Udjahorresnet’s Egypt: The Crossroads of Conquest and Identity under Achaemenid Rule
Udjahorresnet’s Egypt: The Crossroads of Conquest and Identity under Achaemenid Rule
The concept for this workshop was inspired by the open access volume, Udjahorresnet and His World (JAEI 26, 2020), which contextualizes the life of Udjahorresnet, an elite politician and chief physician of Egypt’s 26th and 27th Dynasties in the 6th century BCE. His career spanned the end of the Egyptian Saite period and the beginning of Achaemenid Persian dominion in Egypt, and his (auto)biographical inscriptions suggest he played a key role in establishing the authority of the Persian kings on the Egyptian throne. His social background, professional functions, and political agency within the Saite and the Achaemenid courts in Egypt and abroad are the topics of intense scholarly discussion and debate. By looking through Udjahorresnet’s eyes to study the world he witnessed, this workshop aims to address the current research on the culturally diverse Achaemenid world, the associated intricate cross-regional diplomacy, and the social and political techniques for empire consolidation used by the Persians.
Citation
Azzoni, Annalisa. "Udjahorresnet’s Egypt: The Crossroads of Conquest and Identity under Achaemenid Rule," Pourdavoud Center Workshop - Udjahorresnet’s Egypt. May 7, 2021
About the Speakers
Melanie Wasmuth
University of Helsinki
Melanie Wasmuth is as a University Researcher and Vice-Team Leader of Team 2 (Social Scientific Theories and Applications) at the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Ancient Near Eastern Empires, University of Helsinki (since 2018). She started her academic career in 2007 as an Assistant Professor to the Chair of Egyptology at the University of Basel, Switzerland, followed by engagements there as coordinator of the interdisciplinary and international degree courses in Ancient World Studies (2009–10), as a Marie Heim-Vögtlin fellow for her research on Egyptians in Mesopotamia (2012–14), and as a part-time lecturer for PhD courses on transcultural perspectives in ancient world studies (2014, 2017). She is the editor of the 2020 publication on Udjahorresnet and his World (JAEI 26).
Marissa Stevens
University of California, Los Angeles
Marissa Stevens is the Assistant Director of the Pourdavoud Center for the Study of the Iranian World. Trained as an Egyptologist who studies the materiality, social history, and texts of the Third Intermediate Period and Late Period, she earned her Ph.D. at the University of California, Los Angeles in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. Combining art historical and linguistic approaches, her research interests focus on how objects can solidify, maintain, and perpetuate social identity, especially in times of crisis when more traditional means of self-identification are absent.