Egypt and the Augustan Cultural Revolution

This book presents an archaeological overview of the presence and
development of Egyptian material culture in the context of Augustan
Rome. The Augustan period was a crucial turning point for the urban
landscape of Rome, which became specifically characterised by a complex,
and often flexible repertoire of cultural diver¬sity. Studies in the
past have focused primarily on (classical) Greek influences on the
development of Augus¬tan material culture, while objects featuring
Egyptian styles, themes and materials have remained generally
categorised as exoticism, a fashion trend, or signs of so-called
‘Egyptomania’. The research presented and discussed in this book, in
contrast, raises the question whether and how ‘Egypt’ constituted an
integral part of this Augustan material culture repertoire.



By comprising for the first time a comprehensive and interpretative
overview of such manifestations of Egypt in Rome, including public
monuments, paintings, and architectural elements, as well as pottery,
gems, and jewellery from private contexts, the study offers wide-ranging
case studies, featuring object reappraisals as well as new
archaeological finds and contextual analyses. By focusing on the
archaeological data, rather than on the often better-known historical
and textual sources, this books offers new arguments and evidence that
the role of ‘Egypt’, as represented in the material culture of the city
of Rome, was not that of an exotic outsider, but constituted a
remarkably diverse and inherent part of the Augustan material culture
repertoire and urban landscape.