Social Network Analysis in Egyptology: Benefits, Methods and Limits

Abstract

This article aims at presenting a methodology for Social Network Analysis (SNA) applied to Egyptology and ancient societies studies, with its benefits and issues. One of the big issues dealing with social relationships in ancient Egypt lies in the use of kinship terminology defining relations outside the family. In that sense, SNA allows researchers to partially set aside links values contrary to traditional genealogical studies, especially for the graphical projection. Thus, biological and social brothers do not have to be distinguished using this method, although this distinction is often impossible to do. It then presents an empirical method developed using this branch of sociology on an Egyptological dataset dating back from the New Kingdom. With the help of centrality measures, SNA enabled attention to be drawn to secondary role characters at the first sight of the hieroglyphic documentation. However, studying such a type of documentation requires a cautious approach, especially regarding the nature and aim of the sources available.