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Abstract
Our current understanding of the ancient Nubian people called the Medjay has been informed by textual and artistic representations created by the ancient Egyptians. By studying these sources, Egyptologists have argued that the Medjay were an ethnic group living in the Eastern Desert near the Second Cataract. Yet these studies exhibit an Egyptocentric bias, in which the Egyptian sources have been interpreted literally. This paper reexamines Egyptian references to the Medjay before the New Kingdom and demonstrates how the Egyptians conceptualized and fostered the creation of a Medjay ethnicity. The Egyptians perceived the people of the Eastern Desert near Lower Nubia as one unified ethnic group. Yet these people were not politically unified and did not identify themselves as Medjay until the middle of the Twelfth Dynasty. Increased interaction between the Egyptians and the people of the Eastern Desert caused certain pastoral nomads to adopt the term “Medjay.” Whatever role ethnicity may have played in their society previously, ethnogenesis of a “Medjay” ethnic group began towards the middle of the Twelfth Dynasty.
“We have come from the well of Ibhet”: Ethnogenesis of the Medjay
in Journal of Egyptian History
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7
BietakAusgrabungen in Sayala-Nubien61–79; Bietak “Pfannengräber”; Bietak “The C-Group and Pan-Grave Culture in Nubia” 123–25.
17
Bechhaus-Gerst“Beja Identity in Tu Bedawie” 196. The words “Medja” and “Bedja” are not etymologically connected as often asserted (Zibelius-Chen “Die Medja in altägyptischen Quellen” 391) even if their peoples may have spoken related languages (Zibelius-Chen “Ein weiterer Beleg zum sprachlichen Kontinuum”).
21
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Smither“The Semnah Despatches” 7–8. The Semna Dispatches seem to contain the direct speech of Medjay individuals. Of course this direct speech is heard by the Egyptians and rendered by the Egyptian scribe or a translator rendered their speech into Egyptian. The speech could have been paraphrased and/or changed in some way. Nevertheless it still maintains a hint of the speaker’s original intent and allows us to glimpse at how these people identify themselves even if we cannot be absolutely certain that this is what they said.
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Fischer“The Nubian Mercenaries of Gebelein”; Kubisch “Stelen der I. Zwischenzeit aus Gebelein” 239–46.
45
Aufrère“Le Nomarque Ânkhtyfy” 9; Zibelius-Chen “Die Medja in altägyptischen Quellen” 395–96. Zibelius-Chen has associated these iconographic traits with Eastern Desert people through ethnographic parallels with the modern Bedja. Not all scholars consider these stelae to be commissioned by Medjay some believe that they are Nehesy (Kubisch “Stelen der I. Zwischenzeit aus Gebelein” 239–46; Bietak “Zu den nubischen Bogenschützen aus Assiut” 92; Fischer “The Nubian Mercenaries of Gebelein”) and others believe that they are Egyptians (Meurer Nubier in Ägypten 94–96).
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TörökBetween Two Worlds23–52 75–102; Zibelius-Chen Die ägyptische Expansion nach Nubien.
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VossArchaeology of Ethnogenesis1–33; Roymans Batavians in Roman Empire esp. 1–7 251–59.
60
Translation adapted from Smither“The Semnah Despatches” 9. For additional discussion of the translation see Kraemer and Liszka “Further Semna Dispatches.”
69
The Biography of Sobeknakht: Davies“Sobeknakht and the Coming of Kush” 6.
72
Säve-Söderbergh and TroyNew Kingdom Pharaonic Sites2–6; Török Between Two Worlds 157–69.
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Models showing the evolution of the meaning of the designation Medjay. Evolution of the Meaning of Medjay
Models showing the evolution of the meaning of the designation Medjay.Evolution of the Meaning of Medjay
Models showing the evolution of the meaning of the designation Medjay.Evolution of the Meaning of Medjay
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