Although it has been argued that the Hittite chariot forces at the Battle of Kadesh utilized thrusting-spears while fighting, there is very little evidence to confirm this. The pictorial record demonstrates that this interpretation derives from a set of scenes depicting just one event. Such assertions neglect to consider the depictions of Ramesses II’s predecessor,…
Fishing for Meaning: The Significance of Net Weights, Fishhooks and Netting Needles in Mortuary Contexts at Tell el-‘Ajjul
Many of the items found in funerary assemblages can be understood as objects employed in the performance of funerary ritual or as luxury products reflecting the social status of the deceased. Other utilitarian items seem to fall outside these spheres, and while they may be indicative of former lifestyle or profession, they may also hold…
Critical Remarks on a Proposed Etymology of Hebrew נצר and Aramaic Nqr
Toward Pinpointing the Timing of the Egyptian Abandonment of Avaris During the Middle of the 18th Dynasty
The Austrian archaeological team led by Manfred Bietak that excavated the palatial district at Avaris (Tell el-Dab‘a) has produced some significant results for illuminating Lower Egypt’s history during the 15th and 18th Dynasties. While Bietak’s subsequent publications primarily have focused on the exquisite Minoan wall paintings and the site’s likely association with Peru-nefer, much less attention has…
An Analysis of Two Theories Proposing Domestic Goats, Sheep, and Other Goods Were Imported into Egypt by Sea During the Neolithic Period
Based on her work in the Sinai and an evaluation of the appearance of domestic goats and sheep at sites in northeast Africa, Angela Close has proposed a sea route connecting the Sinai and Egypt as the entry point for these animals c. 7000 BP. In an earlier work Béatrix Midant-Reynes had proposed that turquoise,…
Research Report: Brief Report of the Project of the Second Boat of King Khufu
This brief report summarizes the investigation of the second boat of King Khufu at Giza from 1987 to the present. In the late 1980s the Institute of Egyptology at Waseda University began preliminary investigations, including the first sampling of timbers from the boat. Based on the results of these surveys, plans for safeguarding the second…
Research Report: The Wadi el-Jarf Site: A Harbor of Khufu on the Red Sea
Wadi el-Jarf, located south of Zarafana, has parallels to two other Red Sea sites, Ain Sukhna (Ayn Soukhna) and Mersa/Wadi Gawasis. Over the course of two campaigns (2011-2012), an elaborate complex of storage galleries (some for storage of boat parts), including a system for closure, was excavated, as were camps, facilities for pottery production, dry-stone…
Research Report: Thonis-Heracleion, Emporion of Egypt, Recent Discoveries and Research Perspectives: The Shipwrecks
The European Institute of Underwater Archaeology’s work on the city of Thonis-Heracleion, which is located in the submerged Canopic region in the west of the Egyptian Nile Delta, has revealed this ancient port-city in all of its detail. From the 8th century BCE, this town was the custom and border post and the emporion that…
A Late Period Riverine and Maritime Port Town and Cult Center at Tell Tebilla (Ro-nefer)
Tell Tebilla (Ro-nefer) represents one of several riverine and maritime ports in Egypt’s delta during Dynasties 21–30 (1069–343 BCE). It displays diverse relations, including with southern Egypt, the East Mediterranean, and Near East. Tebilla apparently flourished, despite periodic political fragmentation, economic decline, civil wars, rebellions, and attacks and invasions by Kushites, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians….
