What is the Tekenu? What was its function? What are its origins? These are questions upon which Egyptologists have long pondered. However, Egyptologists, until now, have avoided any major work on the topic. Previous treatments of the Tekenu largely adopt a selective approach focusing on a specific form. Rarely has the Tekenu been examined profoundly in all of its forms or contexts with its possible origins commented upon merely in passing. The aim of The Tekenu and Ancient Egyptian Funerary Ritual is to provide a provocative examination and interpretation of the Tekenu in an endeavour to proffer plausible answers hitherto eluding scholars. Attested from the Fifth Dynasty until, and including the Saite Period, the Tekenu is a puzzling icon which is depicted within the funerary scenes in the tombs of some ancient Egyptian nobles. In this work four distinct types of Tekenu are identified and classified and then a Corpus Catalogue is formed. The Tekenu is appraised within the context of the wall scene. Two tombs are dealt with in greater detail.

When dealing with Egyptian backgrounds and allusions to Egyptian documents and practices in the Hebrew Bible, scholars have tended to draw on Egyptian records dating to the second millennium BCE. Yet, in the field of ancient Near Eastern studies, most of these biblical texts are considered to be compositions dating to the subsequent millennium. Volume 18 of the Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections presents the proceedings of a workshop held at the University of Lausanne on April 22-23, 2015, to explore the Egypt-Bible interface within this chronological constraint, and methodological ones as well. Focusing on sources of first millennium BCE rather those of the periods in which the authors of the biblical texts set the events has generated new lines of interrogation revolving around questions of transmission and reception rather than on the historical background of the events themselves. How Egyptian traditions might find their way into the written tradition of ancient Israel and Judah is, here, the center of the discussion. 20 illustrations, diagrams and maps, some colour.

In the winter of 1922-23 archaeologist Howard Carter and his wealthy patron George Herbert, the Fifth Earl of Carnarvon, sensationally opened the tomb of Tutenkhamen. Six weeks later Herbert, the sponsor of the expedition, died in Egypt. The popular press went wild with rumours of a curse on those who disturbed the Pharaoh's rest and for years followed every twist and turn of the fate of the men who had been involved in the historic discovery. Long dismissed by Egyptologists, the mummy's curse remains a part of popular supernatural belief. Roger Luckhurst explores why the myth has captured the British imagination across the centuries, and how it has impacted on popular culture. Tutankhamen was not the first curse story to emerge in British popular culture. This book uncovers the 'true' stories of two extraordinary Victorian gentlemen widely believed at the time to have been cursed by the artefacts they brought home from Egypt in the nineteenth century. These are weird and wonderful stories that weave together a cast of famous writers, painters, feted soldiers, lowly smugglers, respected men of science, disreputable society dames, and spooky spiritualists. Focusing on tales of the curse myth, Roger Luckhurst leads us through Victorian museums, international exhibitions, private collections, the battlefields of Egypt and Sudan, and the writings of figures like Arthur Conan Doyle, Rider Haggard and Algernon Blackwood. Written in an open and accessible style, this volume is the product of over ten years research in London's most curious archives. It explores how we became fascinated with Egypt and how this fascination was fuelled by myth, mystery, and rumour. Moreover, it provides a new and startling path through the cultural history of Victorian England and its colonial possessions.

This seventh volume of The Carlsberg Papyri is dedicated to hieratic manuscripts from the Egyptian Tebtunis temple. The Tebtunis temple library is the only ancient temple library of which substantial remains are preserved, and the immense materialestimated at several hundred manuscriptsmakes it by far the richest, single source of Egyptian literary texts. This present volume is introduced by a survey of the hieratic and hieroglyphic manuscripts from the temple library. The survey is followed by full editions of a series of religious texts: an Osiris liturgy, the Ritual of Bringing Sokar out of the Shetit (previously known only from monumental hieroglyphic versions from temples and manuscripts for funerary use), the Votive Cubit (otherwise known essentially from fragments of the original stone cubits), the Nine-Headed Bes (a parallel to the famous illustrated Brooklyn papyrus but with a fuller description of how the practitioner should proceed), and the Ritual of Opening the Mouth (on

