Session 1: Language, Literature and Titles
Helmut Satzinger
University of Vienna, Vienna (Austria)
A Lexicon of Egyptian Lexical Root (Project)
Although the lexicography of the Egyptian language has been under way since nearly two hundred years, this activity has never yielded an inventory of the roots of the language. The roots, abstract elements from which the lexemes are derived, differ often from the latter, thus appearing in different places in the alphabetic order of the lexicon: Some stems of Egyptian verbs are derived from their roots by the addition of a prefix, like s-, n-, or m-, and/or by reduplication of the root, as snsn ‘to join,’ ‘to associate with,’ as compared with sn, with a similar meaning. The identification of the roots is not always an easy task; in many cases it takes both philological and linguistic methods to determine or discern them. Whereas it is important to describe and systematize the mechanics of derivation, the study of the semantics, the development of meaning, is equally important.
Gaëlle Chantrain
Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain (Belgium)
Time(s) in Ancient Egypt: perspectives of a broad lexical study
The question of time in Ancient Egypt has already been given attention in several publications. This topic was approached from different points of views: religious, anthropological and cultural, and of course the language itself and in its connections with aspect. In the narrower field of lexical studies, scholars have so far focussed on specific lexemes (e.g. nHH, D.t, A.t). But none of these studies has ever given a complete analysis of the semantic field of time. My PhD thesis consists of a study dealing with most of the lexemes and locutions related to time: on the one hand, from the semasiological point of view, by analysing the meaning(s) of each lexeme, thanks to the so-called distributional analysis; on the other hand, from the onomasiological point of view, by placing each lexeme in its proper place in the semantic network of time and illustrating the links existing between them, and also by tracing their diachronic evolution by means of an evolving semantic map. I here propose to set out the present state of my researches, the first results and the further perspectives. I will thus highlight how to make a systematic lexical study on a broad corpus of texts by using these new tools that are online corpuses. I will also explain the advantages, and the difficulties of taking into account the diachronic dimension in lexical studies for a dead language like Egyptian, and the possibilities but also the limits of exploitation of the data.
Uroš Matić
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Münster (Germany/Serbia)
Enemies to living icons: From m sxd to sxd.w
Hanging enemies upside-down on the prow of the king’s ship is so far attested in only two New Kingdom texts (Autobiography of Ahmose son of Ebana and Amada and Elephantine stelas of Amenhotep II). These attestations received little serious scholarly attention and by several authors were related to killing the enemies by drowning. Additionally, the unique scene of an encaged Syrian prisoner on a talatat of Tutankhamun was interpreted as an iconographic counterpart to this kind of treatment of war prisoners. Thorough reading of the texts in question and close look on the encaged Syrian prisoner does not allow such interpretation as no contact with water is suggested. Also, there are quite clear iconographic indications suggesting that the encaged Syrian prisoner is depicted on the back and not on the prow of the king’s ship. This paper will analyze the textual and iconographic attestations of enemies hanged upside-down (m sxd) through comparison with textual and iconographic attestations of the “disordered” (sxd.w). The semantic correlation between the expression m sxd and the noun sxd.w and the very context of these attestations in royal texts and regalia will be taken as a starting point in the discussion regarding the transformation of enemies into the living icons.
Session 2: Religion and Religious Texts
Joanna Popielska–Grzybowska
Pułtusk Academy of Humanities, Pułtusk (Poland)
Eternity, everlastingness and Nun in the Pyramid Texts
“The King’s lifetime is continuity,
His limit is everlastingness.”
/PTspell 273-274 § 412/
The concept of duality in most aspects of life was very Egyptian way of thinking, Egyptian way of understanding the world. Consequently every concept was multi-faceted and internally linked.
Eternity perceived two dimensionally, as linear and circular ones, demonstrates profound comprehension of nature and functioning of the human world.
The oldest and the deepest desire of human beings was to live eternally, to postpone the inevitable. The same desire was extremely important and inextricably linked with the ancient Egyptian concept of eternity and continuity as regards the pharaohs. Furthermore the pharaoh was born in Nu before the sky and the earth had come into being, before anything else had come into being.
However, the beginning of the world and the beings as well as the end of the world and the living creatures were in Nu as well. Exclusively Atum and Osiris and consequently the pharaoh as well, were not to die the death.
The author of the paper will scrutinise, with reference to contextual arguments, the Egyptian Pyramid Texts to show the development of the ideas of eternity, everlastingness and pra-ocean Nu.
Mykola Tarasenko
А.Yu. Krymskyi Institute of Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv (Ukraine)
“Children of Weakness” (mc.w BdS.t) in the Book of Gates
One of the numerous representatives of the ancient Egyptian pantheon, whose nature and function in religion and mythology is still vague and obscure, is mc.w BdSt – “Children of Weakness” (LGG, III, 422–423). The significant mention of mc.w BdSt is found in the upper register of the 11th hour of the Book of Gates. Represented there is the only authentically known visual image of those enigmatic creatures (scene No. 69), all other mentions are textual.
Thus, the text and picture of the 11th hour of the Book of Gates contain crucial reference to mc.w BdSt, which can be associated with Нermopolitan version of the cosmological myth about these creatures according to BD 17 (Urk. V, Abs. 1, 6–7). Characteristic of the visual display of this mythem is representing mc.w BdSt in serpent quaternary form and contrasting them with four Sons of Horus.
The reminiscences of this little-known Hermopolitan myth can be found in the semantics of vignettes BD 30B and 125, as well as in one of the scenes of BD 110 / CT Sp. 465. This motif is also reflected in the plot of pBrooklyn 47.218.84 (Late Period), indicating that mc.w BdSt are the four fingers of the creator-god, who rebelled against him (IV, 5 – V, 4). Based on this, as well as data from pRamesseum XV verso I, 5 (Middle Kingdom), the presence of the fifth serpent (that is finger) on the image of mc.w BdSt in the Book of Gates is logical.
Lubica Hudakova
University of Vienna, Vienna (Austria/Slovakia)
The sunshade after the Old Kingdom – female attribute with Hathoric connotation?
Each individual object (icon) represented in ancient Egyptian two-dimensional art may be studied in its own right in order to unfold the complexity of the scene or motif it is part of. The present paper will focus on the images of sunshades and their significance, especially in the tombs of the First Intermediate Period and Middle Kingdom. Most examples from that period illustrate female sunshade bearers carrying the item as an attribute, rendered in a rather schematic way and without any visible function. Furthermore, most of these women can be associated with Hathor, either bearing a related title or a cultic emblem of the goddess. Together with the designation of the sunshade (sbA – ‘star’) and the context of the scenes, in which female sunshade bearers appear, these aspects speak for a Hathoric connotation of the object. This assumption is even corroborated by the New Kingdom evidence. The examples clearly differ from the Old Kingdom motifs of male sunshade bearers who usually accompany the tomb owner and held the sunshade over him.
Riana McArthur
University of South Africa, Pretoria (South African Republic)
THE REVOLUTION OF ATENISM: AKHENATEN’S ‘RELIGION OF LIGHT’ AND ITS REFLECTION IN AMARNA ART
Amenophis IV (ca.1353-1336 BCE), also known as Akhenaten, shook the core foundations of Egyptian culture by introducing a new theology. He took his father’s New Solar Theology and turned it into a radical new religion by abandoning the entire traditional Egyptian pantheon in favour of one deity, namely Aten. As a result Akhenaten became one of the most enigmatic, eccentric and radical pharaoh’s of ancient Egypt. His new theology focused on the sun and the absolute power of light. There was also no depiction of his new god, except for a simple hieroglyphic symbol, replacing the rich mythology and illustrations that comprised ancient Egyptian religion. Dogmas behind religion always appear to be expressed in art and if those principles had to shift then changes in artistic style would also occur. Consequently, Akhenaten’s radical new theology, namely the Religion of Light, introduced art deemed not only revolutionary but also immensely innovative and mysterious. This paper will highlight that during Akhenaten’s reign different transitional phases in artistic style occurred as the king developed his religion with art constantly emphasizing the manifestation of the various tenets of Atenism therein. What was certain was that Akhenaten was resolute to through his art leave his mark in history and that he would do so at any cost.
