desweiteren wird die Materialität des erweiterten Schreibprozesses und die Handlungsfähigkeit aller am Prozess beteiligten Instanzen diskutiert. Die soziale Funktion von Texten und Schreiben im Allgemeinen als Teil des altägyptischen kulturellen Gedächtnisses ist der dritte Bereich der diskutiert warden muss, um Schriftlichkeit innerhalb der altägytischen Gesellschaft vollständig erfassen zu können.

readable and available for download from the website of the Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections (https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/jaei/article/view/22036/21401)

Abstract: This paper explores how recent anthropological methodologies (materialities approach) as well as concepts at the interface between archaeology and anthropology (experiential and sensual archaeology) inevitably widen the boundaries of Egyptology. The presented case study contributes to a discussion of the physical relationship of material objects and the human body, focusing on states when materiality seeps deliberately and dangerously into immateriality. This is explored at the example of unpublished headrests from the Cyfarthfa Castle Museum, Merthyr Tydfil (Wales, UK) by looking on the intersection of bodies with the material that also could be interpreted as inter-material communication. Impressions of fabric on their wooden surface are presumably the imprint of bedding intended to ensure comfortable sleep telling us about the sensual experience using these artefacts. The contact between skin and rough wood needed to be alleviated. This theoretical discussion is then set against an experimental and experiential archaeological approach focusing on sensual experiences with these headrests.

This chapter explores different roles and aspects of women in Amarna during a period of changing and revolutionary religious ideas. Starting with the royal women, it is made clear that their role should be seen as continuation of and being inspired by the prominent position of queens of the late 17th and early 18th dynasty. The unusual roles of the royal icons overshadowed the focus on the real women of Amarna. Some is known about royal wet nurses and nurses, but much less of the lower elite or non-elite. However, even this shattered evidence of the lower elite (tomb scenes) or traces of the non-elite (burials, items of private religion or skeletal remains) enable us finally to meet eye-to-eye with women in Amarna.

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,
and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 2318–2323.
© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

“Into the Light” – art as creative way to deal with Egyptological and archaeological frontiers within the Museum of Lies (co-presented with artist Julie Davis), TAG Chester 17-19/12/2018, Session: Creative Frontiers (including conference exhibition Creative Frontiers – with Erin Kavanagh), recording: https://youtu.be/SukpHT2VPSA

Annual Egyptological Colloquium 2018 – British Museum, London, 19-20 July 2018

Dr Katharina Zinn
Senior Lecturer for Egyptian Archaeology and Heritage, University of Wales Trinity Saint David
Playing around with a few of your favourite things – forgotten Egyptian objects, lost provenance and the Museum of Lies
This paper describes the processes involving the literal and cultural (re-)discovery of ancient Egyptian artefacts in Cyfarthfa Castle Museum, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales as a joint-venture with the University of Wales Trinity Saint David led by the author. The project aims to bring these mainly un-provenanced objects back to life by creating different simultaneous types of cultural representations via academic outputs, exhibitions, story-telling, art projects with local artists and school children as well as a Museum of Lies collecting fictional stories inspired by the items. The lead is taken by the objects themselves which enchant not only Egyptologists but equally audiences of the community museum and students.

The paper will address the questions:
• How have distinctive settings – national, local, institutional – shaped displays of Egypt? For what aims were such displays created?
• How have displays of artefacts and human remains shaped perceptions and conceptions of Egyptian history and culture for different audiences?
• How has the non-display/storage of certain artefacts influenced research on, and perceptions of, Egypt?

In times of when the democratization in the Arab world is often perceived as to have been failed, the interest in looking at problems of democracy-building and equal interconnection with the world is increasing. This includes discussions of concepts of (national) identity and culture. In the course of searching for an " authentic " Egyptian identity, uncorrupted by Western influences, modern Egypt rediscovers ancient Egypt and draws its attention to the Pharaonic, Graeco-Roman, Coptic and (early) Islamic culture and heritage. Taking the global discourse into the past offers advantages in regard of a less emotional and biased understanding of contemporary phenomena. This development also triggered a discussion on the position of Egyptology in the process of acculturation of tangible pharaonic heritage into the framework of modern intangible Egyptian heritage. Taking these new approaches up, this paper aims to question the validity of the opposition of local to global and mitigate the dichotomy of seemingly opposing terms like global / local or global / de-global. The case study chosen to illustrate this takes the reader to ancient Egypt and sheds light on the ideologies, realities and perceptions of being (a) foreign(er) in this ancient culture. In doing so, the article will highlight the need of contextualisation of being or acting global in the self-definition of ancient civilisations within their wider frameworks.