Akhenaten, also known as Amenhotep IV, was king of Egypt during the Eighteenth Dynasty and reigned from 1375 to 1358 B.C. E. Called the "religious revolutionary," he is the earliest known creator of a new religion. The cult he founded broke with Egypt's traditional polytheism and focused its worship on a single deity, the sun god Aten. Erik Hornung, one of the world's preeminent Egyptologists, here offers a concise and accessible account of Akhenaten and his religion of light.Hornung begins with a discussion of the nineteenth-century scholars who laid the foundation for our knowledge of Akhenaten's period and extends to the most recent archaeological finds. He emphasizes that Akhenaten's monotheistic theology represented the first attempt in history to explain the entire natural and human world on the basis of a single principle. "Akhenaten made light the absolute reference point," Hornung writes, "and it is astonishing how clearly and consistently he pursued this concept." Hornung also addresses such topics as the origins of the new religion; pro-found changes in beliefs regarding the afterlife; and the new Egyptian capital at Akhetaten which was devoted to the service of Aten, his prophet Akhenaten, and the latter's family.

First published in 1988. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Pharaoh Akhenaten, who reigned for seventeen years in the fourteenth century B.C.E, is one of the most intriguing rulers of ancient Egypt. His odd appearance and his preoccupation with worshiping the sun disc Aten have stimulated academic discussion and controversy for more than a century. Despite the numerous books and articles about this enigmatic figure, many questions about Akhenaten and the Atenism religion remain unanswered. In Akhenaten and the Origins of Monotheism, James K. Hoffmeier argues that Akhenaten was not, as is often said, a radical advocating a new religion but rather a primitivist: that is, one who reaches back to a golden age and emulates it. Akhenaten's inspiration was the Old Kingdom (2650-2400 B.C.E.), when the sun-god Re/Atum ruled as the unrivaled head of the Egyptian pantheon. Hoffmeier finds that Akhenaten was a genuine convert to the worship of Aten, the sole creator God, based on the Pharoah's own testimony of a theophany, a divine encounter that launched his monotheistic religious odyssey. The book also explores the Atenist religion's possible relationship to Israel's religion, offering a close comparison of the hymn to the Aten to Psalm 104, which has been identified by scholars as influenced by the Egyptian hymn. Through a careful reading of key texts, artworks, and archaeological studies, Hoffmeier provides compelling new insights on a religion that predated Moses and Hebrew monotheism, the impact of Atenism on Egyptian religion and politics, and the aftermath of Akhenaten's reign.

With its mysterious animal gods, mummies, pyramids, ornate tombs and arcane rites, the world of the ancient Egyptians continues to fascinate us.

Religion and Magic in Ancient Egypt is the first book to provide a complete historical overview of the beliefs of this extraordinary civilization, from its earliest settlements dating back to 5000 BC, to the Roman province of the 4th century AD.

As Rosalie David's engrossing study shows, every aspect of ancient Egyptian society, from education and law to medicine, birth and death, was permeated by religion and magic, and dominated by the divine life forces of the sun and the Nile. We discover the complex and intriguing world of gods and goddesses, from Anubis the jackal-headed God of death to Tauert the hippopotamus-goddess of childbirth; the cult of sacred animals; the world of oracles and seers; temples, death rituals and the afterlife. Concluding with a glossary of pharaohs, queens and deities, and new translations of Egyptian spells, this is an essential work for all students of history and Egyptology, and an informative, entertaining read for anyone with an interest in the ancient world.  

Harsomtous est la seule divinite qui, a Dendara, soit figuree sous trois formes absolument differentes et cependant complementaires: serpent, faucon, homme. Le serpent des origines s'adjoint bientot le faucon maitre des immensites celestes; egalement devenu homme, Harsomtous englobe naturellement la royaute terrestre dans le champ de sa souverainete. Le faucon est un incarnation d'Horus, ses yeux representant le soleil et la lune, il domine le sud et le nord, l'orient et l'occident. A Dendara ou est exaltee la primaute feminine, cette royaute pluri-millenaire dont atteste le Roi-Serpent passe toutefois au deuxieme plan. Somtous, "l'unificateur du pays", apparait des l'Ancien Empire pour presider a cette fusion du Delta et de la Vallee qui constituera l'objectif politique recurrent des maitres du pays du Nil. Cependant, sa premiere representation humaine n'apparait que sous Montouhotep, un souverain qui a contribue plus qu'un autre a unir les Deux Terres.