Diana Liesegang
University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg (Germany)
The reign of RamEsSes III, in the sign of “Personal Religion”
The Phenomenom of “Personal Religion” influenced for a long time the Egyptian culture and left behind an impressive heritage of literature, which presents the development of a historical-social change. The reign of Ramses III contains several important events like the famous wars against the Sea People, which established the position of the Egyptian pharaoh once more as mighty sovereign of the Egyptian Empire, the major power in the Near East.
In that time the ideas of the “Personal Religion” began to win more influence on the Royal self-presentation of the Egyptian pharaoh and his relations to the deities. The Royal Image of Ramses III demonstrates new aspects in the contact of the sovereign and the divine world, which emphasized the effect of a special religious conception, which changed the internal structures of the Egyptian Empire in the sign of “Personal Religion”.
The aim of this paper is to analyse this historical-religious development and its characteristics, with the priority for the changes in the Royal ideological programme of Ramses III. The detailed examination of the literature of this historical period should providet interesting exemples of the influence of this new religious ideas on the Egyptian culture, especially an the Royal Image of the Egyptian king. It should show an intensive and extraordinary relationship between the pharaoh and the Egyptian deities.
Maria Diletta Pubblico
„L’Orientale“ University of Naples, Naples (Italy)
Investigation on the cult of Bastet during the Late and Greek-Roman Period: new perspectives of research
“It’s Bastet the protector of the Two Lands
Whoever loves her is protected by her arm. ”
(Loyalist Teaching)
For a long time the religious-historical investigation concerning the worship of one of the most important deities of the Egyptian pantheon, the goddess Bastet, remained an assumption. Despite this theriomorphic deity has always generated some interest among the scientific community, an in-depth archaeological and historical-religious analysis has never been conducted. The objective of the present speech is to show the results achieved during the first year of doctoral research, through the systematic study of a batch of previously unpublished finds from the Bubasteion of Saqqara and equally unpublished artefacts kept in the Museums of Budapest and Naples. The material, particularly heterogeneous, consists of wooden and limestone sarcophagi for cat mummies; zoomorphic and cat-headed statuettes of goddess, quarries or full, made of wood, bronze, limestone and terracotta; faïence and bronze amulets; cat mummies and pseudo-mummies. The examination of the techniques and material workmanship, the chronological investigation, the comparison with similar finds, kept in various Egyptian collections in Europe, made it possible to establish an initial typological variety, to clarify the function of some artefacts and their cultural significance.
Bárbara Rodrigues
Centro de História d’Aquém e d’Além-Mar/Portuguese Centre for Global History, FCSH/UNIVERSIDADE NOVA-UAç., Lisboa (Portugal)
barbara.botelho.rodrigues@gmail.com
Is there an Egyptian hero? – The contributes of mythological and literary studies to an Egyptological subject
When one thinks of heroes the images that come to mind are usually those of great warriors, of men who were the founders of civilizations. These men – in one way or another – cause ruptures and introduce changes in their surroundings. Except in some specific periods of Ancient Egypt’s History, namely those of external domination, the idea of rupture and change is not a favorable one to the Egyptian mindset and political ideology. This reason led some Egyptologists to believe that there is not an Egyptian hero, at least not in the terms stated previously (Bolshakov).
There is, however, a broader way to perceive this “hero figure”. Since the beginning of the twentieth century scholars of mythology and literature have been studying the mythical hero, the protagonist of myths. What they discovered is that this figure can be found in the accounts and narratives of practically every civilization. In this communication we aim to study a subject that belongs to Egyptology using the works of Joseph Campbell and David Leeming – two of the main scholars analysing the hero myth – as our theoretical source. Sustaining our analysis of various Egyptian narratives in the fundamental stages of the hero myth we hope to bring a different perspective of this subject to Egyptology.
Our goal is to approach the hero myth in Ancient Egypt from both perspectives: the historical approach, where Egyptology is in point; and the broader interpretation of literary studies, where cultural production and its consequences are in point.
Guilherme Borges Pires
Centro de História d’Aquém e d’Além Mar/Portuguese Centre for Global History, FCSH/UNIVERSIDADE NOVA-UAç, Lisboa (Portugal)
guilhermecborgespires@gmail.com
The Study of the Sacred Space in Ancient Egypt: an example of interaction between Egyptology and other Fields of Knowledge
Egyptology has been, since its very beginning, a science of co-working. In fact, even before the birth of Egyptology, a multidisciplinary entourage accompanied Napoleon, when he invaded Egypt in 1798, formed by scientists and artists of different areas.
Facing Egyptology’s history we are forced to recognize how fundamental contributions of the natural sciences, philology and archaeology have been to the progress of our knowledge about the Pharaonic civilization.
We should similarly not obliterate the input offered by social sciences to our research. In this paper we intend to demonstrate how these domains of knowledge, such as philosophy, anthropology, ethnology or history of religion, can be very profitable to Egyptology, particularly to the study of the Sacred Space in Ancient Egypt.
In exploring the mental and social category of the “sacred”, which was somehow started by Rudolf Otto, and connecting it with the spatial dimension we will be able to comprehend the concept and implications of the “Sacred Space”, intellectually developed by Mircea Eliade. Moreover, we can analyse the concept of “topophilie” (“the love of the place”) proposed by the philosopher Gaston Bachelard, in order to understand the human significance of the space Egyptians felt they belonged to.
In sum, the aim of this paper is to acknowledge the importance of studying the sacralisation of space by the Nilotic people from the perspective of social sciences and to understand its benefits in the construction of a more solid and coherent Egyptology.
Session 3: Art, ICONOGRAPHY and Architecture studies
Cheryl Hart
University of Wales – Trinity Saint David, Lampeter (United Kingdom)
An Examination and Analysis of the Role of the Iconographic Rosette Motif in the Egyptian Artistic Repertoire: A Case Study
My PhD research comprises a detailed analysis of the rosette motif within the iconography of the Eastern Mediterranean region during the Fourth to First Millennia BC. This particular motif, although prevalent in these cultures, has received little or no previous analysis, and certainly no in-depth examination. I perceive the motif to act as a means of non-verbal communication, and being under-pinned primarily by semiotic theory, my research utilises a multi-disciplinary approach to the visual interpretation of the motif, encompassing archaeology, art history, anthropology, and even studies into human perception and cognition, in order to examine the role of this particular motif from a broad contextual and conceptual background.
Taking the perspective, in my examination and analysis of the rosette motif, to be that of a means of non-verbal communication, I intend to demonstrate in this paper, through comparative data derived from the prolific visual depictions of the rosette, both similarities and differences in its cultural and contextual use within the Near East, Egypt and the Aegean. Through the analysis of this evidence I aim to show that, as a means of non-verbal communication, the rosette motif represents a concept rather than simply an ‘image’, illustrating this point with a specific case study from the Egyptian iconographic repertoire.
Danijela Stefanović
University of Belgrade, Belgrade (Serbia)
Identifying sculptors within a workshop – the case of the late Middle Kingdom Theban workshop
The well attested Theban stelae workshop from the late 13th / 17th Dynasties have been extensively analyzed by several authors: MARÉE 1993: 7-22; FRANKE 2003: 83; STEFANOVIĆ 2010: 214; STEFANOVIĆ 2012: 17-23; ILIN-TOMICH 2012: 69-84. To the same cluster should be added the stelae Assiut, TL 201, TL 202, TL 207, TL 208, Berlin 8802, Turin S. 01298, and the stela from the McCorkell collection (LEPROHON 1987: 78-85). It seems that the workshop’s entire output derives from at least three draughtsman and three sculptors (whether or not draughtsman and sculptor were a single individual). The objects can be assigned to several subgroups, based on artistic and epigraphic similarities. The stelae bear marks of the same artistic hands in respect to the poses, attire and attributes of the human figures which are repeated uniformly, the depiction of offerings, and epigraphic criteria. Although the style of the workshop is unparalleled, its social context is still missing.
D. FRANKE 2003. Die Stele des Jayseneb aus der Schachtanlage K01.12, in: Die Pyramidenanlage des Königs Nub-Cheper-Re Intef in Dra‘ Abu el-Naga. SDAIK 24.