This paper explores the possibility to extract information about sensory experiences inherent in the material culture of ancient Egypt which are often overlooked due to the difficulty to track them in the material. By implementing new intellectual frameworks like New Materialism and the consequent application of methodologies from archaeology and anthropology we gain insight in the actions of ancient bodies.
Taking inspiration from Latour’s actants (2005), Barad’s agential realism (2007) and Bennett’s thing power (2010) – relating the potential of agency to materials and objects in human lives – the study discusses the physical relationship of material objects and the human body. With the additional help of experimental and experiential archaeology as well the focus on hitherto neglected objects we not only can bring the objects but also senses in the past to life.
This is explored using unpublished headrests from Cyfarthfa Castle Museum by looking on the intersection of bodies with the material that also could be interpreted as inter-material communication. Impressions of fabric on their wooden surface are presumably the imprint of bedding intended to ensure comfortable sleep telling us about the sensual experience using these artefacts. The contact between skin and rough wood needed to be alleviated.

This paper explores how the material culture of ancient Egypt can enrich the discussion and subsequent implementation of new intellectual frameworks like New Materialism within anthropology and inevitably widens the boundaries of Egyptology. Taking inspiration from Latour's actants (2005), Barad's agential realism (2007) and Bennett's thing power (2010) – relating the potential of agency to materials and objects in human lives – the presented case study contributes to a discussion of the physical relationship of material objects and the human body through the lens of the New Materialisms, focusing on states when materiality seeps deliberately and dangerously into immateriality. This is explored at the example of unpublished headrests from the Cyfarthfa Castle Museum, Merthyr Tydfil by looking on the intersection of bodies with the material that also could be interpreted as inter-material communication. Impressions of fabric on their wooden surface are presumably the imprint of bedding intended to ensure comfortable sleep telling us about the sensual experience using these artefacts. The contact between skin and rough wood needed to be alleviated.

This is the abstract of a paper given as part of the symposium: “No, I cannot give you ready answers”: Students as researchers in embedded teaching at the WALES NEXUS CONFERENCE: Annual Teaching and Learning Conference, Swansea 03/05-05/05/2017

Abstract (engl.)
The article presents a new conceptual framework for understanding literacy in ancient civilisations to conceptualise ‘literacy’ more broadly as a cultural and social practice. For this it is necessary to focus on the complex relationship between orality and writing, accentuate the materiality of writing as well as questions of agency and acknowledge the social role of texts and writing as part of Egyptian memory culture.

Abstract (dt.)
Der vorliegende Artikel schlägt einen erweiterten konzeptuellen Rahmen für das Verständnis von Schriftlichkeit vor. Das Konzept ‘Schriftlichkeit’ wird darin als kulturelle und soziale Anwendung und Tätigkeit verstanden. Das wird möglich bei Beachtung der vielschichtigen Beziehung von Mündlichkeit und Schriftlichkeit/Schreiben. Desweiteren wird die Materialität des erweiterten Schreibprozesses und die Handlungsfähigkeit aller am Prozess beteiligten Instanzen diskutiert. Die soziale Funktion von Texten und Schreiben im Allgemeinen als Teil des altägyptischen kulturellen Gedächtnisses ist der dritte Bereich der diskutiert warden muss, um Schriftlichkeit innerhalb der altägytischen Gesellschaft vollständig erfassen zu können.

