Abstract
A variety of textual and pictorial sources demonstrate that the inhabitants of Dakhleh Oasis were considered different from the people who lived in the Nile Valley. The archaeological profile of this oasis, however, displays nothing that is identifiable as non-Egyptian. This paper discusses why such an evidentiary inconsistency exists by examining contextual issues that contribute to the manifestation of identity in the archaeological record. Current theories on the identification of ancient identities are adapted to what is known of Dakhleh Oasis to demonstrate that the lack of non-Egyptian material culture does not necessarily equate to a population in Dakhleh Oasis that is homogeneous with the Nile Valley.
Highlights
A variety of textual and pictorial sources demonstrate that the inhabitants of Dakhleh Oasis were considered different from the people who lived in the Nile Valley
The Nile Valley, Dakhleh Oasis and the Oasis-dwellers The community of ancient Egypt comprised peoples who shared a common language and culture, who were ruled by a divine royal lineage and who occupied rigidly-defined territories centred around the Nile Valley and Delta regions (Kemp 2006: 20)
The dynamic and situational nature of identity means that cultural units rarely correlate directly to recognisable boundaries (Jones 1996: 68) and the reliance on a straightforward interpretation of the textual and archaeological evidence can often mask the recognition of past identities whose complexity and flexibility are rarely identified (Insoll 2007: 13-14; Tyson Smith 2003: 101)
Summary
A variety of textual and pictorial sources demonstrate that the inhabitants of Dakhleh Oasis were considered different from the people who lived in the Nile Valley. Current theories on the identification of ancient identities are adapted to what is known of Dakhleh Oasis to demonstrate that the lack of non-Egyptian material culture does not necessarily equate to a population in Dakhleh Oasis that is homogeneous with the Nile Valley. Keywords Ancient Egypt, Dakhleh Oasis, Identity, Nile Valley, Oasis-dwellers. The five largest oases of the Western Desert are, from north to south, Siwa, Bahariya, Farafra, Dakhleh and Kharga (Fig. 1). Permanent habitation in this region is possible only in the oasis depressions which encompass thousands of square kilometres and can dip 100 m below the surrounding desert plateau (Ball 1939: 9-10). The Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale and the Dakhleh Oasis Project excavate at multiple sites throughout the oasis
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