Writing, Violence, and the Military: Images of Literacy in Eighteenth Dynasty Egypt (1550-1295 BCE)

Writing, Violence, and the Military takes representations of reading and writing in Eighteenth Dynasty Egypt (ca. 1550-1295 BCE) as its point of departure, asking how patrons of art conceptualized literacy and how in turn they positioned themselves with respect to it. Exploring statuary and tomb art through the prism of self-representation and group formation, it makes three claims: that the elite of this period held a variety of notions regarding literacy, among which violence and memory are most prominent; that among the Eighteenth Dynasty elite, literacy found its strongest advocates among men whose careers brought them to engage with the military; and that Haremhab - the General in Chief who later ascended the throne - voiced unique views regarding literacy that arose from his career as an elite military official, and thus from his social world.