From remote antiquity to contemporary contexts, food and the ‘stuff’ of food remains central to people’s daily experiences as well as their sense and expression of identity. This volume explores the materiality of foodstuffs past and present, examining humanity’s intriguingly complex relationships with, and experiences of, food. The book also makes a fresh contribution to our understanding of materiality through a novel focus on material culture, analysing objects used to prepare, wrap, serve and consume food and the tactile experiences involved in its production and consumption. Considering a wide range of cultures, spanning from ancient China to modern-day Kenya, this broad collection of interdisciplinary chapters reveal the multiple interplays between foods, bodies, material worlds, rituals and embodied knowledge that emerge from these encounters and which, in turn, shape the material culture of food. Exploring the Materiality of Food ‘Stuffs’ makes an important contribution to this burgeoning field and will be of interest to archaeologists and anthropologists working in the key area of food research.

This paper will give an insight in the particular problems of dealing with Egyptian artefacts belonging to the Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Galleries, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales (UK) resulting from a cooperative project between the Museum and University of Wales Trinity Saint David, School of Archaeology, History and Anthropology, led by the author. Most of them had once formed the private collection of Harry Hartley Southey (1871-1917), son of a local south Welsh newspaper magnate. Commissioned by the museum to write the Welsh heritage of these objects, the author combines Egyptological methods with heritage approaches to enable the museum to prove its community outreach which secures the funding of the museum. By creating as detailed as possible object biographies from the time of production of the objects in ancient Egypt over the moment of collection in the late 19th and early 20th century AD to modern reception and understanding, the biographies have to focus on the ancient Egyptian life-cycle of these unprovenanced objects as well as the (modern) narrative in which we are embedding them by using archaeological and anthropological theory. Following the contesting meanings and several identities of these ancient Egyptian objects – and several replicas from the late 19th and early 20th centuries AD – the urgency to deal with heritage becomes clear, be it “our” or world heritage, tangible or intangible.

From remote antiquity to contemporary contexts, food and the ‘stuff’ of food remains central to people’s daily experiences as well as their sense and expression of identity. This volume explores the materiality of foodstuffs past and present, examining humanity’s intriguingly complex relationships with, and experiences of, food. The book also makes a fresh contribution to our understanding of materiality through a novel focus on material culture, analysing objects used to prepare, wrap, serve and consume food and the tactile experiences involved in its production and consumption. Considering a wide range of cultures, spanning from ancient China to modern-day Kenya, this broad collection of interdisciplinary chapters reveal the multiple interplays between foods, bodies, material worlds, rituals and embodied knowledge that emerge from these encounters and which, in turn, shape the material culture of food. Exploring the Materiality of Food ‘Stuffs’ makes an important contribution to this burgeoning field and will be of interest to archaeologists and anthropologists working in the key area of food research.

This paper will give an insight in the particular problems of dealing with Egyptian artefacts belonging to the Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Galleries, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales (UK) resulting from a cooperative project between the Museum and University of Wales Trinity Saint David, School of Archaeology, History and Anthropology, led by the author. Most of them had once formed the private collection of Harry Hartley Southey (1871-1917), son of a local south Welsh newspaper magnate. Commissioned by the museum to write the Welsh heritage of these objects, the author combines Egyptological methods with heritage approaches to enable the museum to prove its community outreach which secures the funding of the museum. By creating as detailed as possible object biographies from the time of production of the objects in ancient Egypt over the moment of collection in the late 19th and early 20th century AD to modern reception and understanding, the biographies have to focus on the ancient Egyptian life-cycle of these unprovenanced objects as well as the (modern) narrative in which we are embedding them by using archaeological and anthropological theory. Following the contesting meanings and several identities of these ancient Egyptian objects – and several replicas from the late 19th and early 20th centuries AD – the urgency to deal with heritage becomes clear, be it “our” or world heritage, tangible or intangible.

Food is bound to or carried by supporting materiality in the form of artefacts in very different materials, forms, shapes and sizes for its different states of production, retrieval, extraction, preparation, storage, and consumption. Sometimes this material culture becomes very closely connected to a specific (group of) food product(s), as certain types of beer vessels, storage containers or bread moulds in ancient Egypt tell us. Occasionally, the artefacts even become a synonym for the food stuff it should have carried or contained. The carrier then acts as a symbolic substitute for the whole package consisting of the container and real or symbolic food. These often very simple substitutes or models perform as representations in the process of symbolic afterlife food consumption. The offering plate CC 308.004 from Cyfarthfa Castle Museums and Art Gallery, Merthyr Tydfil (Wales) does not usually appeal to museum visitors due to its very basic design and rough manufacture, but is to ...

