Reclaimed Spaces

With the linguistic history of Egypt writ large on objects and monuments, individuals of the Ptolemaic and Roman periods (ca. 4^th cent. BCE to 4^th cent. CE) were constantly confronted by visual records of the past. Temples in particular were spaces where rulers and elite had been displaying their religious piety while also affirming political allegiances or exhibiting their social status for millennia. The Egyptian temples of the pharaonic period provided templates for the massive construction projects that were underwritten by foreign rulers during the first millennium BCE. However, the unique innovations in architecture and decoration of those same buildings are a testament to the changing dynamics of post-pharaonic Egypt. This talk will focus on the function of inscriptions and reliefs placed within Egyptian temples. As a case study, the context for first creating and then carving over the Ptolemaic Decrees that were placed directly onto the temple walls at Philae will be examined. These two priestly decrees were carved in Hieroglyphs and Demotic in 186 and 185 BCE during the reign of Ptolemy V. However, the texts were replaced with religious scenes under Ptolemy VIII (145-116 BCE). In discussing the placement, layout, and social value of both the original texts and the temple decoration program that supplanted them, questions about how individuals managed the difficult task of consistently reinterpreting and thus reclaiming those spaces will be addressed.

Emily Cole is Visiting Assistant Professor at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at NYU. She received her PhD and MA in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from the University of California, Los Angeles (2015), and her BA in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford (2007). Cole studies the social and cultural history of Greek and Roman period Egypt, specializing in how religious, political, and demographic change affected individual and societal language use throughout Egyptian history. Her particular areas of interest include translation studies, the transmission of text and knowledge, and the history of communication.

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