In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, growing numbers of tourists and scholars from Europe and America, fascinated by new discoveries, visited the Near East and Egypt - attracted by the riches and mysteries of the Land of the Bible. Almost all such visitors, no matter how esoteric or academic their pursuits, had to deal with the local authorities and the native workforce for their archaeological excavations. The vast majority of these visitors had to rely on interpreters, dragomans, translators and local guides. This study, based on published and unpublished travel memoirs, guidebooks, personal papers and archaeological reports of the British and American archaeologists, deals with the socio-political status and multi-faceted role of interpreters at the time. Those bi- or multi-lingual individuals frequently took on (or were forced to take on) much more than just interpreting. They often played the role of go-betweens, servants, bodyguards, pimps, diplomats, spies, messengers, managers and overseers, and had to mediate, scheme and often improvise, whether in an official or unofficial capacity. For the most part denied due credit and recognition, these interpreters are finally here given a new voice. An engrossing story emerges of how through their many and varied actions and roles, they had a crucial part to play in the introduction to Britain and America of these mysterious past cultures and civilizations.

Broadening Horizons is an international congress dedicated to postgraduate students and early-stage researchers working with disciplines in the area of Ancient Near East and Eastern Mediterranean studies. With Broadening Horizons 4 the thematic areas were broadened, opening the congress up to the Central Asia studies. The conference was hosted at Universita degli Studi di Torino, from the 25th to the 28th of October 2011. Broadening Horizons 4 was a huge success. A total of seventy-four participants from fifteen countries attended the congress, making it the most successful edition. This volume includes most of papers presented at the congress and the key lecture by St John Simpson. The volume has been arranged according to the sessions: settlement patterns and exchange networks; socio-economic reconstruction of ancient societies based on archaeological, historical or environmental records; application of new technologies in archaeological research; impact of human dynamics on landscape evolution; exploitation of the natural environment and sustenance strategies; and posters. Anyone with an interest in the Ancient Near East, Eastern Mediterranean and Central Asia studies will find much to enjoy and appreciate in this volume.

This volume is the last to be printed in a series describing in detail the results of the so-called West Bank Survey, an archaeological survey in the northernmost part of Sudanese Nubia, undertaken on the West Bank between the villages of Faras in the north and Gemai in the south during the period 1960-64. This project was carried out in anticipation of the flooding of the Aswan High Dam. The whole series has been divided into three volumes, no. 2 including sites from the Meroitic and Ballana periods (BAR S1335: Adams 2004), no. 3 including sites of the Christian age (BAR S1421: Adams 2005), while the present volume, no. 1, consists of detailed descriptions of sites and finds of the Early Nubian, Middle Nubian and Pharaonic New Kingdom periods.

Pen, Stylus, and Chisel: An Ancient Egypt Sourcebook helps students understand the world of the ancient Egyptians by introducing them to primary sources that cover a broader spectrum, both temporally and geographically, than most ancient Egyptian readers. Beginning with The Old Kingdom in the third millennium BCE, the book covers 3,000 years of history, progressing through the Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom, Late Kingdom, Persian Period, and ending with the Ptolemaic Dynasty in the first century BCE. Students will learn about the Egyptians' political ideas, social customs, religious views, economy, ethics, and forms of expression. The material includes documents written both by the Egyptians and by those who observed them, which gives students a well-rounded view of the Egyptian people, their history, and their culture. The book includes maps, introductions to the readings to place them in context and enhance comprehension, discussion questions to be used in class or as writing assignments, and a glossary. Pen, Stylus, and Chisel can be used in history and humanities courses on ancient Egypt.

This study deals with the significance of ritual scenes on 21st Dynasty coffins. The images on these coffins are studied as texts referring to the passage of the deceased to the next life. The aim of this study is also to argue how the Middle Kingdom Coffin Texts were replaced at this later date by such images on coffins. The work focusses on a group of coffins belonging to the priest known as PA-dj-imn, and date to the reign of the High Priest Pinudjem II. They were found in 1891 at the tomb of Bab el-Gassus, as part of the find generally known as the Second Find of Deir el-Bahri.

