Event: WEDS TALKS: Persian Kings on Egyptian Soil: Culture and Identity Negotiation as an Expression of Power

ABSTRACT: This presentation aims to highlight textual and artistic case studies during Egypt’s 27th Dynasty (ca. c. 525–404 BCE) that showcase the manipulation of Egyptian culture by the new Persian rulers. These Persian kings represented themselves as traditional pharaohs within Egypt’s borders and utilized longstanding Egyptian artistic motifs and textual traditions in their monumental constructions. These cultural themes, however, were not always copied blindly; some were manipulated in subtle ways to send targeted messages to audience(s) of this art. Scholars tend to situate textual and visual styles within the longue durée of cultural tradition and pick a singular, official, and centralized perspective to narrate the history and reception of that art. In the case of Egypt, this perspective is often that of the king, and assumes there was a monolithic message sent to his people.

 But we are not dealing with a homogeneous people; a diverse population would have had varied reactions and interpretations to this visual signaling. By highlighting both the augmentation of traditional texts and motifs undertaken by the Persians and the multiplicity of perspectives they hold for their audience(s), we can better understand ancient art as being dynamic in function and interpretation, rather than as a static snapshot of carbon-copied royal authority.

BIO: Marissa Stevens is the Assistant Director of the Pourdavoud Institute for the Study of the Iranian World and Yarshater Center for the Study of Iranian Literary Traditions. Trained as an Egyptologist who studies the materiality, social history, and texts of the Third Intermediate Period and Late Period, she first earned an Honors BA in History and Sociology from Washington & Jefferson College and an MA from the University of Chicago, before completing her PhD 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.