Social Stratification Amongst Non-Elite Housing of Grid 12 at El'-Amarna, Egypt

In early Egyptian states, prestige has often been considered an attribute limited to elites because of their notably observable presence amongst society. This creates a two-tiered image of either wealthy or non-wealthy individuals. However, new contextual analyses of architecture and material culture at the New Kingdom site of el’-Amarna suggest the rise of a middle class, indicating that prestige existed outside the elite sphere. This implies non-elite people were able to achieve status, usually by possessing objects with high material value, a diversity of artifact types, and high proportions of those artifacts. This paper defines markers of high status in elite houses and examines how these are reflected in non-elite housing in order to discuss social differentiation in non-elite dwellings. A combination of architectural and artifactual elements in some houses over others indicates variations in status. The contribution of this research will eliminate the black and white image of el

Published as part of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Journal of Undergraduate Research, Volume 17 (2014)