Konigin Nofretete ist nicht ohne Kenntnis der Amarnazeit zu verstehen, genauso wie diese innovative Periode ohne sie nicht beschrieben werden kann. Der vorliegende Artikel spurt der neu definierten Rolle der Koniginnen in der Konigsideologie dieser Zeit am Beispiel Nofretetes nach und macht deutlich, das das Fach Agyptologie Referenzpunkte schaffen muss, um die Qualitaten dieser Konigin adaquat beschreiben zu konnen. It is not possible to understand queen Nefertiti without a perception of the Amarna Period as a time of change and innovation. Equally we need to comprehend Nefertiti to research the Amarna Period. This article debates the newly defined role of Nefertiti as the prototype of the royal women of Amarna within the ideology of ancient Egyptian kingship. It is argued that Egyptology as a subject needs to create points of reference to adequately describe the aspects of this queen.

This article explores different roles and aspects of women in Amarna during a period of changing and revolutionary religious ideas. Starting with the royal women (especially Tiye and Nefertiti), it is made clear that their role should be seen as continuation of and being inspired by the prominent position of queens of the late 17th and early 18th dynasty. Female power during the Amarna Period was prepared by Tiye who was already relevant for the reinterpretation of the state religion towards the sun cult under her husband Amenhotep III. The culmination of female royal power in Amarna is to be seen in Nefertiti who was part of the divine triad formed by the god Aten, king Akhenaten and herself representing her extraordinary religious position which partly overlapped with the one of the king as evidenced in the smiting of the enemy scenes. The unusual roles of the royal icons overshadowed the focus on the real women of Amarna. More is known about royal wet nurses and nurses, but even ...

This paper explores how recent anthropological methodologies (materialities approach) as well as concepts at the interface between archaeology and anthropology (experiential and sensual archaeology) inevitably widen the boundaries of Egyptology. The presented case study contributes to a discussion of the physical relationship of material objects and the human body, focusing on states when materiality seeps deliberately and dangerously into immateriality. This is explored at the example of unpublished headrests from the Cyfarthfa Castle Museum, Merthyr Tydfil (Wales, UK) by looking on the intersection of bodies with the material that also could be interpreted as inter-material communication. Impressions of fabric on their wooden surface are presumably the imprint of bedding intended to ensure comfortable sleep telling us about the sensual experience using these artefacts. The contact between skin and rough wood needed to be alleviated. This theoretical discussion is then set against ...

The article discusses an unique and innovative project relating to unprovenanced ancient Egyptian objects and how they can have a place in modern culture through the perspective and (re)interpretation by academics (Egyptologists, museum and heritage professionals), students and members of the community. The outlined case-study is situated within a framework of pertinent, contemporary discourse regarding the emotional power of both objects and storytelling, drawing on use of narrative as a means to structure our understanding of the world. The impact of storytelling is used to unlock inherent potential in material culture – the ‘charismatic’ object – in order to forge ‘bonds’ between people and things. The project showcases how museums can reach out to a wider community and encourage their review of objects through storytelling, art and alternative narratives through the ‘Museum of Lies’ as part of an annual pop-up exhibition. This is compared with examples of other storytelling muse...

This paper will give an insight in the particular problems of dealing with Egyptian artefacts belonging to the Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Galleries, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales (UK) resulting from a cooperative project between the Museum and University of Wales Trinity Saint David, School of Archaeology, History and Anthropology, led by the author. Most of them had once formed the private collection of Harry Hartley Southey (1871-1917), son of a local south Welsh newspaper magnate. Commissioned by the museum to write the Welsh heritage of these objects, the author combines Egyptological methods with heritage approaches to enable the museum to prove its community outreach which secures the funding of the museum. By creating as detailed as possible object biographies from the time of production of the objects in ancient Egypt over the moment of collection in the late 19th and early 20th century AD to modern reception and understanding, the biographies have to focus on the ancient Egypt...