A. ILIN-TOMICH, Late Middle Kingdom Stelae Workshops at Thebes, GM 234, 2012, 69-84.
R. LEPROHON, The Late Middle Kingdom Stela of the Local Soldier Sobekemhat, JSSEA 17/3, 1987, 78-85.
M. MARÉE 1993. A remarkable group of Egyptian stelae from the Second Intermediate Period, OMRO 73, 7-22.
D. STEFANOVIĆ, Four Middle Kingdom Stelae from the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, JEA 96, 2010, 207-215.
D. STEFANOVIĆ, The Middle Kingdom Stela from the Toledo Museum of Art, CdÉ 87, 2012,17-23.
Jadwiga Iwaszczuk
Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures
Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw (Poland)
Battle scenes from the temple of Thutmose I in Gurna
During the early Thutmoside era decorating the temple walls with scenes representing battles seems to be very rare. As far as materials dated to the times before the reign of Hatshepsut are concerned, only a few fragments of this type of decoration were discovered in the temple of Ahmose in Abydos. Other few fragments of blocks decorated with battle scenes carved during the reign of Hatshepsut or Thutmose III come from the temple of Thutmose II in Gurna. Although Thutmose I was very active on a battlefield, reliefs recording his military success are unknown so far. During the seasons 2009-2010 blocks belonging to the temple of Thutmose I were found by the Polish-Egyptian Archaeological and Conservation Mission at the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari in the storeroom no. 4 located in the tomb MM 828 in Gurna. Among them, a small group of fragments adorned with elements of battle scenes were distinguished. This presentation is an attempt to reconstruct these scenes and show their significance in the king’s expression of his individual history on the walls of his temple.
Kamila Braulinska
University of Warsaw, Warsaw (Poland)
Some Remarks on the Lion Iconography in the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari
In the Temple of Hatshepsut, lions are depicted most frequently of all the felids. They are distinct from the other representatives of the family, both in their symbolism and perhaps origin, which contrary to the other species in the temple, is not obvious.
There are at least eight lion specimen from the total of eighteen felid depictions, excluding furniture and boat emblems, pelts, hieroglyphic signs and gargoyles. The analysis has revealed the reproducibility of lion-scene contexts and their influence over the number, pose, appearance and even the… outfit of the animals.
Despite of the highly symbolic contexts, it is worth to assess how far they convey the natural features, such as zoological or behavioural markers, which are the author’s main points of interest. The mammals of the Temple are the core of her PhD research. Her last seasons on the site included the documentation and analysis of lions, i.a. two specific throne scenes, of which one only belongs to the original decoration. The other one exhibits the animals hardly comparable with the remaining six specimen, however resembling those displayed elsewhere in Thebes. In the New Kingdom history of Hatshepsut Temple there were two moments when changes could have been introduced to the wall reliefs: during the reign of queen’s successor Tutmosis III and the Ramesside Period. Based on the new observations, the possible attribution may be proposed for the discussed scene.
Marco Baldi
University of Pisa, Pisa (Italy)
Domestic architecture and daily life in Meroitic Nubia
The proposed paper will offer a picture of the residential architecture and domestic customs in the Meroitic world (3rd century BC – 4th century AD), giving particular attention to low and middle social classes daily life. It will be highlight the heterogeneous character of the coeval buildings regarding dimensions, plans, materials and techniques. This suggests a social hierarchization but also reflects regional specificities depending on environment, climate and availability of materials.
The suggestions on daily activities of the population, especially cooking of food, will be supported by archaeometrical inquiry on pottery and its source clay, animal bones, vegetal remains and charcoal.
The direct observation of the remains by the writer, who has been a member of the Italian-Russian archaeological team at Abu Erteila since2009, will be completed by bibliographic references. The paper will consider past significant excavation works, in sites as Ash Shaukan and Gezira Dabarosa, and several missions, mainly at Meroe, Hamadab and Muweis, which have been working in the Sudan and in the last years enriched the previously known picture of the Meroitic society.
For the vernacular architecture, a further support will be offered by ethnoarchaeological comparisons.
Session 4: Funerary and burial studies
Helen Strudwick
Fitzwilliam Museum – University of Cambridge, Cambridge (United Kingdom)
Death on the Nile: Egyptian coffins at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
In 2016, the Fitzwilliam Museum will present an exhibition of Egyptian coffins, the result of a ten-year programme of research investing every aspect of the history of the coffins in its collection. This has included technical analyses of the construction methods, creation of the decorative programme and, as far as possible, the history of the coffins and their owners. The exhibition will highlight the results of this research. An accompanying exhibition catalogue will trace the development of coffins and burial practices from c. 4000 BC to c. AD 300. A more comprehensive catalogue of the entire collection of coffins at the Museum will follow, including full results of all the technical analyses, such as X-radiography, CT scanning and scanning electron microscopy.
Although some of the Middle Kingdom coffins at the Fitzwilliam Museum appear in the catalogue of an exhibition in 1988, curated by Janine Bourriau, entitled Pharaohs and Mortals, the remainder are largely unknown. This paper will provide an overview of the Museum’s collection of coffins and highlight some of the results of the research programme in advance of the exhibition and publication of the full catalogue.
Porin Šćukanec Rezniček
Independent scholar, Zagreb (Croatia)
Case study of subsidiary burials in Ancient Egyptian cemeteries of the Early Dynastic PERIOD
A phenomena present only at the beginning of the ancient Egyptian civilization, in the First Dynasty, were the subsidiary burials. These encircled or were near the tombs of the kings in Abydos, but can also be found around mastabas of dignitaries in other sites such as Saqqara, Tarkhan, Abu Roash etc. There is still an ongoing debate on whether or not the people in these tombs were sacrificed upon the death of their ruler, as first hinted by Flinders Petrie. Most of the tombs were plundered, but some record still remained to be excavated throughout the 20th century. Based on these grave goods I tried to examine the identities that these people sought in the afterlife through their property. My research question focuses on establishing different relationships that can be inferred from the grave goods in these tombs among the variety of subsidiary tombs which are often classified as a homogeneous group. Furthermore, I examine how these relate to the main tombs of the kings and queen and the wider social and political aspects of the time, if they can be researched based on the distribution of grave goods, materiality, energy expenditure in grave goods and tomb construction, body positions, variation, agency and formation of groups.
Nigel Strudwick
University of Memphis, Memphis (United States of America/United Kingdom)
The robbery of Theban Tombs: an introduction and the example of TT99
Much of my research over the past two years has been on the practices and effects of the robbery of the Theban tombs, both in ancient and modern times. This research came about directly as part of the writing-up of the fieldwork on the tomb of Senneferi (TT99). Research has shown much about the mechanics and differing aims of robbery at the different periods; for the ancient robbers, I have also looked at the social and economic implications of the later New Kingdom robberies on West Bank society.
This paper takes these results and applies them to TT99. Senneferi and members of his family were buried in three chambers at the end of a 20m long corridor accessed from a 15m deep vertical shaft in the courtyard. I will examine the occupants of the chamber, and consider on how many separate occasions the tomb was opened in the 18th dynasty. Evidence for openings of the tomb for robbery in the remainder of the New Kingdom will be considered.
The chambers were then likely to have remained without further significant disturbance until the arrival of European explorers, when burials were (re-)robbed in the hunt for antiquities. The final ingress into the tomb before the arrival of the University of Cambridge Mission in 1992 was probably that of Robert Mond in 1903, and the extent to which he undertook work in these chambers will be discussed. Particular attention is paid to the likely level of disturbance to the burials each time, and how considerable quantities of broken limestone debris found their way into chambers some 20m from the vertical shaft.
Wael Sherbiny
Independant scholar, Leuven (Belgium)
The earliest source with the so-called Book of Two Ways as a coffin-floorboard decoration fRom the early Middle Kingdom
The so-called Book of Two Ways, a term coined by the German Earl Schack-Schackenburg in the beginning of the last century, is an intriguing composition combining both texts and iconography mainly attested on the insides of the governors’ and elite’s coffins that come from Deir El Barsha (which is the modern name of the cemetery of the famous Hermopolitan nome in Middle Egypt). Although some segments of the textual and pictorial material are attested in other provinces and on other media (weather from the Middle Kingdom or even as early as the Old Kingdom), the entire composition as integral and standard decoration of the coffin floorboards has not yet been occurring elsewhere. This state of affairs points to a regionally conceptualized tradition of decorating the coffins of the elite from Hermopolis. A fact that is not very much appreciated in almost all the previous studies of this composition, which usually ignore the archaeological and artistic background for the sake of the textual material.
