The last decade has seen an increase in our knowledge of the archaeology of the Libyans in the western desert of Egypt. This paper considers the extent to which the Libyans possessed a metals technology. Without access to indigenous ore bodies, it has been widely assumed that theLibyans lacked any metallurgical know- how. The discovery of crucibles…
The Indebtedness of Minoan Religion to Egyptian Solar Religion: Was Sir Arthur Evans Right?
Sir Arthur Evans believed that Minoan religion was highly indebted to Egyptian thought. He saw that the two cultures shared a solar theology expressed via similar iconographical schemes, such as the heraldic arrangement of lions on either side of a column and the astral associations of the goddess known to the Egyptians as Taweret and transmuted by…
Grasping the Griffin: Identifying and Characterizing the Griffin in Egyptian and West Semitic Tradition
The griffin is commonly understood to be an eagle-headed winged lion. I argue here that the Egyptian version has a falcon head, identifying it as a form of Horus; as an allomorph of the sphinx (seen most clearly on the axe-head of Ahmose), it represents the ka of the king. A digression into Judeo-Christian iconography argues…