(Archives, palimpsests and funeral materiality. A discussion in Assyrology and Egyptology from the Material Culture Studies)

Abstract

In this article, we propose an inquiry on some aspects of the funerary practices in the Ancient Near East from the Material Culture Studies. One of the central considerations that arise in Oriental Studies –in particular of Assyriology and Egyptology– is the predominance of a rather descriptive Philology in detriment of other humanistic-social disciplines such as Archeology, History, and Linguistics, as well as the different theoretical and methodological approaches planned by these latter. By the way, the Peircean semiotic approach and the triadic reinterpretation of the game of relations that occur between sign, object, and interpreter is the fundamental premise for the Material Culture Studies since it shows a first overcoming of the dichotomy established between subject and object. In that sense, the interdisciplinary approach to the funerary dimension in Egypt and Mesopotamia requires a deconstruction of the so-called “written sources” and an emphasis on the analysis and interpretation of their production, circulation, and storage contexts. In sum, from the discussion of the materiality of the objects, it focuses on the understanding of the available sources (clay tablets, stone stelae, and burial structures), considering not only the epigraphic aspects of the documentation but also the practices expressed in the manner of a palimpsest of temporalities and spatialities.