A good example is the composition of the so-called Book of Two Ways on the floorboard of the coffin that was given the siglum B6C by the Coffin Texts editors. Only 35% of the composition attested on this coffin was published, and these were exclusively texts.
In my paper I will discuss the so-called Book of Two Ways composition on this coffin for the first time in its entirety. It will appear that this is the hitherto earliest surviving coffin with this type of floorboard decoration.
Adam Łukaszewicz
University of Warsaw, Warsaw (Poland)
Adam.Lukaszewicz@adm.uw.edu.pl
Remarks on the proskynemata in the tomb of Ramesses VI
In his paper the speaker will discuss some significant examples of wall inscriptions written in the tomb of Ramesses VI (KV 9) in the Valley of the Kings by visitors of the Greco-Roman period. At that time most Ramesside tombs in the Valley were accessible to visitors, who often wished to commemorate their visit to the syringes. They chiefly wrote in Greek. In the Roman period some Latin texts appeared, usually by officers of the Roman army. These graffiti have often a quasi-religious character of proskynemata or commemorative inscriptions of ancient pilgrims. They are important evidence of the way in which travellers understood their visit to this Egyptian monument, interpreted by the Greeks as the tomb of Memnon. The present statement is a result of works of a mission of the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology (University of Warsaw) also supported by the Foundation for Polish Science. The mission carries out a project which includes a complete documentation of graffiti in this tomb.
Asja Mueller
University of Kiel, Kiel (Germany)
Roman mummy masks in context: The reconstruction of workshop productions and distribution areas
Roman mummy masks are to be found in hundreds of antiquities’ collections from all over the world. Still, only 30 % of more than 1.600 masks worldwide come to us with reliable indications of origin. Due to our little knowledge about their archaeological sites various locations were suggested for the others, like Fayum region and Tuna el-Gebel in Middle Egypt. Some of them are even said to be from Charga or Balansura which are clearly faked indications given by antique dealers. This brings even more confusion into our picture of mummy mask production in Roman Egypt.
Therefore, my paper aims to shed new light onto the topic of the masks’ regional background. It will present methods of reconstructing workshop productions and distribution areas by drawing attention to information about pieces from well-known earlier excavations like Flinders Petrie’s diggings in the Fayum, Sami Gabra’s excavations in Tuna el-Gebel and Edouard Naville’s investigations in Deir el-Bahari. This knowledge can be enhanced by data from recent excavations in Tuna el-Gebel and Antinoopolis. For Middle Egypt even technical observations can help us to bring order into the massive production of plaster masks that originate in this region. This course of action allows us to distinguish mummy mask productions that are distinctive in material, shape, dress and decoration for a particular workshop only. Finally, we will arrive at a clear set of mask types that can be used for putting most of the pieces from illicit excavations and the art trade back into context.
Session 5: Medicine and mummy studies
Katarzyna Szymańska
University of Warsaw, Warsaw (Poland)
Radiological and histological examinations of Egyptian Mummies
Non-invasive methods of research, such as radiological examinations (e.g. radiography and computed tomography) are of great importance for the study of Egyptian mummies. Radiological researches are the most common in investigation of mummies. They give scientists essential information about injuries of a deceased, arrangement of amulets and jewellery and other ornaments located between layers of bandages.
Radiographs are creating image of the inside of a mummy by x-rays which are absorbed in the objects which are made from high atomic number materials like calcium or metal. These objects are presented on the film in white color. Another radiological examination is computed tomography (CT). It is more precise than radiography because of axial x-raying of the mummy slice by slice. Results of this examination are also very useful for facial reconstruction of the deceased. reconstruction of a deceased’s face??
Histological researches of Egyptian mummies are possible because of mummification which made soft tissues well preserved. Histology is a basic method of researching plants and animals remains and it is also used to diagnose human diseases. Scientists have to make a very thin sections of the tissues. The main two steps should be taken before the microscope analyses – rehydration and fixation of the soft tissues.
All of these methods of research give scientists information about weather conditions, season of the year a person died, diseases and even much more data. Detailed analysis of discovered material and interdisciplinary approach to study the mummies can help archaeologists to understand better Egyptian society .
Mislav Čavka
University of Zagreb, Zagreb (Croatia)
Tomislav Kelava & Boris Olujić
University of Zagreb, Zagreb (Croatia)
Homocystinuria, a Possible Explanation of the Akhenaten’s mystery
Pharaoh Amenophis IV (Amenhotep IV), also known as Akhenaten, is the most mysterious person in Egyptian history and he still remains the object of academic arguments. This revolutionary king introduced a new concept in Egyptian religion and art. It is still unexplained if images of him and his family were just an artistic outbreak from old Egyptian canon or an excellent paleopathological study. Several pathologic conditions were proposed to explain his appearance but neither is completely acceptable. We propose a different disease that he could have suffered from: homocystinuria – lack of cysthationine-β synthase. Our conclusion is that in comparison with up-to-date most convincing theory, that he was suffering of Marfan syndrome, our theory equally well explains his physical appearance but is better in explaining affecting and unaffecting of his relatives. However, the confirmation of both can be made only by DNA analysis. Still the method for DNA sampling is the subject of criticism.
Ida Ćepulić
University of Zagreb, Zagreb (Croatia)
Mislav Čavka
University of Zagreb, Zagreb (Croatia)
Boris Brkljačić
University of Zagreb, Zagreb (Croatia)
Anja Petaros
University of Rijeka, Rijeka (Croatia)
Zagreb mummy paleoradiological reappraisal
Paleoradiology was born only a few months after the discovery of X-rays, and since then it has had an important role in mummy studies. A mummy Nesi-hensu, known as the Zagreb mummy, previously dated back to 390 BC (with the possibility of mistake of +- 45 years) was subjected to radiological analysis at the University Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology at the Dubrava University Hospital, Zagreb, Croatia. Whole body digital radiographs were taken in frontal view followed by a CT scan using 16×0.75 collimation. The images were reconstructed at 1 mm section thickness and 0.7 mm reconstruction increment using a MDCT unit with 16 rows of detectors. A three dimensional MRI scan, spoiled gradient echo based ultra-short echo time sequence was performed on a 1.5 Tesla scanner. The echo time was set to 0.07 ms, repetition time to 15 ms and the flip angle to 45⁰. 40000 radial projections were used for reconstruction of 256 slices of 1.3×1.3×1.3mm3 isotropic resolution. Scans clearly showed displaced anatomical relations of many joints as well as several post-mortem fractures. A conclusion made by Plavsic in 1986 that the mummy is of an adult person who suffered from osteoarthritis has been confirmed and it is now believed that she was at least 35 years old but the cause of death was not discovered. MR, a relatevily new technique in scientific mummy studies, allowed vizualization of resin like fluids used in re-mumification during the late 1990-s. This case report once again clearly showed the usefulness of radiology in paleopathological studies and opened new perspectives in using clinical MRI in mummy studies.
