Decoupling the Philistine settlement in the Levant from its Cretan connotations makes a check of the historical and archaeological record for evidence for earlier Cretan colonization, separate from the Sea People´s invasion, necessary. The paper identifies a sizable group of Cretan artifacts produced in a Levant setting beginning with the Middle Bronze Age. It can…
Elements for an Attribution of Letter KBo 28.13+ to the Marriage Dossier of the Hittite-Egyptian Correspondence
More than one hundred letters were exchanged between Egypt and ≈atti from the reign of Šuppiluliuma I onward, several of which were part of the correspondence between Ramesses II and ≈attušili III and their families. The chronological and/or thematic attribution of these letters is difficult. KBo 28.13+ is among the letters that are not attributed…
Pithom and Rameses (Exodus 1:11): Historical, Archaeological, and Linguistic Issues (Part II)
The present article continues our study of the city-names Pithom and Rameses in Exodus 1:11 (the first part having been published in the Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 33), along with related matters, with particular attention to the linguistic evidence. It is determined that: a) the transcription of the Hebrew writing of r’-ms-sw as “Rameses”…
Two Pivots of the 7th Century BCE from Thebes, Egypt, and the Beginning of Woodturning
A group of metal objects was unearthed by Flinders M.W. Petrie at the end of the 19th century in Thebes (Luxor, Egypt). Petrie dated these items to the Assyrian occupation of Egypt, in the first half of the 7th century BCE. The present paper suggests identifying two of these items as pivots of a lathe….
Textual Evidence for the Diplomatic Role of the Egyptian Official Tutu from Amarna
This article provides an analysis of the textual evidence for the role of the Egyptian official Tutu in the Egyptian foreign policy and in the Amarna diplomacy. Tutu’s distinguishing traits and certain themes such as the request of the “breath of life” by foreign rulers, the value of truth, and his role in mediating relations…
Astrological Botany and Greco-Egyptian Plant Names
The various texts and textual excerpts dealing with astral plants are a heterogeneous group of technical and semi-technical writings on the networks of alignments between plants and heavenly bodies. Originated probably in the Late Hellenistic and Roman Imperial Period (roughly, 2nd century BCE–4th century CE), they mostly derive from the knowledge archives of Greek and…
Musuri (“the Egyptian”), King of Moab
A king of Moab (a state centered in modern-day Jordan) named Muṣurī (written mMu-ṣur-i in Mesopotamian cuneiform) is mentioned in the royal inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian kings Esarhaddon (680–669 BCE) and Ashurbanipal (668–c. 630 BCE) as providing material resources to Esarhaddon and as participating in one of Ashurbanipal’s military campaigns (to Egypt). The name Muṣurī…
Pithom and Rameses (Exodus 1:11): Historical, Archaeological, and Linguistic Issues (Part I)
This paper examines the historical and archaeological background to the toponyms Pithom and Rameses in Exodus 1:11 as a counterargument to those who deny the traditional understanding that they refer to sites attested in the Ramesside era and favor the theory that they reflect 7th BCE (and even later) geopolitical realities. Recent excavations at Tell…
Kamiros Faience: Imported or Local? Can We Have Both?
The faience industry in Rhodes has been, and still remains, the subject of much debate. The objects found appear to form a unique phenomenon of acculturation with styles and objects taken from one or more cultures and transplanted to another. A number of discrete groups of faience objects can now be distinguished, but a great…
Aegyptiaca in Action: Assessing the Significance of Scarabs and Other Egyptian and Egyptianizing “Amulets” at Perachora and Beyond
This paper aims to highlight methodological shortcomings in existing approaches to the interpretation of Egyptian and Egyptianizing objects, or aegyptiaca, deposited at Aegean sites during the Early Iron Age and Archaic period. Primarily, it does so through the lens of a single, substantial case study, the more than 900 aegyptiaca found among the assemblage of…
Some (Preliminary) Observations on Attic Black-Figure Pottery from Naukratis
Examining a considerable body of Attic black-figure pottery imported in Naukratis, the paper focuses on matters such as fluctuation of Attic black-figure pottery imports from the end of the 7th century to the end of the 6th century BCE, popular painters and potters, preferred vase shapes, and prevailing iconography. These, in relation to the findspots,…
The Bronze Aegyptiaca in the Aegean, 10th–6th Centuries BCE: An Overview
The Egyptian material distributed throughout Greece includes important quantities of bronze objects that reveal information about consumption and trade and are complicated by issues that differ from those relating to faïence (also distributed throughout Greece). For this reason, the bronze objects give to us a complementary view of the relations between Greece and Egypt during…
Thoth with Four Eyes: Chinese Views of Egyptian Hieroglyphs in the Late Qing Period (1840–1912)
There is a general impression that Egyptian hieroglyphic script has been a subject of only western intellectual investigations. This impression is recently challenged by an emerging group of studies that have revealed various non-western understandings of ancient Egyptian material culture and writings. Chinese views of hieroglyphs, however, are mostly absent from these discourses; studies published…
Religious Topography of West Thebes in the 1st Millennium BCE: The Role of Reused Private Tombs
This paper aims to analyze the role of selected reused tombs in the religious landscape of the Theban necropolis in the 1st millennium BCE. Discussed are three monuments (TT 192, AT -28-, and the so-called Hanging Tomb) and the possible links between their original owners and the deceased buried in them in the Third Intermediate…
Eine Parallele zwischen der hebräischen und ägyptischen Sprache beim übertragenen Gebrauch von “Bogen” als “Regenbogen”
