The Third Intermediate Period (c. 1070–664 BC) in Egypt is a challenging subject in the field of Egyptology. Our understanding of the politics, economy and chronology of this period is still relatively limited, and it is therefore a significant gap in our knowledge. New archaeological excavations in the Nile Delta and beyond, and the reassessment of material culture and archaeological remains from older excavations, have, however, increased our understanding of this period. In particular, the new excavations in Upper and Lower Egypt and in Sinai have definitively helped to redefine our understanding of the chronology, material culture, settlement patterns and architectural features of this period.
In this book, Bennett considers the processes of ‘transition’ and ‘continuity’ that developed within the cultural and social environment of Egypt during the Third Intermediate Period. In Chapter 1, the author analyses the origin of the term used to define the ‘Third Intermediate Period’, considered traditionally as a period of poverty and decline, and the difficulties in establishing its relative chronological framework, especially for the Nile Delta area.
Bennett proposes a new framework of analysis that comprises theoretical issues, and textual and archaeological evidence from landscapes and settlements in Egypt during the period (Chapter 2). The textual evidence (especially the Amenemope Onomasticon papyrus, but also others) is challenged by the archaeological remains of Third Intermediate Period sites, which reveal that the dynamic landscape and the fluctuation of hydrology are key points to understanding the foundation, evolution and abandonment of the Egyptian settlements at a regional level. Additional factors that subsequently altered the landscape were land reclamations, modern urbanism and mud-brick extractions.
Chapter 3 establishes the locations of preserved Third Intermediate Period domestic settlement remains in order to evaluate the regional differences in the built environments and the way in which settlements developed spatially over time. By analysing different architectural remains in settlements dated to the Third Intermediate Period, Bennett aims to determine whether the settlements developed as independent entities within specific regions, or if there was a general pattern of settlement policy across different political boundaries and geographic regions. He focuses mainly on those temple buildings with attached settlements, the presence of enclosure walls and examines the Egyptian terminology used to refer to walls, and the temples and palaces in Upper and Lower Egypt known from the archaeological record and references in texts. Bennett observes that new temples were built at Tanis, Bubastis, el-Hibeh and Tel Balamun in the Third Intermediate Period, some of these modified and enlarged existing New Kingdom temples. At the same time, new archaeological evidence demonstrates that more unusual architectural features began to appear, particularly in domestic structures.
Regarding household phases during the Third Intermediate Period, Bennett states that it is difficult to confirm the existence of a house type that might have survived across the whole of Egyptian history. For that reason, some of the house structures from central places, such as Karnak, Medinet Habu and Memphis, must be used only with caution as models of a house type. The idea that it may be possible to identify a house typology is mainly derived from the excavations of Eighteenth Dynasty domestic buildings at Amarna, once thought to epitomise the Egyptian house, but these are not representative of all the types of domestic architecture found across Egypt. In addition to the new archaeological discoveries from the Nile Delta, material from older excavations was also revisited and new interpretations discerned from it. For Bennett, house structures and architectural phases in a settlement should be understood as a response to changes in the population and their adaptation to environmental, political and economic contexts. He assesses the importance of an integral approach to these matters and offers conclusions about aspects of the architectural developments of the Third Intermediate Period that are situated within the framework of the household.
The author also analyses the architectural features present in Third Intermediate Period settlements, especially in Upper Egypt. In some cases, the central room with double columns and dais are still preserved in their New Kingdom form, but that does not extend beyond the Twenty-first Dynasty. Some settlements, however, show less regular architectural designs; this is in response to an increasing spatial limitation within the settlements, the requirements of expanding numbers of people in family groups, and the economic and social hierarchy of the household occupants.
These new architectural features include staircases, columns, stone fittings, ovens, wall decoration, intensive use of mud-bricks, granaries and storage areas, animal stabling and husbandry zones, areas for refuse disposal, cemeteries and burial locations.
We can add to that list another architectural feature, not mentioned by Bennett: the appearance of tower-houses in the Nile Delta during the Third Intermediate Period. This was partially in response to the limited space within the settlement (for example at Buto, Sais, Tell Balamun). Tower-houses offered a solution to an increasing population that began to settle in the Delta during this period. There is probably a correlation between the expansion of these tower-houses and changes in the political and economic system due to the weakness of political power, private wealth and ongoing international exchange.
Two very comprehensive appendices analyse all of the sites that are mentioned in the text along with others that are not cited. Bennett's analysis is an up-to-date synthesis of current research on the settlement archaeology of the period. He concludes that material culture from Third Intermediate Period domestic settlements is marked by political fragmentation of the country; this is expressed in the regionalism of objects and the themes that they represent; the economic limits of the settlements; the self-sufficiency of the people living in these settlements and their aspiration to emulate elite culture. I would also add that increased individuality also developed as a result of the increase in private wealth. This book offers an integrated analysis of textual and archaeological sources for the changes occurring in the political, economic and environmental landscape, and the occupation of settlements during the Third Intermediate Period.