Amanda-Alice Maravelia
Hellenic Institute of Egyptology, Athens (Greece)
Nikolas Bontozoglou
The Athens Medical Centre, Athens (Greece)
Stephanos Geroulanos
Onaseion Cardiological Centre & International Hippocratic Foundation, Athens (Greece)
Phillippos Koutsautis & Konstantinos Kouvaris
Forensci Authority of Athens, Athens (Greece)
Panaghiotis Lazaris & Helen Tourn
National Arhcaeological Museum of Athens, Athens (Greece)
The CT–Scanning Project of the Hellenic Institute of Egyptology: Archaeological & Forensic Study of the 9 Ptolemaic Mummies from Panopolis at the Premises of the National Archaeological Museum in Athens
This paper resumes the 1st part of the CT–Scanning Project of the Hellenic Institute of Egyptology (that started c. ten years ago) and discusses the 2nd part of this same Project. Our Forensic Project is related to the complete and precise study of 9 anthropoid sarcophagi and their mummies, dating from the Ptolemaic Period and kept at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. The Egyptian Collection of the National Archaeological Museum (re–opened in 2008 with an exhibition of more than 1200 objects of the more than 7000 owned) keeps most of its riches well hidden in the Museum’s storerooms. Among those, we have managed to rediscover some Ptolemaic Period coffins with their mummies. All these particular anthropoid sarcophagi have been published (only with very short descriptions and trials to read the inscriptions) in the Hellenic language in a rather elementary and concise way (with some erroneous points) more than a century ago by Tasos Neroutsos (Neroutsos, 1884). That author was a medical doctor who lived in Alexandria. Since then the coffins have fallen into oblivion, have never been exhibited in the Museum’s showrooms (except one), and nobody else since the late Neroutsos cared to study them accurately. Now after so many years elapsed, a new generation of well–qualified Egyptologists, with the Museum’s collaboration, try to bring into light these forgotten and more or less unknown finds. These coffins have been discovered in Egypt (in Panopolis, modern Akhmim) and were donated to the Hellenic Government during the late 19th century by wealthy patriots who lived there. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the presence and importance of these forgotten mummies and to present a complete and precise archaeological and forensic study of these 9 sarcophagi, dating from the Ptolemaic Period. These anthropoid coffins and their hieroglyphic inscriptions were thoroughly examined and published by Maravelia & Kladaki, 2004, and by Maravelia, 2005 (respectively). The 2nd and final part of this project includes the medical, anthropological, anatomical and histological examination of the mummies (a rather statistically complete archaeo–anthropological set, including human remains of various ages and of both genders), using modern forensic and CT–Scanning mapping techniques. This is currently about to start and will be performed by the aforementioned persons. In this paper we are going to discuss the overall project, emphasizing on the forensic part and commenting on the preliminary results. At the final stage of our Egyptological–Forensic Project we are willing to reconstruct the faces of some of the mummies, as they were in life, most probably of the noble dancing–priestess of Min (ixbt nt Mnw) whose name was Takheredmenu (&3-Xrd-Mnw, AIG 3348), of Apion (@py, AIG 3340) and finally of the young boy Sekhem (%xm, AIG 3344).
Session 6: Material culture and Museum studies
Susanna Moser
Civico Museo di Storia ed Arte, Trieste (Italy)
The Egyptian collection at the Civico Museo di Storia ed Arte of Trieste: its history and some highlights
The Civico Museo di Storia ed Arte in Trieste hosts an Egyptian collection which includes more than 1000 objects, some of them rare or unique. Unique is also its history, because the collection was not formed through the acquisition of a single private collection or through excavations in Egypt, but through many donations or sales by citizens of Trieste (of all levels of society). Among its many artefacts, noteworthy are the three wooden coffins and the two stone sarcophagi, the set of Saitic canopic jars, many shabtis and a winged scarab made of cartonnage. Thanks to the investigations made in view of the publication of the scientific catalogue (published in 2013), some new discoveries have been made.
Stefania Minieri
University of Naples “L’Orientale”, Naples (Italy)
Excavation in Archive: the Borgia Egyptian Collection of the MANN
As a part of my PhD project on the Egyptian Collection of National Archaeological Museum of Naples (MANN) I am carrying on a thorough study on its history through archival documents from museums and libraries in Italy and abroad. I am focusing especially on the Stefano Borgia Collection, one of two major groups of Egyptian Collection of the MANN, sold by Camillo Borgia to Gioacchino Murat in 1815.
The consultation, the study and comparing all the documents – mainly the original and unpublished catalogues of Zoega kept in Copenhagen and Velletri and the drawings of some finds found in the Thorvaldsen Museum – provided new and significant information on the finds. This allowed me to identify in some cases their provenance both from 18th and 19th century excavations in Italy (Villa di Adriano in Tivoli or San Paolo Fuori le Mura) and from the old market of antiquities, and to reconstruct the history and the scattering of the Egyptian Collection not only during the transfer from Velletri to Naples but also in the Bourbon Museum itself for internal move of finds in other collections during the 19th century.
Joanna Dębowska-Ludwin
Jagiellonian University, Cracow (Poland)
How close the relation was? Egyptian and Levantine building traditions in the 4th millennium B.C.
Recent research conducted at Tell el-Farkha in Egypt and Tel Erani in Israel, two archaeological sites which were extensively used during the 4th millennium BC and preserved important evidence of early Egyptian-Levantine contacts, bring to light new data on beginnings of building traditions inboth regions. Results of ongoing excavation projects on the sites give new insight into structures characteristic of each of the cultural contexts, but they also bring some unexpected discoveries of buildings which do not exactly fit into the typical local tradition.
Elements such as organization of a Lower Egyptian culture’s settlement and rounded corners in monumental early Egyptian architecture, known from Tell el-Farkha, have their equivalents in typical Levantine traditions. On the other hand monumental city wall from Tel Erani, was constructed only of Egyptian-like small in size bricks, in a technology very similar to genuine Egyptian, while the most typical for the Levant was building in stone or at least with some stone elements.
Having in hand results of the most recent works at both sites, we will focus on buildings with such unusual features and explore the idea of cooperation between these distant cultures reflected by particular technical ideas traveling from one destination to the other, where they were adopted, developed and incorporated into local traditions. We will try to find the answer to the question how deeply the cultures were related if they allowed themselves to influence each other.
Johannes Auenmüller
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Bonn (Germany)
Johannes.Auenmueller@uni-bonn.de
New Insights into Late Period Bronze Casting: the workshop materials from the Qubbet el-Hawa necropolis
The Egyptian Museum of Bonn University (Germany) houses a unique collection of Bronze casting workshop materials from the Qubbet el-Hawa necropolis opposite of modern Aswan. They were discovered in 1969 by members of the Bonn excavation team under Prof. Elmar Edel in tomb QH 207. This tomb dates back to the end of the Old Kingdom. It was reused during the Late Period for several burials of members of the local Elephantine priesthood. The said artefacts belong to the latest burial (‘Bestattung 1’), but their specific archaeological context has not been recorded in detail. Nevertheless, they enable Egyptologists and natural scientists alike to thoroughly study the technology of Bronze casting in the late Period using a wide range of modern methods of analysis. The artefacts display the complete Bronze casting process, starting with the preparation of wax models to the finished god’s bronze. They especially shed new light on the technology and material composition of the casting moulds which were unknown up to now. After introducing the artefacts, the paper will focus on the results of the scientific analyses and imaging methods which have been applied (Micro-CT, metal analysis, analysis of the organic material, thin sections of casting mould material etc) and their potential.
Steven Snape
Liverpool University, Liverpool (United Kingdom)
Ramesside Appropriations of Ancient Memphis
This paper explores some of the ways in which the monumental environment of New Kingdom (specifically Ramesside) Memphis was influenced by an appreciation of the city’s ancient past. It will particularly consider the extent to which non-royal individuals were able to create physical expressions of their interest in a cultural milieu which blended contemporary concerns with a personally-relevant interest in the Old and Middle Kingdoms.
Magdalena Sobas
Jagiellonian University, Cracow (Poland)
Decorated pottery of Protodynastic and Early Dynastic periods at Tell el-Farkha (the Western Kom), Egypt
Although the Proto- and Early Dynastic periods were not very rich in decorated pottery, they provided vessels with diverse patterns. Of decorative elements we can distinguish: pottery with painted decoration, pottery decorated with perforation, impression and incision, modeled design, the so-called potmarks, modelled or impressed decorative band, rope band pattern, pottery with a row of half-bow and foreign pottery. On the Western Kom at Tell el-Farkha, vessels which are partly covered with such designs, are mostly fragmentarily preserved. Some entire vessels are also recognized but in very limited quantity.
Mladen Tomorad
University of Zagreb, Zagreb (Croatia)
Shabtis in private and museum collections in Croatia: typological study
In this paper the author will preset museum and private collection of shabtis in Croatia, and their dating according to the typological study of these artefacts.
In ten museums and four private collections in Croatia at least 377 shabtis and pseudoshabtis are housed. Most of them date to the Pharaonic periods of Ancient Egypt (cca. 350), but also 27 shabtis and 3 pseudo-shabtis were unearthed during excavations in the territory of the former Roman provinces of Dalmatia and Pannonia (today in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina). These shabtis were usually associated with the diffusion of the Egyptian cults during the Graeco-Roman eras (ca 4th century BC to 3rd century AD). The largest collection of shabtis is held in the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb (312). They were gathered/obtained over an extended period, from 1865 to the present times, from various sources, but most are of unknown provenance. They were produced between the Middle Kingdom (inv. no. E-310) and the early Roman period (cca. 1st-2nd c. A.D.). Analysis showed that all shabtis are genuine and that almost all known types and forms of shabtis can be found in Croatian collections.
