Perspectives on lived religion

Religion in the ancient world, and ancient Egyptian religion in particular, is often perceived as static, hierarchically organised, and centred on priests, tombs, and temples. Engagement with archaeological and textual evidence dispels these beguiling if superficial narratives, however. Individuals and groups continuously shaped their environments, and were shaped by them in turn. This volume explores the ways in which this adaptation, negotiation, and reconstruction of religious understandings took place. The material results of these processes are termed "cultural geography". The volume examines this "cultural geography" through the study of three vectors of religious agency: religious practices, the transmission of texts and images, and the study of religious landscapes.Bringing together papers by experts in a variety of Egyptological and other disciplines, this volume presents the results of an interdisciplinary workshop held at the University of Leiden, 7-9 November 2018 and kindly funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) Vidi Talent Scheme. The 19 papers presented here cover the archaeology of religion and religious practices, landscape archaeology and 'cultural geography', textual transmission and adaptation, across not only the history of Egypt from the Early Dynastic to the Christian periods, but perspectives on ancient Sudanese archaeology, the Arabian peninsula, early and medieval south-eastern Asia, and contemporary China.Contents:IntroductionN. Staring, H. Twiston Davies and L. WeissRe-awakening Osiris at Umm el-Qaab (Abydos). New evidence for votive offerings and other religious practicesJulia BudkaAppropriation of territory through migrant ritual practices in Egypt's eastern DeltaMiriam MüllerProsopographia Memphitica - Analyzing Prosopographical Data and Personal Networks from the Memphite NecropolisAnne HerzbergImmortality as the response of othersLara WeissVotive practices in the local shrines of ancient EgyptRichard BussmannIn Hathor's womb. Shifting agency of iconographic environments: The private tombs of the Theban necropolis under the prism of cultural geographyAlexis den DonckerThe Talking Dead: Funerary inscriptions, cairns, and landscape in the Jordanian HarrahAhmad al-Jallad'Epigraphical Landscape Appropriation - New Kingdom Rock Inscriptions in Upper Nubia'Johannes AuenmüllerA landscape biography approach to the study of the Saqqara New Kingdom necropolisNico Staring'Architecture of Intimidation: Political Ecology and Landscape Manipulation in Early Southeast Asia.Elizabeth CecilText Transmission as a Composition Process: The Case of the Saite Religious TextsRamadan HusseinThe Harpist's Song at Saqqara: Transmission, Performance, and ContextHuw Twiston DaviesThe Crying Game. Some thoughts about the "cow and calf" scenes on the sarcophagi of Aashyt and KawitBurkhard BackesHuman and material aspects in the process of transmission and copying the Book of the Dead in the tomb of Djehuty (TT 11)Lucía Díaz-Iglesias LlanosFrom Viṣṇu to Sūrya / From Śiva to Sūrya: Tracking Processes of Transmission and Recreation in Sanskrit Religious LiteraturePeter BisschopAttending the Grave on a Clear Spring Day: The Linked Ecology of Religious Life in Contemporary Urban ChinaAnna Sun