The present work is an attempt to give a comprehensive overview of turquoise and its role in Ancient Egypt. Turquoise was mined mainly in Sinai, at Maghara and at Serabit el Khadim, where the stone occurs in the sandstone rock. Ancient Egyptian mineralogical studies have neglected turquoise, focussing instead on the study of other minerals and metals such as gold, silver, and copper.

Down to Earth Archaeology collects sixteen archaeological papers by Professor William Y. Adams chosen by the author, who added introductory commentary to each. These articles were written at various times during his lengthy and productive academic career for different purposes and for different audiences. Most of those selected had been previously published only in a limited way, either as conference proceedings or contributions to various Festschriften, and as such he wanted to enable them to reach a wider readership than they had originally. He described this collection as his 'dernieres pensees'. The essays encompass a wide range of topics, from reflections upon the successes, failures and lessons learned from the UNESCO International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia in the 1960s, in which Bill was very much a leading figure and which he was uniquely positioned to critique, to discussions and criticisms of the theoretical framework of 'New' or 'Processual Archaeology' and its application of 'scientific' methods. Other papers included here are seminal works discussing the ideological concepts of typology and classification and their practical application to archaeological excavations, notably his own major excavations conducted at the large Nubian cityscapes of Meinarti, Kulubnarti and Qasr Ibrim, and the ceramic kilns at Faras.

The study of furniture and its production is a window into both the social position of its owner and the techniques and social organization of the craftsmen. This book comprises an examination and analysis of chairs, stools and footstools of the New Kingdom (ca.1550-1069 B.C.) which are preserved in the Cairo Egyptian Museum. The first chapter is dedicated to woodworking processes and techniques of manufacturing chairs and stools. The second chapter analyses the chairs, stools, and fragments that constitute the main corpus of this study (131 pieces in total). The third chapter focuses primarily on two-dimensional scenes and how these can increase our understanding of the study objects. The fourth chapter is devoted to a lexicographical analysis of the terms used to designate different types of chairs, stools and footstools. This is followed by a typological study of chairs and stools in the New Kingdom based on actual pieces of furniture that my corpus includes and those preserved in other collections.

This is the only substantial and up-to-date reference work on the Ptolemaic army. Employing Greek and Egyptian papyri and inscriptions, and building on approaches developed in state-formation theory, it offers a coherent account of how the changing structures of the army in Egypt after Alexander's conquest led to the development of an ethnically more integrated society. A new tripartite division of Ptolemaic history challenges the idea of gradual decline, and emphasizes the reshaping of military structures that took place between c.220 and c.160 BC in response to changes in the nature of warfare, mobilization and demobilization, and financial constraints. An investigation of the socio-economic role played by soldiers permits a reassessment of the cleruchic system and shows how soldiers' associations generated interethnic group solidarity. By integrating Egyptian evidence, Christelle Fischer-Bovet also demonstrates that the connection between the army and local temples offered new ways for Greeks and Egyptians to interact.

First runner-up for the British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize in Middle Eastern Studies 2015. In ancient Egypt, wrapping sacred objects, including mummified bodies, in layers of cloth was a ritual that lay at the core of Egyptian society. Yet in the modern world, attention has focused instead on unwrapping all the careful arrangements of linen textiles the Egyptians had put in place. This book breaks new ground by looking at the significance of textile wrappings in ancient Egypt, and at how their unwrapping has shaped the way we think about the Egyptian past. Wrapping mummified bodies and divine statues in linen reflected the cultural values attached to this textile, with implications for understanding gender, materiality and hierarchy in Egyptian society. Unwrapping mummies and statues similarly reflects the values attached to Egyptian antiquities in the West, where the colonial legacies of archaeology, Egyptology and racial science still influence how Egypt appears in museums and the press. From the tomb of Tutankhamun to the Arab Spring, Unwrapping Ancient Egypt raises critical questions about the deep-seated fascination with this culture - and what that fascination says about our own.