Dan Augustine Deac
Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca (Romania)
Shabtis from the Danubian Roman limes
Some of the most interesting artefacts found the area of the Danubian Roman limes are the shabti statuettes, which were discovered in different archaeological contexts. These artefacts were found in the settlements from the provinces of Pannonia, Dacia and Moesia but also in the Barbaricum. The shabties were manufactured in a quite wide segment of time stretching from the Late Period to the Roman era and only a part of them were local products.The presentation will try to focus on the functional aspects, the perception of this type of statuettes, the reason why they are found in the area and finally the connection of shabties with the Isiac cults in the above-mentioned area.
Magdalena Kazimierczak
Jagiellonian University, Cracow (Poland)
magdakazimierczak@poczta.onet.pl
Settlement pottery from THE Old Kingdom period at Tell
el-Murra trench T5
The site of Tell el-Murra, situated in the north-eastern part of the Nile Delta, has been excavated by the Polish Archaeological Expedition of the Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University from Cracow since 2008. Excavations, which have been carried out annually since 2010, revealed settlement layers containing Predynastic (Lower Egyptian Culture), Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom (until the 6th Dynasty) pottery.
During five excavation seasons conducted at Tell el-Murra, work was focused among others in trench T5, located in the north-east part of the tell, where the settlement remains with high amount of storage facilities were found.
The main purpose of this paper is to present pottery, which occur at Tell el-Murra trench T5, inside and around settlement structures. The study of the pottery allow us to determine chronology settlement complex, date it to the Old Kingdom period and define more precise chronological relations between different structures. Among the pottery assemblage we can distinguish forms of vessels typical for the beginning as well as for the later part of the Old Kingdom period. I will attempt to compare and show changes in pottery material from two mentioned general periods and point out the connection between some forms of vessels and presumable function of the structure, in which they were found.
The ceramic material from Tell el-Murra trench T5 has analogy at other sites: mastabas from the Old Kingdom, tombs from Middle and Upper Egypt, as well as in settlement context, among others in Buto, Elephantine, Giza, Abydos, Saqqara, Tarkhan, Meidum, Elkab.
Valentina Gasperini
University of Liverpool, Liverpool (United Kingdom)
Valentina.Gasperini@liverpool.ac.uk
Nicky Nielsen
University of Liverpool, Liverpool (United Kingdom)
N.Nielsen@student.liverpool.ac.uk
A Preliminary Report on New Ceramic Fabric Types from Zawiyet Umm el-Rakham
The University of Liverpool has excavated the 19th Dynasty fort of Zawiyet Umm el-Rakham for over twenty years. Situated 300 km west of Alexandria, excavations of the fort have revealed an extensive provisioning area as well as several religious structures (a temple and chapels). Other prominent discoveries from the site include significant quantities of imported ceramics from the Eastern Mediterranean (the Aegean and the Levant).
Recent research into the Egyptian-style ceramics from the provisioning area (Area K) has stressed the reliance of the garrison on pottery production using local resources as opposed to import of vessels from the Nile Valley. Portable X-Ray Fluorescence analysis – by which the mineral composition of a substance can be determined – has resulted in the discovery of three new local fabrics, which cannot be ascribed to the existing framework of Nile and Marl fabrics used in the field of Egyptian Ceramic Studies. Furthermore, pXRF analysis was also conducted on a selection of the imported Aegaean wares with the aim of ascribing them to a specific production area outside Egypt.
The presentation will focus on these new fabrics, as well as the methodological strategies, which allowed them to be identified. A preliminary corpus of the pottery shapes from Area K and the imported Mycenaean and Canaanite vessel types will also be presented.
Karolina Rosinska-Balik
Jagiellonian University, Cracow (Poland)
Reed as an indispensable material for Egyptians
Centuries of research on Egyptian history, art and everyday life have shown us how fascinating and well-developed was this culture. Many books on architecture were written describing materials and techniques, as well as construction of buildings. Added to that, pottery, both simple cooking and more fancy shaped, appears as well-known with its typologies and classifications. Last but not least the Afterlife beliefs from all dynasties and even before are relatively well understood. However, there is one thing, simple material, and in studies of which all these disciplines of our knowledge about ancient Egyptians meet.
Everywhere along the Nile river and since the very beginning of the history this material was present. It was so commonly used because it was the easiest to acquire from the natural surroundings. Moreover, its processing seems to be very easy and possibly everybody was able to work with it. The subject we would like to explore in detail is the art of plaiting. In every single household the results of basketwork were present and represented by many different objects. The most common were baskets and other containers used in every-day-life activities, but also as grave goods. Another example is mat frequently present in households and in pre- and early dynastic graves, and even further in the history of Egypt. Unfortunately, from the earliest periods we deal almost exclusively with impressions of this object survived on less vulnerable materials but as we think we can find many interesting answers concerning this subject and bring the perishable world of plaiting back.
Session 7: Egyptomania, Travellers
Joyce Tyldesley
Manchester University, Manchester (United Kingdom)
joyce.tyldesley@manchester.ac.uk
Wonderful Things: Thematic Transmission in Egyptian Revival Jewellery
The West has long been fascinated by the art and culture of ancient Egypt. This fascination has peaked at times of significant contact, such as Napoleon’s 1798 conquest of Egypt, the 1822 decoding of the hieroglyphic script, and the 1922 discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb. The “Egyptomania” of these times was directly reflected in the production of Egyptian-style architecture, furniture and fashions, including hairstyles, clothing and accessories. Egyptian-style jewellery – some pieces faithfully replicating original antiques, but most simply incorporating Egyptian themes – became increasingly popular and, thanks to ever-improving manufacturing techniques, increasingly available to the general public.
This lecture will identify and explore themes in the design of Egyptian-style jewellery from the 19th and 20th Centuries.
Joško Belamarić
Institute for Art History, Zagreb-Split, (Croatia)
The afterlife of the sphinxes in Diocletian’s Palace in Split
The Split sphinxes (12 of them found so far) were mutilated, if not completely destroyed, in a vengeance on the memory of Diocletian. The Egyptian sphinx on the Peristyle of the emperor’s palace became an important part of the local medieval imagery. During the centuries it remained something beyond the trivial everyday life, a kind of arbiter of historical events, the absolute point of introspection of those living within the palace and prospection of all those who came to study Diocletian’s buildings.
Anne Haslund Hansen
Nationalmuseet, Kopenhagen (Denmark)
Actors, agents, artefacts – collecting during the Arabian Voyage 1761-1767
This paper offers a complete overview of the largely unknown Egyptian collection from the Arabian Voyage 1761-1767 – a Danish scientific expedition to the Near East. The objects, which are today in the National Museum of Denmark, consist primarily of mummies and funerary objects. The diaries and documents pertaining to the voyage deliver a number of details regarding the acquisition of the artefacts and to the mechanisms of the antiquities market in Egypt in the 1760s. The sole survivor of the expedition, Carsten Niebuhr (1733-1815), made use of some of the objects for his travel account “Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien” from 1774, today a classic of its kind.
Carlo Rindi Nuzzolo
Monash University, Melbourne (Australia/Italy)
Irene Guidotti
Monash University, Melbourne (Australia/Italy)
FOLLOWING THE TRACES OF GIUSEPPE AND AMALIA NIZZOLI:
PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF A RECENT INVESTIGATION
The Chancellor of the Austrian Consulate in Egypt, Giuseppe Nizzoli, and his wife Amalia Sola represent two prominent personalities who largely contributed to the history of Egyptology: they sold a remarkable number of collections and left an important book of Memories of those years in Egypt. Neverthless, they are frequently neglected in Egyptological studies and several aspects of their life still lie in the dark. Since 2008, the present authors have started a long-term project of re-investigation of these two personalities, following their footsteps in Italy and abroad.
The authors of the paper will take the opportunity to disclose the results of this project, presenting important details concerning the deceased’s professional and private lives.
