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…
Ptah, South of His Wall, Lord of Ankhtawy
Ptah has been the main god of the ancient Egyptian state since its unification. The unity of the pharaoh and the god is clearly manifested in one of the names of Ptah—“Ptah, south of his wall,” where the word “the walls” is the name of the royal fortress, which played the role of the first…
Time of Creation, Creation of Time: Notes on the Making of Time in Six Religious Hymns of the New Kingdom (ca. 1539–1077 BCE)
New Kingdom private Theban tombs are funerary monuments understood as houses of eternity, where the deceased could live forever after his death. But these tombs are also liminal spaces where the borders of the realm of the living and that of the dead could be erased so the dead, the living, and the gods could get into…
New Kingdom Private Theban Tombs: Places of Interaction between the Living, the Dead and the Gods
New Kingdom private Theban tombs are funerary monuments understood as houses of eternity, where the deceased could live forever after his death. But these tombs are also liminal spaces where the borders of the realm of the living and that of the dead could be erased so the dead, the living, and the gods could get into…
Self-Presentation in the Ptolemaic-Early Roman Period: Looking at Non-royal Portraiture
In the Ptolemaic–Early Roman Period, the Egyptian elite still managed to play an important ideological role and to keep itself culturally relevant by being represented in texts and images. They continued to be depicted in statues produced according to the traditional Egyptian style, but they also decided to be represented through portraits characterized by realistic facial features….
To “Osirify” Royal Mummies in the Theban Necropolis
The aim of the present study is an evaluation of the sources related to the “osirification” (rdit r Wsir) carried out on some royal mummies in the Theban necropolis at the beginning of the Third Intermediate Period. Under the pontificate of Paynedjem I, the osirification becomes a “phenomenon,” not only historical but also political, to reaffirm…
Remarques préliminaires sur le rôle des grands prêtres ramessides d’après leurs textes autobiographiques et leurs titres
This article aims to study the role of the Egyptian high priests with respect to the gods during the Ramesside era. Firstly, it studies how they themselves described their function. It particularly shows the use of the terms jr.t Aḫ.w, nfr(w), mnḫ, and sḥtp. Then, the nature of the “useful things” that high priests were doing is discussed. They consisted of…
Everything Is Not What It Seems: A New Examination of a Purported Naos Fragment from the 4th Century BCE in Verona
The author makes three observations about a purported naos fragment from the 4th century BCE, now in the Museo Archeologico in Verona. First, he refutes the long-held assumption that it represents a naos. Second, he observes that the cartouche on its front face does not belong to Nectanebo I. Third, he argues that its original…
The Anointment of the Mummy by Anubis on Funerary Equipment from Roman Egypt
Depicted on a vast variety of media, the scene of Anubis anointing the mummy is one of the most popular scenes in the funerary repertoire of pharaonic Egypt since the New Kingdom. During the Roman Period, the scene remained in use, while keeping its main iconographic components: Anubis standing behind a lion-shaped funerary bed, anointing…
Le langage des dieux
Various elements, such as the wish of the deceased, in the Coffin Texts, to acquire documents and books and to become a scribe to various deities, suggest that in the afterlife, the upside-down world and domain of the gods, another language is used. Thoth or Ra are occasionally referred to as interpreters, respectively, in chapter 125 of…
The Concept of the Desert Embodied by the God Ha, “Lord of the West”: The Meaning of the Words zmj.t, zpA.t, XAz.t, and jmn.t in the Sources Mentioning Ha
The god Ha, “Lord of the West,” is usually referred to as the god or the personification of the Western Desert. Even though Ha bore his symbol, the three-peaked mountain ridge sign, on a standard on his head, referring to his name, his relationship with the desert as a physical environment is not necessarily clear from the…
Génétique humaine versus génétique divine dans l’ancienne Égypte d’apres les Textes des Pyramides: un système métaphorique de substitution
Analyzing Pyramid Texts allows us to provide clues concerning the way the ancient Egyptians conceived of the divine body of the deceased, which was radically different from the human body. A metaphorical substitutive system can be highlighted through which every part of the human body is replaced by a divine one. More precisely, according to the Egyptian…
A Priest, His Gods and His Depiction: Creation, Execration, and the Roles, Texts, and Vignette of Hor of Karnak
Hor of Thebes possessed the earliest known and datable copy of the Book of Breathings Made by Isis. He was a priest who performed rituals for three gods in Karnak. Some of these rites were apotropaic in nature, while others were creative. There is a conceptual and ritual tie between these concepts. His funerary text also…
Between Humanity and the Gods: Sacred Animals and Their Place in Popular Region at Saqqara
This study draws on recent work at North Saqqara and considers how the many thousands (arguably millions) of sacred animals buried there might have been procured, prepared, and presented to the deities concerned. Evidence from recent work suggests that the votive animals would have been required in huge numbers which must have had a significant impact…
A Brief Insight into the Cult Practice of a Family of Deir el-Medina: The Qaha Example
The article presents some preliminary remarks on the foreman of the left side Qaha (i) and his religious practices through a look at a number of his stelae. The divinities to which these stelae are dedicated are part of the divine world of Deir el-Medina, including the main ones of the Egyptian pantheon, as well…
The Intimate Religion of Greco-Roman Brides in Documentary Papyri: Some Observations about Aphrodite Statuettes
Documentary papyri enable us to recreate some intimate religious aspects of daily life, particularly concerning women. The case study presented on this topic is based on papyrological and archaeological documentation of Aphrodite statuettes. Aphrodite; documentary papyri; (intimate) religion; Greek lexicography
Egyptian Avian Artifacts in the Collections of the “Vasile Pârvan” Institute of Archaeology of Bucharest
The present article continues the series of presentations of some of the unpublished (in major part) Egyptian artifacts in the collections of the “Vasile Pârvan” Institute of Archaeology of Bucharest, Romania. Focused on avian artifacts with funerary destination and context, the study will show the relationship between various avian species, the Egyptian assigned symbols, the…
The Children of Montu: Harpara and Horus-Shu in Ptolemaic and Roman Times
Child gods were special members of the ancient Egyptian pantheon whose cults culminated during the Greco-Roman period. Many temples across Egypt, but especially in the Theban sacred landscape, housed a local child deity. This article sets out to present two of them, namely, Harpara and Horus-Shu, who both were closely associated with Montu, the primeval…
Egypto-Levantine Connectivity between the Shephelah and the Negev Highlands: New Insights from Ceramic Assemblage Profiles at Tel Erani, Mitzpe Sde Hafir, and Yeroḥam—Naḥal Avnon
Investigation of new data from recent Ben-Gurion University excavations at Mitzpe Sde Hafir and Israel Antiquities Authority excavations at Yeroḥam—Naḥal Avnon, two late EB I sites in the Western Negev and Central Negev Highlands, respectively, has revealed two zones of complex and transformational nomadic encounter with sedentary society at a pivotal phase of Egypto-Levantine connectivity…
Tyre: An Intermediate Harbor in Interregional Trade
The founding of a small fortified center on the island of Tyre in the Early Bronze Age cannot be explained without the complicity of a continental center on the nearby coast. Although it is a rocky island with no arable land, it has nonetheless provided an important volume of Combed Storage Jars, cereals, olive pits,…