An intriguing anepigraphic panel, carved in a quarry a few kilometers north of Aswan during the Greco-Roman period, features two registers depicting nine deities and a man of Nubian origin. The latter is portrayed in an unusual defensive posture, with his back turned to the Elephantine triad. While certain gods (Khnum, Satet, Anuket, and Min)…
A Set of Model Vessels in Stone from the Egyptian Third Dynasty Necropolis of Bet Khallaf: A Parallel with the Levant and Mediterranean
The use of model and miniature vessels in the ancient world is common throughout history, with evident differences between cultures. Research on their possible function and meaning in numerous contexts are still ongoing, especially related to the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt, since just few sets of model vessels in stone have been recorded prior…
Egyptians, Kushites, and Libyans in Texts from Ancient Iran
A number of African (Egyptian, Kushite, Libyan) individuals and groups are mentioned in documents from ancient Iran (Elam, Media, Persia) and the time of the Achaemenid Empire. This article focuses on these people, employing both biographic and demographic perspectives. Achaemenid Empire; Egypt; Elam; migration; Kush; Libya; deportation; Media; Persia
Oniases and Jewish Temples in Hellenistic Egypt
The identity of the Onias who founded a Jewish temple in Egypt during the Hellenistic age has been debated vigorously in the scholarly literature. Scholars assume that the founder was either Onias III in 175 BCE or his son Onias IV in c. 163 BCE. This study will suggest that there were Jewish temples in…
(Ch. 15) Archiving Process
(Ch. 14) Photographers and Equipment, 2012–2015
(Ch. 13) Archaeological Staff and Workforce
(Ch. 12) Bes Jars from the Tausret Temple Site
(Ch. 11) A Mourning-Woman Vase from the Temple of Tausret
(Ch. 10) Report on the Ceramics Recovered from Area TD (2013-2015)
(Ch. 9) A New Cluster of Mud Vessels
(Ch. 8) Foreign Pottery
(Ch. 7) Ceramic Methodology
(Ch. 5) The North Scarp
(Ch. 4) The Western Scarp
(Ch. 3) Mud-Brick Structures in the TC Area
(Ch. 2) Mapping at the Tausret Temple
(Ch. 1) Introduction
(Ch. 6) Texts
An Aromatic Levantine Plant (Thymbra spicata L.) in Tutankhamun’s Tomb as a Case of Failed Domestication
Although Thymbra spicata is not a native Egyptian plant, a freshly picked twig was discovered in the tomb of Tutankhamun. Such a plant could have been cultivated in Egypt by “the state,” or by a foreigner sojourning in Egypt. The twig is an example of plant acclimatization, such as plants brought by Hatshepsut’s mission to…
The Production of Middle Bronze Age Steatite Scarabs from the Southern Levant: A Chaîne Opératoire Approach
Steatite scarabs were the most common type of seal amulets in Egypt and the southern Levant during the 2nd millennium BCE. Past scholarship attempted to create criteria for the identification of Egyptian vs. Canaanite scarabs, emphasizing mostly their typological and iconographic features, while other aspects of their production have largely been disregarded. This article examines…
Akhenaten’s Libyans: Reinterpreting a Relief Fragment from the Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep II
This article discusses a sandstone relief in the collections of the Manchester Museum (inv. no. 3507) that has, since it arrived in the collection, been described as depicting Syrian soldiers and originating from the mortuary temple of Merenptah at Qurna. This reinterpretation of the piece instead suggests that it depicts Libyan warriors, not Syrians, most…
Remodeling Parker’s Egyptian Lunar Month: A New Solution to Eighteenth Dynasty Chronology
Despite an abundance of data, a lunar solution to Eighteenth Dynasty chronology remains elusive. Previous efforts have employed Richard Parker’s model for the start of the lunar month, which assumes psDntyw coincided with first dawn crescent invisibility. It is possible that this criterion has vexed the search for an authoritative timeline for the Eighteenth Dynasty….
Reconsidering the Seth Animal Conundrum: An African Perspective
The Seth animal is generally regarded as a fabulous beast that existed only in the imagination of ancient Egyptians. But this composite creature may well have its origin in prehistoric times in a very real African animal with disparate features, the aardvark. In addition to its long downward-pointing snout, tall, pricked ears, and long tail,…
The Head of Anubis: A Curious Gift from Aegean Emissaries in the Tomb of Menkheperreseneb
In this brief contribution the author explains the rather strange appearance of an Anubis-headed rhyton among the gifts of Aegean emissaries in the tomb of Menkheperreseneb (TT 86) as a way of marking the gifts as burial items. This places the object in accord with recent discoveries, which have shown that the Aegean gifts in…
Sweetness Out of Chaos: The Archaeology of Early Beekeeping in the Near East and Aegean
The honeybee originally migrated to the Levant and northeast Africa sometime during the early Pleistocene (300,000 BP) from her ancestral home in southeast Asia. The evolved honeybee is identified as Apis mellifera. Thanks to the pioneering studies of Eva Crane, there has been an increased interest in the role of bees and beekeeping and a…
Einige neue Gedanken zum ägyptischen Verhältnis von Hunden und Feinden unter besonderer Berücksichtigung einer sumerischen Vergleichsstelle
This article is about the Egyptian comparison of enemies with dogs. The tertium comparationis is formed by the subservience of both dogs and enemies. Five text passages are included in the study and confronted with comparative material. The derogatory view of dogs can also be observed in other languages in the region. Egyptian literature; dog,…
Communicating and Assimilating Foreign Ideologies Through Art: The Diffusion of Egyptian Iconography from the Middle Bronze Age Levant to Achaemenid Persia
This article focuses on pharaonic Egypt’s cultural impact in Western Asia through royal and divine iconography seen within various modes of art. From the first noted appearance in the Middle Bronze Age to just before the spread of Hellenism, four case studies will be put forth regarding when and how Egyptian iconography is best exemplified…
Was the Notion of Purgatory Known in Ancient Egyptian Religious Funerary Beliefs?
In search for understanding the ancient Egyptian beliefs about the afterlife, most modern Egyptologists tend to focus on either the search for heaven and its variety of bliss or the search for hell and its many types of torments, but they have not searched for purgatory. Hence, this paper deals with a hypothesis that sinners…
The Representation of “Humans” and Gods in the So-Called Satirical Ostraca and Papyri from Deir el-Medina
The article addresses the subtle differences between how anthropomorphism of animals is used to represent humans and human behavior versus divine behavior. By examining the different types of anthropomorphism used at Deir el-Medina as a starting point, this study considers the multiple manifestations of Egyptian deities and how these manifestations may be dependent on the context…