First runner-up for the British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize in Middle Eastern Studies 2015. In ancient Egypt, wrapping sacred objects, including mummified bodies, in layers of cloth was a ritual that lay at the core of Egyptian society. Yet in the modern world, attention has focused instead on unwrapping all the careful arrangements of linen textiles the Egyptians had put in place. This book breaks new ground by looking at the significance of textile wrappings in ancient Egypt, and at how their unwrapping has shaped the way we think about the Egyptian past. Wrapping mummified bodies and divine statues in linen reflected the cultural values attached to this textile, with implications for understanding gender, materiality and hierarchy in Egyptian society. Unwrapping mummies and statues similarly reflects the values attached to Egyptian antiquities in the West, where the colonial legacies of archaeology, Egyptology and racial science still influence how Egypt appears in museums and the press. From the tomb of Tutankhamun to the Arab Spring, Unwrapping Ancient Egypt raises critical questions about the deep-seated fascination with this culture - and what that fascination says about our own.

The Life of Margaret Alice Murray: A Woman s Work in Archaeology is the first book-length biography of Margaret Alice Murray (1863 1963), one of the first women to practice archeology. Despite Murray s numerous professional successes, her career has received little attention because she has been overshadowed by her mentor, Sir Flinders Petrie. This oversight has obscured the significance of her career including her fieldwork, the students she trained, her administration of the pioneering Egyptology Department at University College London (UCL), and her published works. Rather than focusing on Murray s involvement in Petrie s archaeological program, Kathleen L. Sheppard treats Murray as a practicing scientist with theories, ideas, and accomplishments of her own. This book analyzes the life and career of Margaret Alice Murray as a teacher, excavator, scholar, and popularizer of Egyptology, archaeology, anthropology, linguistics, and more. Sheppard also analyzes areas outside of Murray s archaeology career, including her involvement in the suffrage movement, her work in folklore and witchcraft studies, and her life after her official retirement from UCL."

This volume presents the findings of a major international project on the application of radiocarbon dating to the Egyptian historical chronology. Researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Cranfield in the UK, along with a team from France, Austria and Israel, radiocarbon dated more than 200 Egyptian objects made from plant material from museum collections from all over the world. The results comprise an accurate scientifically based chronology of the kings of ancient Egypt obtained by the radiocarbon analysis of short-lived plant remains. This volume presents the findings of a major international project on the application of radiocarbon dating to the Egyptian historical chronology. Researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Cranfield in the UK, along with a team from France, Austria and Israel, radiocarbon dated more than 200 Egyptian objects made from plant material from museum collections from all over the world. The results comprise an accurate scientifically based chronology of the kings of ancient Egypt obtained by the radiocarbon analysis of short-lived plant remains. Despite Egypt's historical significance, in the past the dating of events has been a contentious undertaking with Egyptologists relying on various chronologies made up from archaeological and historical records. The radiocarbon dates nail down a chronology that is broadly in line with previous estimates. However, they do rule out some chronologies that have been put forward particularly in the Old Kingdom, which is shown to be older than some scholars thought. The research has implications for the whole region because the Egyptian chronology anchors the timing of historical events in neighbouring areas tied to the reign of particular Egyptian kings. The results will allow for more historical comparisons to be made in countries like Libya and Sudan, which have conducted radiocarbon dating techniques on places of archaeological interest in the past.