Danijel Rafaelić
University of Zagreb, Zagreb (Croatia)
Nazi film propaganda and Ancient Egypt
From the moment Nazis seized the power in 1933., the cinematic imagery of ancient Egypt was constantly used. Whether in feature, documentary and/or the so-called „kultur films,“ ancient Egyptian topics on the silver screen were often present. Question is – what was the purpose? On the one hand, German government needed an Arab ally and the modern Egypt of the thirties surely was one of the best candidates. On the other hand, ancient Egyptian culture was used tho demonstrate, on several occasions, the alleged supremacy of an Aryan race. Series of films produced from that era preserved not only ideas and the ideology of Nazi Germany but, very often, it preserved the only existing footage of the artefacts that were stored in the Berlin’s Egyptian museum that were later destroyed in the Allied bombings. Samples of that footage will be presented during the lecture.
Session 8: Historical studies
Jean-Pierre Pätznick
Sorbonne – Paris IV, Paris (France)
MERETNEITH
“Princess, Queen, Regent and … first woman pharaoh?”
Daughter of the Horus Djer, royal wife of Horus Ouadji, mother of Oudou-in-Hor (ex Horus Den), was the first to bear the title of – Royal Mother. As his grandmother, the great queen Neithhotep, she was wearing his own “name of Neith” in the frame of a serekh which was overtopped with the sign of the goddess Neith whereas the sovereigns of the early dynastic period used the heraldic horian god to transcribe their own “names of Horus”.
Her power was such that she got all the royal prerogatives. She was the only female member of the royal family to have possessed a whole funeral cultic architectural ensemble of importance – the high complex (Y) and the low one in the valley – in the same way as her royal predecessors in the royal necropolis – in Abydos, as well as an impressive tomb mastaba S 3503 in the north necropolis of Saqqâra. As a great privilege due to her uncommon rank and her functions of sovereign, a statue of the god baboon, Hedj-our, the ancestor of the kings by excellence, has been engraved with her name.
Never a woman had been so royally treated by the immediate royal successor.
The reconsideration of epigraphical elements from the burial complex of Oudou-in-Hor (ex Horus Den) at Abydos and the underground galleries of the pyramid of Horus Netjerikhet “Djoser” in Saqqâra has led to propose a reconsideration of the order of succession of the sovereigns of the 1st dynasty which highlights the position of the recognized sovereign that this woman with a destiny outside standard had innate before her memory was eradicated by her successors.
Historical character of exception, having lived long enough to impose her seal to an entire era, it is no doubt that this type of woman and sovereign may have been at the origin of women pharaohs like Sobeknofru and Hatshepsut Mâatkarê or queens like Ahhotep I and Ahmose Nofretari in the history of pharaonic Egypt.
Francis Lankester
Independant scholar (United Kingdom)
Creating ‘The Cosmic King’: The Politics Of Fashioning The Early Egyptian Absolute Ruler
In the Early Dynastic Period Egyptian ‘court ideologues’ drew on established iconography on rock-art, knife handles and palettes to show the ruler’s power of/over wild animals. He, as The Living Horus (falcon),was thus able to dominate his enemies and the forces threatening Egypt – foreign or natural,. The King was established as essential in maintaining cosmic balance through a system of mainly artificial dualities, and rendered unaccountable to anyone.
A thin administrative system reduced necessary staff to a minimum with plantation-like estates extracting revenue, run and inspected by officials buried at the centre to prevent development of local loyalties. Royal projects and taxation were gradually increased in scale while, as peasant farmers engaged in transparent local basin flood-recession agriculture, the mass of the population could be controlled through local headmen and a biannual royal progress – the Following of Horus. Probably undertaken on board a boat, it kept the King physically apart from humanity while projecting his power. Regular visits to temples to consecrate statues of the gods, ceremonial planning and dedications of temples, tombs and ritual enclosures reinforced this.
Periodic, carefully choreographed, ‘appearances’ at festivals such as the Heb Sed drew in the elite, emphasising the ruler’s unique support by the gods, his personal divinity and cosmic significance. Access to him was tightly controlled with government run through a small group of cohesive royal relatives in turn totally reliant on the King’s will for position and provision for the afterlife, tying members of the elite into an absolutist ideological system.
Gavin Smith
Independent scholar (United Kingdom)
Vice and Violence: Creating the Egyptian predynastic state under duress and by dubious means
Coercion and force are forms upon which the formation of the state in predynastic Egypt was created within the Nile Valley basin and Sahara. Vice and violence were used to cajole and coerce the non-stratified population into submission. Vice or immoral behaviour (distinctly sexual in nature) was used to manipulate the population by deliberately undermining their psychological disposition by installing the threat of fear as part of their worldview. The mere threat of supernatural violence and/or retribution placed those in charge in a position of power by the virtue of acting as the interlocutor between the supernatural and real worlds assuming a position of balancing those powerful forces by visual and linguistic dubious means.
These dubious means were propagated in forms already known to us all – the ceramics, the extant stone monuments, the tombs, the rock carvings and the personal adornments. There is a clear connection between vice as sexually explicit supernatural content used as social demarcation through the process of death. The content contained a degree of latent violence which frightened the lesser occupants of the demographic into submission and suppliance while at the same time misguiding their belief that they were intrinsically equal with their masters. This was not a process that was instantaneous; it was constructed over time and deliberately so; shaped to have the impact its advocates desired. Because of this, the forms, once solidified, remained distinct for millennia after their first appearence. An outwardly homogenous society with an inwardly heterogenous form.
Agnieszka Mączyńska
Poznanń Archaeological Museum, Poznań (Poland)
agnieszka.maczynska@muzarp.poznan.pl
The Neolithic period in Lower Egypt – rethinking the old ideas
In the archaeology of Lower Egypt the term Neolithic is used to encompass the period when the first farming and animal breeding societies appeared in the Nile Delta. Undoubtedly a new form of subsistence is the main factor distinguishing this period from the preceding Epipalaeolithic. Additional aspects of the Lower Egyptian Neolithic include the introduction of pottery and sedentary lifestyle. However, the emergence of the first agricultural communities in Lower Egypt has still not been fully explained and it needs a detailed study. Although archaeological data from this early period are scarce, and they come in large part from excavations started in the first part of the 20th century, the research on the Neolithic societies in Lower Egypt appears to have great significance for the understanding of the development of the whole Egyptian civilization from the 6th millennium BC to the emergence of the Egyptian state at the end of the 4th and in the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. This presentation focuses on some problems in the research on this period: artificial cultural divisions, origins of farming and breading, and relations of Lower Egypt with Southern Levant and Upper Egypt.
Arkadiy Demidchik
Novosibirsk State University & Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University, Novosibirsk (Russia)
Merikare Khety– the Sixth King of the Heracleopolitan Royal House
The widespread opinion that Merikare was the penultimate or even the last ruler of the Heracleopolitan Monarchy is based on a false presumption: contrary to the assertion by W. Schenkel, the phonetic change w > y, found in the inscriptions of Merikare’s nomarch Khety II of Asyut, first appeared in writing not in the reign of Nebhapetre Mentuhotep, but actually as early as under dynasty VI. Therefore it cannot prove that Merikare “wird also in die frühe Zeit des ersten Mentuhotep gehören”. The paper presents the theory of Merikare’s being the sixth Heracleopolitan king (the Turin Cannon, IV. 24), who ascended throne about half a century before the Heracleopolitans were overthrown by Mentuhotep I. The father of Merikare managed to restore the capital back to Memphis, and therefore later was at times considered the founder of a new, the “Xth”, dynasty with his four purely Heracleopolitan predecessors forming “dynasty IX”. The comparatively large number of Merikare’s mortuary priests known today bears evidence to a long duration of his cult in Saqqara. On the stela of Sebekuseri from Matariya, the name “Merikare” was erased, most likely in the days of Nebhapetre Mentuhotep’s victorious offensive. Thus the time span between the latter’s victory and the birth of Sebekuseri “in the era of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt [Merikare]” must have been an entire human life.
Alexander Ilin-Tomich
Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow (Russia)
Regional Administration in Late Middle Kingdom Egypt: from
a negative towards a positive definition
The most prominent feature of the Late Middle Kingdom regional administration is that it was no longer the same as in the Early Middle Kingdom. The disappearance of richly decorated rock-tombs of local potentates (and hence of virtually all written sources for the study of the local administration) has been the subject of numerous analyses in Egyptological literature.
The aim of the present paper is to discuss positive evidence on the Late Middle Kingdom regional administration derived from the author’s studies on sources attributable to certain regions (primarily Thebes and Antaeopolis) through personal names, artistic and epigraphic features.
