Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV)

Faculty Member, Histoire

Maître de Conférences

Centre de recherches égyptologiques de la Sorbonne

Thesis Title: From storehouse to border post in Ancient Egypt : lexicographical study of the word khetem / Du magasin au poste-frontière dans l'Égypte ancienne : étude lexicographique du vocable khetem

About

The word khetem which is the main object of this dissertation is attested in ancient Egypt from the First Intermediary Period to Roman times. It was nevertheless most used during the New Kingdom.
Derived from the khetem-root, which means « to seal », this word could be used to depict both what was sealed and the device which assured the actual sealing. It testifies to various realities. In the Middle Kingdom, khetem was a certain type of storerooms. From the New Kingdom on, several meanings can be found: occasionally, in literary documents, it was used for the gates of a city or forenclosures – the latter meaning is still found in more recent periods. Nevertheless, the word was mostly used for the border-posts of the Egyptian State as well as the administrative hall and check point of the village of Deir el-Medineh. As for the border-posts khetemou, the best known ones are Tjaru, Wadj-wr, Tjeku and Senmut as they stand for the inner borders of Egypt, where in- and outcomers were checked. These settlements are also warehouse-cities, through which went the tribute from foreign countries and operated as customs. The methods of analysis used here are grounded in
the textual sources, along with the archeological and geomorphological data. Focused on the structures called khetemou, this thesis also consider the wider problem of the organisation of space by the Egyptian state. Thus foreign policy, economics and administration have been widely taken into consideration.