For almost three thousand years, Egypt and Mesopotamia were each ruled by the single sacred office of kingship. Though geographically near, these ancient civilizations were culturally distinct, and scholars have historically contrasted their respective conceptualizations of the ultimate authority, imagining Egyptian kings as invested with cosmic power and Mesopotamian kings as primarily political leaders. In fact, both kingdoms depended on religious ideals and political resources to legitimate and exercise their authority. Cross-cultural comparison reveals the sophisticated and varied strategies that ancient kings used to unify and govern their growing kingdoms. Experiencing Power, Generating Authority draws on rich material records left behind by both kingdoms, from royal monuments and icons to the written deeds and commissions of kings. Thirteen essays provocatively juxtapose the relationships Egyptian and Mesopotamian kings had with their gods and religious mediators, as well as their subjects and court officials. They also explore the ideological significance of landscape in each kingdom, since the natural and built environment influenced the economy, security, and cosmology of these lands. The interplay of religion, politics, and territory is dramatized by the everyday details of economy, trade, and governance, as well as the social crises of war or the death of a king. Reexamining established notions of cosmic and political rule, Experiencing Power, Generating Authority challenges and deepens scholarly approaches to rulership in the ancient world. Contributors: Mehmet-Ali Atac, Miroslav Barta, Dominique Charpin, D. Bruce Dickson, Eckart Frahm, Alan B. Lloyd, Juan Carlos Moreno Garcia, Ludwig D. Morenz, Ellen Morris, Beate Pongratz-Leisten, Michael Roaf, Walther Sallaberger, JoAnn Scurlock. PMIRC, volume 6

This work examines one section of southern Karnak from the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes. Excavations at the site uncovered extensive remains from the late New Kingdom (12th-11th c. BCE), Third Intermediate Period (11th-7th c. BCE), and Late Period occupation of the area (7th-4th c. BCE). The research questions focused on determining the function of this section of the city and the nature of its relationship to the neighbouring Mut temple. A close study of the architectural and ceramic evidence traces the changing roles of the area through time, with special emphasis on a large-scale mud-brick building discovered at the site.

This book examines dwarfs in myth and everyday life in ancient Egypt and Greece. In both cultures physical beauty was highly admired, even to excess. What happened to those whose appearance did not conform to the 'ideal proportions'? The spectacular forms of dwarfism were always a focus of interest, and it is the most depicted disorder in antiquity. In this study Dr Dasen brings together for the first time a whole range of mostly unpublished or little-known iconographic, epigraphic, literary, and anthropological evidence. She covers areas such as the history of caricature and the portrait; medical history, in particular, the development of the perception of congenital disorders; social history; and history of religion, with questions on the magical and ritual efficiency of the malformed in sacred and theatrical contexts. She considers also the complex relations between mythology and ethnography, as shown, for example, in the Greek myth of the Pygmies. This is a fascinating work, with a wealth of insights for anyone interested in the history of medicine and the ancient world.

Has the ancient Egyptian cult of immortality resurfaced in Brighton? When a freshly-mummified body is discovered at the Brighton Museum of Natural History, Detective Francis Sullivan is at a loss to identify the desiccated woman. But as Egyptian burial jars of body parts with cryptic messages attached start appearing, he realises he has a serial killer on his hands. Revenge, obsession and an ancient religion form a potent mix, unleashing a wave of terror throughout the city. Caught in a race against time while battling his own demons, Francis must fight to uncover the true identity of the Embalmer before it's too late...

Papers from an international Egyptological conference entitled Evolving Egypt: Innovation, Appropriation, and Reinterpretation in Ancient Egypt held in February 2006 at BYU-Hawaii (Oahu). Contents: 1) Possibilities and Pitfalls in Identifying Innovation: The Early Ramesside Era as a Case Study (Kerry Muhlestein); 2) Les bateaux et le sacre dans l'ancienne Egypte (Ana Maria Rosso); 3) Symbolic Connotations of Pyramid Temples in the 5th and 6th Dynasties (Pal Steiner); 4) Dating of Stelae of the 12th Dynasty: A Statistical Approach (Des Bright); 5) The Expansionist Policies of the New Kingdom and the Increase in Craft Specialization in the Textile Industry (Giovanni Tata); 6) Copy and Reinterpretation in the Tomb of Nakht: Ancient Egyptian Hermeneutics (Valerie Angenot); 7) The Daily Cult: Space, Continuity and Change (Robyn Gillam); 8) Glossed Over: Ancient Egyptian Interpretations of Their Religion (John Gee); 9) The Hieratic Scribal Tradition in Preexilic Judah (David Calabro); 10) Ptolemaic Translation and Representation: The Hellenistic Sculptural Program of the Memphite Sarapieion (Shanna Kennedy-Quigley); 11) Appropriation of Egyptian Judgment in the Testament of Abraham? (Jared Ludlow); 12 New Evidence of Coptic Mummification Techniques From Tell El-Hibeh, Middle Egypt (Robert M. Yohe II, Jill K. Gardner, and Deanna Heikkinen).

