Why no Egyptian Reenactment groups?

[Magnus]

Is it because they have less to go on than we do?

[M.H. White]

Offhand, I'd say look at it like this:

There aren't that many people interested enough in classical history to do reenacting. The hearts of those that are interested seem to be mostly captured by either Rome or Classical Greece. Others, like myself, might have interests in other areas, such as Egypt (I am captivated by the Macedonian war machine under Philip and Alexander), but end up doing Roman reenactment because its more economical, as well as more popular. The appeal of numbers is important. I don't really have much desire to get into Greek reenacting right now because of the very small numbers of reenactors involved. I've never seen more than 6 or 8 guys dressed up as hoplites, and frankly I'd feel a bit silly walking about in a phalanx of anything less than 30. My wildest dream involves getting a full cohort of Romans together, but I'm afraid I'll never see that day. Actually, my wildest dream is to be riding in a sizeable (80-100?) group of guys dressed up as Companion calvary alongside a phalanx of several hundred phalangites, but the full cohort is at least faintly possible.

Then there's also the issue of having much more to go on with all things Roman.

Summary: Number of people interested, less information available, and the ease of getting into other reenacting endeavors.

[Matthew Amt]

Is it because they have less to go on than we do?

Heck, no, there is sometimes much BETTER documentation for Egyptian stuff! Detailed tomb frescoes of things like shield making, not to mention all the originals carefully stored with their mummies. Lines of perfect little model soldiers. Now, much depends on the exact era you choose, but it's almost cheating.

So far my Bronze Age interests have only run to northern Europe, the Aegean, and a little Asia Minor, but eventually I may work my way down to Egypt.

If you want to stir up some action, come on over to the Bronze Age Center!

http://s8.invisionfree.com/Bronze_Age_Center/index.php

Rshwt n'kh,

Matthew

[Primvs Pavlvs]

Is it because they have less to go on than we do?

Do you really want to see pale, pastey white re-enactors in skirts?

Kinda reminds me of the 6"2' 350lb white guys re-enacting WW2 Japanese Army,,,,,,,its just silly!

[Magnus]

Do you really want to see pale, pastey white re-enactors in skirts?

And what's so different about that and Roman Reenactment? LOL

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Welllll, I usually tan well, being half Greek! LOL but then not having seen the sun this summer.....

[john m roberts]

I think the big problem is, everybody wants to be the guy standing on top of the big granite block swinging the whip and nobody wants to be the 100 other guys hauling on the ropes.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

:lol:

[Ioannis]

I think the main problem is that us westerners can more easily identify with Romans or Greeks than Egyptians due to our own ethnical and historical background.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Yet our heritage is linked with ancient Egypt....(us Greeks, anyway) :lol:

[Hibernicus]

I knew a guy in the SCA who did Egyptian .... beautiful fighting kit, face mask with beard on his helmet! His wife... oh man!. Isis for sure! He even made a 10 foot wide pyramid tent.

[Senovara]

Oh, I'd love to join an Egyptian group if I knew of one , especially if its set around 40BC Alexandria! I'm petite and dark-skinned, so with the proper linen dress and make-up, I'd fit in easily.

Kinda reminds me of the 6"2' 350lb white guys re-enacting WW2 Japanese Army,,,,,,,its just silly!

Ok, now you put a funny picture in my head! LOL :lol:

[richsc]

We had a woman dressed something like an Egyptian at one Roman days. We certainly don't preclude it: after all, they were part of the empire for quite a while, and Egyptians probably served in the legions.

[Magnus]

Any decent books on the subject, from Osprey? Nothing too expensive but on the money like Connolly and Graham's stuff?

[Carlton Bach]

Osprey's old 'New Kingdom Egypt' is OK.

I think the main problem is that reenactent is still a very male-dominated, macho and militaristic hobby. That's not exactly the thing you associate with Ancient Egypt, so the number of people interested gets rather too small to support an organised effort. Almost everyone who is interested in Bronze Age reenacting at all tends to do the Myceneans, Hittites or Hallstatt 'Celts'. Incidentally, I think we have a similar phenomenon in far eastern reenactment - compare the number of Japanese would-be samurai to the number of Chinese.

Personally, I'd love to do an Egyptian impression (though it'd have to be a resident foreigner, given the Egyptians had rather less body and facial hair).