The goddess Mut, consort of Amun-Re at Thebes, is one of the goddesses known as the "Eye of Re" that include Isis, Hathor and Bastet among others. Her temple precinct in South Karnak was a major religious site from at least the early New Kingdom through the early Roman Period, yet Mut remains relatively unknown. While badly damaged, the gate in the Mut Temple's First Pylon bears important religious texts relating to the goddess and her cult as well as remains of Ramesside scenes recarved in the Ptolemaic Period. This study of the gateway and its texts, edited by R.A. Fazzini and J. van Dijk, includes a description of the gateway's architecture (W.H. Peck), a detailed study of the figural decoration (R.A. Fazzini) and transcriptions, translations and analyses of the inscriptions (J.-C. Goyon, J. van Dijk, H. te Velde). Two appendices deal with the recarved Ramesside texts (J. van Dijk) and aspects of the goddess (J.-C. Goyon).

Les Pyramides, prodigieux monuments defiant le temps et l'espace des hauteurs, temoignent devant l'univers de l'existence immuable du vieux pays; le pharaon, protege par la pierre souveraine, gagne l'infini du ciel et repose parmi les astres. Les tombes de la Vallee des Rois sont en quelque sorte des pyramides inversees que le souverain parcourt et ou il sejourne, seul spectateur initie de ces images mysterieuses - grandioses ou terrifiantes - qui jalonnent l'espace souterrain. Les hypogees royaux, conservatoire de la quintessence theologique et astronomique egyptienne, transmettent leur message en une debauche de couleurs qui, plus encore que les hieroglyphes finement ciseles ou les silhouettes artistement esquissees, donnent acces a l'ineffable. Le pharaon quitte le sejour des vivants pour un lieu ou regne en maitre le disque rouge du Soleil de la nuit, nimbe d'une lumiere d'or qui anime dieux et genies. L'espace de quelques heures, il n'est plus l'astre de la vie terrestre; il plonge dans le monde mineral des morts et ressurgit dans celui, vegetal, des vivants. Il est conduit vers l'eternite dans l'integrite de son corps; il perpetue alors non seulement son nom et sa dynastie, mais aussi la marche du monde. Le pharaon a penetre le Grand Mystere, celui de la Premiere Fois, lors duquel l'astre igne et le limon fecondateur fusionnent et engendrent la divinite: dans l'Autre-Monde, en un cycle quotidiennement repete, Re incandescent ranime Osiris lethargique et Osiris redresse exhausse des profondeurs l'autre face de l'Ame double, Re de feu.

With few exceptions, previous research on so-called personal religion has focused on hymns preserved on stelae from Deir el-Medina. Whereas their significance as testimony of personal choice and religious belief should not be excluded, the stelae must be understood in their communal cultic context. In order to grasp individual religious practices this book seeks to broaden the scope of analysis and include the archaeological remains from the houses at Deir el-Medina. Instead of establishing individual relationships between the human and divine, it appeared that 'personal' religion sought to preserve and maintain family continuity. The ancient Egyptian concept of the continuous cycle of creation was thus appropriated at home. Whereas the king guaranteed the order of the cosmos by giving offerings to the gods in the temples, corresponding activities were performed for the well-being of the family at home.

Le site de Dendara, avec ses temples et ses dependences, est un des plus beaux et des mieux preserves de l'Egypte entiere. L'Itineraire en decrit tous les edifices en insistant particulierement sur les plafonds etoiles a sujet astronomique, l'ensemble osirien - unique dans le pays - et des multiples rituels representes, en hieroglyphes et en images, sur les parois. Celles-ci viennent d'etre restaurees par le Service des antiquites de l'Egypte et les somptueuses couleurs du passe revivent; quelque trois cents photos rendent compte de cette splendeur retrouvee.