The Earliest Sailboats in Egypt and Their Influence on the Development of Trade, Seafaring in the Red Sea, and State Development
Based on iconography and trade patterns, Egyptians first outfitted their vessels with sails during the beginning of the Naqada IIc period. As a result, the Nile became such an important trade network that settlements moved from the desert fringes to the Nile floodplain. Furthermore, sailboats were the primary catalyst for the spread of Naqada culture…
‘Šrdn from the Sea’: The Arrival, Integration, and Acculturation of a ‘Sea People’
Despite a broad temporal presence in Egyptian records, the association of the Sherden with another ‘Sea Peoples’ group – the better known and archaeologically-attested Philistines – has led to several assumptions about this people, their culture, and the role they played in the various societies of which they may have been a part. This article…
Gift Exchange and Seaborne Contact in Eighteenth Dynasty Egypt: The Case of Keftiu Artists at Tell el-Dab‘a (Avaris)
Public acquisition and display of imported prestige goods was a well-recognized method by which Egyptian and wider Near Eastern rulers established status in their own societies and negotiated their place among royal peers. Fresco fragments from the palacesat Tell el-Dab‘a (ancient Avaris), constructed and painted in an Aegean technique, suggest that monumental wall decoration was…
The Miners Who Invented the Alphabet – A Response to Christopher Rollston
Was the alphabet an invention of elite Northwest Semitic speakers, officials in the Egyptian apparatus “quite capable with the complex Egyptian,” as recently suggested by Christopher Rollston? Or was the alphabet born at the social and cultural fringe? This article reconstructs the possible milieu in which the alphabet was invented: in the mining camps in…
The Importance of Imports: Petrographic Analysis of Levantine Pottery Jars in Egypt
Interconnections between Egypt and the Levant have been a focus of research for many years. However, only more recently has the scientific method of thin section petrography of ceramic vessels been applied. Through petrography, the raw materials can be identified and related to their known origins, suggesting a provenance. Recent examination of jars dating from…
Egypt and Israel: The Ways of Cultural Contacts in the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age (20th – 26th Dynasty)
When did literary ideas and Egyptian motifs first find their way to Israel/Judah? The article investigates modes of cultural contact in the Late Bronze and Iron Age (20th – 26th Dynasty). According to archaeological, epigraphic and literary material two ways of cultural contact can be found: an indirect one as a kind of ‘leftover’ of the Egyptian…
Synchronisms and Significance: Reevaluating Interconnections Between Middle Kingdom Egypt and the Southern Levant
The relationship and interconnections between Middle Bronze Age Palestine and Middle Kingdom Egypt have long been the subject of continued debate, influenced by chancing perspectives on the nature of the Middle Bronze Age and evidence regarding the chronological synchronisms and correlations between the two regions. Difficulties in understanding this relationship are augmented by the extreme…
News from an Old Excavation: Two Hitherto Unnoticed Measure Capacity Signs on an Egyptian Stone Vessel of the Middle Kingdom from Royal Tomb II at Byblos
Excavated by French Egyptologist P. Montet in the 1920s, Royal Tomb II at Byblos (Bronze Age Gubla) yielded a significant number of Egyptian objects of the Middle Kingdom. Among these finds is a stone vessel with lid that carries the cartouche of a king named Amenemhat, often believed to be Amenemhat IV of the late…
Late Bronze Age Cornelian and Red Jasper Scarabs with Cross Designs. Egyptian, Levantine or Minoan?
