Social Continuity and Change in the First Intermediate Period: Insights from Utilitarian Ceramics

Abstract Scholarship often identifies the First Intermediate Period as a time of great change in Egyptian history. This paper will argue that investigation of Egyptian social practice highlights that the First Intermediate Period was not just a time of creative disruption, but also a time of social continuity unifying the late Old Kingdom with the Middle Kingdom. This paper uses utilitarian ceramics as a proxy for both domestic and mortuary practices. A morphological investigation of First Intermediate Period bread and beer forms illustrates a dual arc of economic change beginning in the late Old Kingdom running in tandem to a thread of social stability uniting the First Intermediate Period with the Middle Kingdom.