Philae, Kom Ombo, Edfou, Esna et Dendara sont les temples de la periode greco-romaine (entre 300 av. J.-C. et 300 ap. J.-C.) les plus visites. Leurs parois sont couverts de textes, contrairement aux prestigieux sanctuaires de Karnak, de Medinet Habou ou d'Abydos, et fournissent les clefs interpretatives de ces derniers. Les hierogrammates de Ptolemee ou de Cesar ont transmis cette exegese en exploitant des archives millenaires et en poussant a ses limites extremes les possibilites quasi infinies de l'ecriture hieroglyphique. Les monuments religieux egyptiens tardifs ne seraient que d'assez lourdes masses de pierre s'ils n'entretenaient pas, par leur decor et leurs textes, le souvenir du pharaon-dieu qui, fort de sa legitimite et grace a sa double nature - divine et humaine -, perpetue la vie dans le vieux pays. Le populaire etait certes convie, en quelques rares occasions, a manifester sa piete a la fois profonde et naivement triviale; la splendeur de la conception intellectuelle, ou le divin est exalte de maniere erudite sur des murs porteurs de l'ecriture la plus subtilement suggestive, constitue cependant l'apanage exclusif des "inities dans le temple".

In the Egyptian context, what we term magic and demon, drawing on our own cultural heritage, are not seen as negative aspects of cultural practice and conceptualisation. Similarly, the Egyptian equivalents do not carry the pejorative connotations borne by the modern terms and their Greek antecedents; magic and demons can be forces for good as well as evil. Indeed, the practice of magic and the conceptualisation of personified demonic agents are central to the Egyptian understanding of the workings of the world from the very continuation of the cosmos itself down to the vicissitudes of existence faced by individuals. In particular, the broader practice of magic and articulation of the involvement of demonic agency form one of the crucial links in Ancient Egypt between individual existence on the human level and the level of nature or the cosmos, the realm of the gods. Unlike, though, the explicit recognition of the term demon in the ancient Greek language and religion, as the intermediary between god and mortals, the majority of the demonic names in the Egyptian literature do not possess an apparent ontological essence, or a clearly defined denotation. Their characteristics and role depended momentously on the verbal and performative ritual environment they were part of. The relation between the name of a demon and its cosmic-natural personification is not contradictory as it may seem, but it is closely interwoven in a well established ritual framework of words and actions.This multi-authored volume of 10 essays comprises an up-to-date authorized account of many aspects of ancient Egyptian demonology, including the multiple persona of the demonic or name vs. identity in the Egyptian formation of the demonic, nightmares and underworld demons, dream rituals and magic, categories of demonic entities and the vague distinction between the divine and the demonic in Egyptian cosmology and ritual, the theological and demonic aspects of Egyptian magic, and demons as reflections of human society. Contributors include Paul John Frandsen, Hedvig Gyory, Joachim Friedrich Quack, Yvan Koenig, Panagiotis Kousoulis, Alan Lloyd, Robert Ritner, Alessandro Roccati, Kasia Szpakowska and Penelope Wilson.

In continuation of the demotic votive inscriptions collected in Short Texts Volume I, this volume brings together some 650 demotic and Greek-demotic mummy labels. These are in principle all labels published to date, but this number also contains some fifty unpublished labels as well as some fifty of which only the Greek, not the demotic side had been published previously. Of some two-hundred labels from which the names had been excerpted for use in our onomastic repertoria, the complete text is here published for the first time. In order to enhance the usefulness of this volume, also the demotic inscriptions on mummy linen, coffins, mummy boards and mummy masks, as well as those on the containers of mummified fauna and a number of small funerary papyri are included in this volume, some 260 texts in all. Thus the funerary theme has been treated fairly completely for the demotic texts, except for the demotic funerary stelae which will make up a separate Short Texts volume of their own.The volume is of course completed by Concordances with previous editions and by full Word Indices. Five Appendices treat of various textual, onomastic and palaeographic problems chiefly concerning the mummy labels, which bring new insights in these domains for the Roman period.

English summary: This book brings together forty-seven studies by Professor Jean Yoyotte, dealing mostly with issues relating to religious thought, geography, and the history of ancient Egypt. French text. French description: Cet ouvrage reunit quarante-sept etudes du professeur Jean Yoyotte (1927-2009) dont un certain nombre de travaux publies dans des revues non egyptologiques ainsi que les comptes rendus de ses cours de l'Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, o- il enseigna comme Directeur d'etudes de 1964 a 1991 et du College de France o- il fut professeur de 1991 a 1997. Les articles reedites ici sont ceux que Jean Yoyotte avait choisis. Republies de maniere uniforme et indexes, afin d'en rendre l'usage plus commode, ils traitent pour la plupart de questions relatives a la pensee religieuse, a la geographie et a l'histoire de l'Egypte ancienne, qui, quoiqu'il s'interessa a tous les aspects de la societe egyptienne ancienne, constituent neanmoins ses sujets de recherche privilegies. Cette somme qui temoigne tant de son immense erudition et de ses multiples curiosites qu'elle revele l'enseignant hors pair qu'il etait, s'adresse tout autant aux egyptologues qu'aux specialistes des cultures du Proche-Orient ancien et du monde hellenistique et romain.