The administration of Late Middle Kingdom Antaeopolis, as revealed by the study of Abydene stelae attributable to its dwellers, largely preserves the structure of Early Middle Kingdom governor courts known from other Middle Egypt with the central figure of the governor and overseer of god’s servants being encircled by lesser officials such as “deputy governor,” “custodian of clothes,” “overseer of fields,” and “treasurers.”
The Theban administration on the contrary shows an example of a reformed local administration strikingly differing from its Early Middle Kingdom antecedents. No longer had the same person combined the functions of the head of local administration and of the supreme priest. The “god’s servants of Amun” (or of the corresponding local deity in other towns) emerged as the top religious administrators, and the new top office of local civil administration was that of the reporter. Elements of the same reformed structure are observable in other contemporary regional centers.
Nenad Marković
University of Belgrade, Belgrade (Serbia)
On the top of the world: the family of king Amasis at Memphis
Usurpation of general Amasis in 570 BC marked a clear political and ideological break within the ruling family from Sais. Amasis’ origin is largely unknown: Herodotus (II 172) claims that he was from the Saite nome. Indeed, part of his mother’s sarcophagus was found at Al-Mahallah al-Kubra in the middle of the Nile Delta and presumably was quarried from the city of Sais itself. After the victory, Amasis chose the city of Memphis, Apries’ former stronghold, as permanent royal residence. Therefore, his family seems to have been closely attached to Memphis as evidenced by numerous monuments they left in the area. Amasis’ heir, Psamtek III, was born from the union with a lady Tanetkheta of the Memphite origin; Tanetkheta’s father, Padineith, held higher positions within the Ptah priesthood’s hierarchy. Further, king’s other known wives, Khedebneithiretbinet, presumably a daughter of king Apries, and Nekhetbastetru of unknown origin, mother of two other known king’s sons (Amasis-sa-neith and Pasenenkhonsu), were buried in the Memphite necropolis: the former at Saqqara, within the tomb of an Amasis’ high official (Psamtek), the latter at Giza, together with her son Amasis-sa-neith, within the tomb of a mysterious lady Tasherientaihet. Also, Psamtek III and Pasenenkhonsu actively participated in the burial ceremonies for the sacred Apis bull. This paper aims to track down all known members of king Amasis’ family, to propose identification of Psamtek III’s wife and daughter, and to investigate the activities of royal family at Memphis in the context of historical developments of the epoch.
Eva Katarina Glazer
University of Zagreb, Zagreb (Croatia)
Egypt and the southern Levant nomadic populations: the dynamics of relations during Late Bronze/Early Iron Age
The Late Bronze/Early Iron Age transitional period was a complex and diverse period marked by many changes in the political and social structures of the ancient Near Eastern societies. Production and trade in copper and bronze marked the rise of strong and powerful societies in the Bronze Age. Egypt developed a high degree of centralization in the production of copper and bronze goods and in some instances in their importation as well. Egyptian involvement in the southern Levant is well known from textual evidence, but the character of relations must be explained by analytical methodology of comparison of all of the available data: Egyptian documents, Biblical accounts, archaeological and environmental data. In the context of Egyptian mining interests in southern Levant textual evidence points to a pastoral nomadic population. Several archaeological investigations support the notion that the region was occupied by pastoral nomadic societies. In what way did the pastoral nomadic populations affect Egyptian interests? Was the nomadic population related to the production and trade of metal? How did the environmental conditions affect trade? These are just some of the questions that can be raised. This paper will provide several models of explanation and better insight into the dynamic of relations between Egypt and nomadic populations of southern Levant in the Late Bronze/Early Iron Age.
Session 9: Archaeology and excavations
Natalia Małecka-Drozd
Jagiellonian University, Cracow (Poland)
Storage and distribution – the case of the Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom siloo facilities in the light of the new discoveries
One of the manifestations of evolution in pharaonic economic system could be the diversity of sizes and architectural forms of storage facilities as well as their place within settlement tissue. Fortunately, since several settlements dating to the IIIrd millenium BC have been excavated over the past decades, new information on the spatial arrangements and development of the settlement architecture were provided. This also applies the archaeological evidences for variety of such facilities like simply resource pits, free standing silos’ or granaries and magazines quarters within larger building complexes.
Circular structures discovered recently at Tell el-Murra, eastern Nile Delta, as well as similar remains known from other localities like Tell el-Farkha, Kom el-Hisn or Tell Edfu, have been identified as subsequent forms of those facilities. Their differentiation and chronological variability allow to ask questions about possibility of changes in approach to the problem of food storing in the IIIrd millenium BC.
The aim of this paper is to present different types of Egyptian storage facilities as well as their functional and architectural evolution during the Early Dynastic and the Old Kingdom periods. Wether these typological differences are related to the purpose of individual structures or their chronology? Are we able to identify the origin of particular storage systems? What kind of information on the ancient agrarian economy can we get based on changes of those facilities form and location? Where those changes related to official government policy? What is the relationship between archaeological evidences from particular sites and iconography?
Suzanne Onstine
University of Memphis, Memphis (United States of America)
The University of Memphis mission to Theban tomb 16
Since 2008, the University of Memphis has been investigating various aspects of TT16, a Ramesside era tomb belonging to a man named Panehsy and his wife Tarenu who were both attached to the cult of Amun. Panehsy was also a priest of the deified Amenhotep I. Aspects of the tomb’s decoration will be presented. The results of four seasons of excavation in the tomb will also be discussed. Clearance has yielded mostly unstratified human remains pillaged by looters in the recent past. The burial equipment left behind consists of small broken fragments of coffins and cartonnage, broken shabtis, and pottery. Judging from these objects we can say that the tomb was reused starting from the Third Intermediate Period through the Hellenistic or early Roman period. Examination of the fragmentary human remains has presented some interesting aspects of embalming practices as well as a wealth of information on the health of the Theban population in the first millennium BCE.
Wojciech Ejsmond
University of Warsaw, Warsaw (Poland)
Julia Chyla, Marzena Ożarek–Szilke, Daniel Takács,Dawid F. Wieczorek & Piotr Witkowski
University of Warsaw, Warsaw (Poland)
Results of Recent Archaeological Research at Gebelein
Gebelein is an area where nearly all kinds of archaeological sites dated to all periods of Egyptian history are represented. It was an important centre in history of ancient Egypt, but despite an early date of the initial research at the end of the 19th century, the site complex is still poorly known.
In 2013 an archaeological and epigraphic survey was initiated, resulting in the documentation of antiquities dated to different periods, e.g. various tombs, a speos dated to the New Kingdom and many graffiti. Analysis of documentation from previous excavations and recently gained data helped in the understanding of not fully published research results from the beginning of the 20th century. Studies on objects which came from Gebelein or are attributed to the place indicate that it was an important political centre, probably capital of a Predynastic proto-state and an important administrative centre during the Old Kingdom. The aim of the paper is to present results of recent field works at Gebelein, as well as studies on the artefacts from the site complex.
Afifi Rohim
Ministry of Antiquieties, Cairo (Egypt)
Rediscover and reassemble the second solar boat of Khufu
Second solar boat of the King Khufu
The precise history and function of the Giza solar boats has puzzled Egyptologists and Historians since their discovery. Some Egyptologists have called the ship a solar Braque, a ritual vessel designed to ferry the resurrected King with the sun god Ra across the heavens, others assert that it was a funerary barge to carry the body of the King to Giza for a burial. In 1987, National Geographic recorded footage inside the closed boat pit at the Giza plateau which showed that the remaining disassembled boat was badly in need of urgent conservation treatment and repair. In 2009 The Supreme Council of Antiquities and Waseda University from Japan launched a joint mission to restore and reassemble the second Khufu boat. This lecture will showcase the current work of Egyptian and Japanese Archaeologists as they attempt to re-discover, restore and re-assemble the second Khufu’s solar boat. This remarkable vessel is the last remaining solar boat requiring reassembly within Egypt, making this project a once in a lifetime opportunity for the team. What successes have been reported this season? What problems and difficulties will the team face in subsequent seasons? How do they plan to make the boat sail again?
This lecture will present the results of five seasons of work and outline the methodology required for the safe removal and restoration of this remarkable vessel.
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