The persistence of pharaonic aesthetics of Roman Egypt: Philae and the strength of a tradition.
Roman Egypt. Material Culture. Iconography. Pharaonic Culture. Traditions. Cultural Hybridity.
The marks of a pharaonic past did not disappear with the post-Alexander the Great and Ptolemaic dynasties. Roman Egypt was, therefore, immersed in a complex sociocultural panorama with a series of articulations, negotiations, persistence, conflicts and traditions, where several constructions are witnesses of these actions. These monuments, whether for religious purposes or for self-promotion with their political pretensions and ambitions, carry in their structures an inventory of intentions, styles and techniques, scars of modifications under the most varied allegation. All this marks what the ancients wished that should be kept for posterity or hidden in the form of reused rubble or put off in ruins. A political legitimation in the form of an “aesthetic” of domination. The temple at Philae was one of those places, a symbol of traditions and their most varied uses.