Piece unique du Departement des antiquites egyptiennes du musee du Louvre, le celebre Zodiaque de Dendara fait l'objet de la curiosite de tous depuis que, avec l'accord de Mehemet Ali, il a ete transfere en France en 1821. Insere dans le plafond d'une des chapelles consacrees a la resurrection d'Osiris, il represente une carte du ciel dont la science astronomique moderne nous montre la remarquable justesse: les savants qui ont concu, entre juin et aout 50 av. J.-C., cet extraordinaire temoignage de leurs connaissances situent Sirius, Venus ou Canope aussi precisement que les eclipses de la Lune et du Soleil. La "performance" est d'autant plus remarquable que cette configuration celeste rarissime (qui ne se reproduit que tous les millenaires et demi) coincide volontairement avec l'inauguration des lieux ou se deroule le mystere meme de la renaissance divine, le 28 decembre 47, lors d'une Pleine Lune zenithale.

Rituale gelten als zutiefst traditionell. Sie bewahren gesellschaftliche Strukturen, Mythen und uberkommene Handlungsmuster oft auch dann noch, wenn deren ursprunglicher Sinn schon langst abhanden gekommen ist. Gerade in AEgypten, wo mythenbezogene Ritualspruche uber Jahrtausende uberliefert wurden, ist dies nur allzu greifbar. Gleichzeitig ist aber auch bekannt, dass Rituale erfahrungsgesattigte, performative und kommunikative Ereignisse darstellen, die stetig verandert und an sich wandelnde Kontextfaktoren angepasst werden. Dies spiegelt sich nicht nur im Umgang mit den Ritualpraskripten und im Rahmen ihrer redaktionellen Bearbeitung in der Antike, sondern auch im archaologischen Befund wider. Insbesondere in den Nekropolen zeugen die jeweilige Anlage der Graber, ihr Dekorationsprogramm sowie eine Vielzahl von materiellen Hinterlassenschaften, die in direktem Zusammenhang mit dem Kultvollzug vor Ort standen, von der Adaption und Modifikation althergebrachter Rituale. Die Beitrage der Heidelberger Tagungsakten suchen diesen besonderen Umstanden Rechnung zu tragen und untersuchen den Umgang der Alten AEgypter mit ihren Ritualen dezidiert unter dem Gesichtspunkt der Veranderung. Dabei greifen die philologische und die archaologische Fachexpertise ineinander.

Die vorliegende Studie behandelt das Sargensemble (Cairo JdE 39054a Sq6C/Sq5C) des 'Sieglers? des Koenigs von Unteragypten' Karenen aus seiner Bestattung des fruhen Mittleren Reiches in Saqqara. Sie gibt Einblick in die Traditionen der Sargdekoration dieser Region sowie die Bedeutung des Grossraums Saqqara als UEberlieferungsort funerarer Texte. Die Untersuchung der Pyramidentexte und Sargtexte in den Sargen des Karenen setzt sich zum Ziel, die Sarge in ihrer raumlichen Gesamtheit sowie dem Zusammenspiel von bildlicher und schriftlicher Dekoration zu analysieren. Die Grundlage dafur bilden detaillierte Betrachtungen der einzelnen Bestandteile sowie darauf aufbauende ubergreifende Ausfuhrungen. Viele der Sargtexte wurden bislang kaum oder gar nicht bearbeitet und liefern somit einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Erforschung dieser Textgruppe. Alle Texte werden philologisch kommentiert und inhaltlich analysiert. Ebenfalls betrachtet werden die formalen Strukturen, insbesondere das Verhaltnis des Verstorben zu anderen genannten Personen sowie Verbindungen zu zugehoerigen Ritualen. Durch ihre Ergebnisse liefert diese Einzelstudie eines individuellen Sargensembles daruber hinaus einen Beitrag zur Erforschung der altagyptischen Kultur des Mittleren Reiches.