Prestige and Disdain

Abstract

Tomb owners, who may be assumed to be literate, hardly ever show themselves reading or writing in their tombs. The second chapter critically examines the two main prevailing answers in the Egyptological literature and offers a different angle to the problem. It collects the few men who did choose to portray themselves associated with reading and writing, and explores their emphasis on literacy in relation to group boundaries and self-representation. The chapter focuses in its analysis on the emphasis on images of literacy among individuals who, like Haremhab, were engaged with the military in their career.