Social Hierarchy in the Satire of the Trades

University of Pisa has the great pleasure to announce the publication of a new volume entitled “Social Hierarchy in the Satire of the Trades: Scribal Considerations on Crafts in Ancient Egypt” (Nicanor/Golden House Publications) written by Simon Thuault.

The volume focuses on the Teaching of Khety, also known as the “Satire of Trades”. The volume deals with the description of each trade and how they are depicted in
other sources, building on a larger project started at the University of Pisa on social history, under the direction of Prof. Gianluca Miniaci. The volume shows that the contents of the Satire of the Trades, with its emphatic and ironic dimensions, focus on tasks and gestures regarded as literary topoi rather than actual chaînes opératoires (as possibly attested in the archaeological dimension). This study analyses, in first instance, the professions listed in the composition in light of textual and iconographical sources and then compares the actual gestures and objects involved in each trade to their literary descriptions, tested against the archaeological remains.

The volume is part of a subseries of the collection “Kitab – Egyptology in Focus” founded by Prof. Gianluca Miniaci, titled “Written Culture of Ancient Egypt and Nubia” (WCAEN), which aims publishing long papers or short monographs dealing with topics related to writing systems and textual documentation in ancient Egypt and Nubia: grammar, linguistics, palaeography, graphemics.

The subseries is edited by Dr. Simon Thuault and coordinated by Prof. Gianluca Miniaci and Dr. Gabriele Conte.