This contribution reassesses the date and origin of a particular group of cornelian and red jasper scarabs, displaying line designs such as crosses and stars on their bases. The numbers that surfaced in the southern Levant and the Aegean have led scholars to attribute them to Ramesside Egyptian, Late Bronze Age IIB/III Palestinian, or even…
An Egyptian Loanword in the Book of Isaiah and the Deir ‘Alla Inscription: Heb. nṣr, Aram. nqr, and Eg. nṯr as “[Divinized] Corpse”
The Egyptian noun ntr, “god,” provides a plausible explanation for Hebrew נצר in Isa 14:19 and נצורים in 65:4, both of which have thus far defied positive explanation. In Isa 14 it is perfectly suited to mock the king’s divine aspirations; it commonly refers to the deceased king and to the mummified corpse in Egyptian; it…
The Eighth Campaign of Thutmose III Revisited
One of the most decisive rivalries in the history of the Ancient Near East during the Late Bronze Age was between Egypt and Mitanni.Starting around the beginning of the fifteenth century B.C.E. this rivalry reached its pinnacle during the reign of Thutmose III (1490-1436 B.C.E). Among the military campaigns he directed towards the Levant, his…
Synagogues and Cemeteries: Evidence for a Jewish Presence in the Fayum
Current excavations in the Fag el-Gamous necropolis have raised several questions about the ethnic composition of the mummies buried there. Of particular significance is the potential Jewish presence in the cemetery, as this could help explain the early changes in burial practices witnessed at Fag el-Gamous and often posited to be related to the Christianization…
The Galatian Shield in Egypt
In the Hellenistic world Galatian mercenaries were extremely popular in the armies of the successor kingdoms. They were a non-aligned ethnic mercenary element which would be loyal to its employer, the king, rather than the local community. The Ptolemaic kingdom was no exception, hiring many of these mercenaries and settling them in Egypt. Once the…
The Obelisks of Augustus: The Significance of a Symbolic Element of the Architectural Landscape in the Transmission of Ideology from Egypt to Rome
Following the conquest of Egypt, a pivotal point in his career, Augustus returned to Rome and, other than to avail himself of its economic benefits, historical reports imply that he had little further concern for the country itself and, in contrast to his adoptive father, Julius Caesar, and erstwhile rival for power, Marcus Antonius, was…
Egyptian Ideas, Minoan Rituals: Evidence of the Interconnections between Crete and Egypt in the Bronze Age on the Hagia Triada Sarcophagus
The Hagia Triada Sarcophagus, a painted limestone larnax, has been an enigma in the Minoan artistic canon since the time of its discovery in 1903. It is the only larnax found to date made of limestone, and the only one to contain a series of narrative scenes of Minoan funerary rituals. Conversely, most contemporaneous Aegean…
The Campaign of Ramesses III against Philistia
In this article I propose that Ramesses III campaigned in his eighth regnal year against the Philistines on the Northern borders of Canaan and prevented them from invading Egyptian controlled territory. Ramesses was victorious in a pitched battle, routed the Philistines to their home and destroyed their kingdom. This kingdom, named “the Land of Palestine”,…
Egypt and the Chad: Some Additional Remarks
This article is an addendum to the contribution published by the author in JAEI 2:4 (2010). It draws attention to the importance ofresearch on the connection between Egypt and the Chad region with regard to observations made on shared linguistic features, and therecent hypothesis that rock drawings at Gilf Kebir display possible precursors to Egyptian…
A Long Walk in the Desert: A Study of the Roman Hydreumata along the Trade Routes between the Red Sea and the Nile
The routes through the Eastern Desert of Egypt were critical during the Roman Empire for the distribution of trade goods from the east; the roads that led from the ports of Myos Hormos and Berenike to the Nile emporium of Koptos were especially well travelled by caravans carrying valuable imports and exports. Along both of…
Egyptian Gold in Prepalatial Crete? A Consideration of the Evidence
This study analyzes the evidence for the origin of gold found in secure prepalatial contexts in Crete. As there are no natural gold sources on Crete, extra-island interaction was required to procure this raw material. Information regarding the origin of prepalatial gold may, therefore, throw light on Crete’s interactions during this formative period. Unfortunately, there…
“Stop, O Poison, That I May Find Your Name According to Your Aspect”: A Preliminary Study on the Ambivalent Notion of Poison and the Demonization of the Scorpion’s Sting in Ancient Egypt and Abroad
The scope of this paper is to present a novel exposition of the ambivalent notion of poison and venomous agents, especially scorpions, in ancient Egyptian magical literature, seeking contemporary variants in Greek mythos and praxis. Emphasis is given to the notion of change and ambiguity in the usage of the relevant terminology (mtwt, mw-mr, ἰός…
Insights into Egyptian Horus Falcon Imagery by Way of Real Falcons and Horus Falcon Influence in the Aegean in the Middle Bronze Age: Part I
The falcon is the most frequently represented bird in Egyptian art. The discovery that falcons were depicted more often than realized in Aegean art, during the author’s studies of Aegean faunal iconography, prompted this article which delves into their natural history as a way to understand the falcon gods of Egypt as well as Egyptian…