In this contribution, a Hebrew-Egyptian parallel for the development of words for “bow“ to “rainbow“ is traced. In the Hebrew language four examples and in the Egyptian language two examples can be named. The basic meaning of the words has always referred to the military weapon. The tertium comparationis for the transfer lies in the…
The Owner of Theban Tomb 221
In unfinished Theban Tomb 221, situated in Qurnet Murai, the “General of the Army” Horimin is portrayed with a mixture of Libyan and Egyptian features: an over-emphasizing feather on his head, but in a kneeling position at prow and stern of the solar barque, a scene that is totally Egyptian. Ethnic representation in tombs is…
Einige neue Bemerkungen zum ägyptischen Wort ‘b “Bogen”
This article looks for a deeper understanding of the word ‘b “bow.” The derivation of the word from the root ‘b “horn,” suggested already by Gardiner, is related here to the importation of horns of the Cretan wild goat for the construction of composite bows. The word can thus be established as a technical term…
Akhenaten’s Window and the Aegean Connection
The “Window of Appearance” of the Egyptian New Kingdom royal palace is usually considered an indigenous architectural element. After a review of this assumption, it is suggested that it had been observed by emissaries of Amenhotep III in the Cretan palace of Knossos before the concept was imported to the Egyptian court. The Cretan context…
Djahy in the Egyptian Inscriptions and Yarimuta in the Amarna Letters of Byblos
Djahy; Retenu; Yarimuta; Byblos; Canaan
“The Ultimate Woman”: Cleopatra I Syra and the Ptolemaic Bias of Daniel 11:13–18
Daniel 11:17 calls Cleopatra I Syra bat-hanašym, “The Ultimate Woman,” based on the kind of reverence exemplified by the portrayal of the Egyptian queen as the incarnation of Isis. Despite the attempts of versions and commentators to obliterate the mythological nuances, Dan 11:13–18 can be understood in its Hellenistic historical context, allowing us to see…
From a Land Far Away: Egyptian(izing) Amulets from Jebel Qurma, Black Desert, Jordan
This paper presents an Egyptian and an Egyptian-style amulet, recently excavated in tombs in the Jebel Qurma uplands in the Black Desert of northeastern Jordan. The amulets (a pataikos and a scarab) date to the early to mid-1st millennium BCE. It is extremely rare to find such objects in this remote part of the southern…
Scarabs and Seals in the Central Italian Peninsula: A Short Overview (Early Iron Age–Late Orientalizing Period)
Scarabs and seals are still considered one of the hallmarks of the relationship between the Etruscan and Italic people and the rest of the Mediterranean. Starting from the most recent studies, this brief synthesis aims to give an updated synopsis on several aspects linked to these items. scarabs; Egyptianizing; Egyptian; pre-Roman Italy; Etruria
The Faience Industry at Kerma
The complex nature of the interactions between Egypt and its Nubian neighbors is reflected in the most telling way in the material culture of the Kingdom of Kerma and in particular within the medium of what is known as “Egyptian faience,” a sintered-quartz, non-clay ceramic. Analysis has revealed that the material from the site of…
Egyptianizing Faience from the Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates, Kourion, Cyprus
This article publishes an assemblage of forty-two Egyptianizing faience vessels, figurines, and scarabs excavated by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the sanctuary of Apollo Hylates in Kourion, Cyprus, between 1936–1954. Nearly 80% of this material, dating to the first half of the 6th century BCE, were products of Greco-Egyptian workshops…
Three Egyptian Serekh-like Incisions Found on One Vessel at the Early Bronze Age IB City of ‘En Esur, Israel
The proto-historic site of ‘En Esur (‘Ein Asawir) is located at the northern coastal plain of Israel. Recent excavation at the site has revealed a huge and extensive city that was established during the late Early Bronze Age IB (EBIB). This city seems to have been the focal point of various trading routes through which…
Incident at Shellal: A Reappraisal of the History of Philae in the 4th Century CE
In 1907, eleven necropolises ranging from the prehistoric era to modern times were excavated by George Reisner in the first cataract region. Among the most important of these was Cemetery 3 at el-Hesa, which was used as a burial ground for the priests who carried the statue of Isis from Philae to Biga to offer…
Sociolinguistic Identities and Egyptian Imperialism in the Early Late Bronze Age Levant
In a previous paper I presented an analysis of the geographical distribution and linguistic affiliation of the names of local rulers attested in the Amarna letters. There I argued that these names are not scattered at random, but rather that their distribution shows that names having the same linguistic matrix are distributed in geographically well-defined…
Looking Like Griffins: Spiral-Shaped Fringes and Locks in the Coiffure of Aegean Emissaries Represented in Egyptian Eighteenth Dynasty Theban Tombs
In this paper we discuss spiral-shaped fringes and locks on the heads of Aegean emissaries represented in Egyptian Eighteenth Dynasty Theban tombs. Such elements initially appear in Aegean iconography, even before the first depiction of Aegean emissaries in the Theban tomb of Senenmut (TT 71; reign of Hatshepsut). In Egyptian iconography this element of the…
Retenu: Between the Fifteenth and the Nineteenth Dynasties, with an Appendix on the Chronology of Tell el-Dab‘a
This paper deals with the relationship between Egypt and Retenu, its main Asiatic neighbor, in the period from the Fifteenth Dynasty till to the end of the Nineteenth Dynasty. Recent archaeological research at Tell el-Dab‘a disproves the existence of an empire of the Fifteenth Dynasty extending into Palestine. This leads to a reconsideration of the…
Naming Practices and Identity in the Early Late Bronze Age Levant: A Linguistic and Geographical Analysis of Local Rulers’ Names Attested in the Amarna Letters
Multiple names of local rulers are attested in the Amarna letters, most of which can be analyzed as being linguistically West Semitic, Hurrian, or Indo-Aryan. These names have been variously discussed, but no systematic analysis of their geographical distribution has ever been performed. This paper aims to fill this gap. The first section provides the…