The subject of this study is an examination of the resources at the disposal of the elite class of Old Kingdom officials who administered the state on behalf of the crown. Their assets included one or more rural estates either owned outright or held in usufruct and/or enjoyed according to a land-owning system referred to as the pr Dt (estate), and all that the estate produced: a workforce if in some way bound to the estate, buildings, means of transport, household and personal effects.

16 papers from the 'Egyptology in Australia and New Zealand' Conference held in Melbourne, September 4th-6th 2009. Contents: A History of Egyptology at Monash University, Melbourne (C. Hope); 1) Trade and Power: The Role of Naqada as a Trading Centre in Predynastic Egypt (J. Cox); 2) Antecedents to the Ptolemaic Mammisis (V. Crown); 3) Ptolemaic 'Black Ware' from Mut el-Kharab (J. Gill); 4) The Decorative Program of the Amarna Rock Tombs: Unique Scenes of the Egyptian Military and Police (E. Healey); 5) The Use of Myth in the Pyramid Texts (J. Hellum); 6) The Application of Cladistics to Early Dynastic Egyptian Ceramics: Applying a New Method (A. Hood & J. Valentine); 7) Searching for an Oasis Identity: Dakhleh Oasis in the Third Intermediate Period (C. Hubschmann); 8) Ambiguous Images: The Problems and Possibilities of Analysing Rock-art Images in the Egyptian Western Desert (D. James); 9) The Ruler of Kush (Kerma) at Buhen during the Second Intermediate Period: A Reinterpretation of Buhen Stela 691 and Related Objects (C. Knoblauch); 10) On Interpreting the Meaning of Amulets and Other Objects using the Frog Motif as an Example (J. Kremler); 11) Administrative Control of Egypt's Western Oases during the New Kingdom: A Tale of Two Cities (R. Long); 12) It Really is Aha: Re-examining an Early Dynastic Ink Inscription from Tarkhan (L. Mawdeley); 13) Invisible History: The First Intermediate Period in United Kingdom (UK) Museum Exhibitions (M. Pitkin); 14) The Inscriptions of Hatshepsut at the Temple of Semnah: An Art-historical and Epigraphic Re-appraisal (A. Shackell-Smith); 15) Characterisation and Legitimisation in the Doomed Prince (D. Stewart); 16) The Typology of 26th Dynasty Funerary Figurines (S. Volk).

This fresh categorisation and examination grew from the author's innate curiosity about the shapes and forms of the ships and boats of the Ancient World and particularly of the Ancient Egyptians. Many years sailing and the book by Nancy Jenkins, "The Boat beneath the Pyramid" which considered the vessel buried alongside the Great Pyramid of Giza sparked this curiosity, and from this start point, the focus of the research moved to the catalogue of model vessels in the Cairo Museum collection, published by Reisner, and the surviving hulls from Dahshur. These sources were augmented and supported by the work by Boreux. Finds such as the timbers from Lisht added valuable information. An interest in the greater variety of vessels to be known from the Old and Middle Kingdoms concentrated the researcher's attention upon the craft of these periods. Three fragmentary examples of hull forms, supposedly not known until the Old Kingdom, have been included, as the categorization system proposed in this research attempts to push back the previously accepted dates of some Egyptian hull shapes.

The Cairo Genizah is considered one of the world's greatest Hebrew manuscript treasures. Yet the story of how over a quarter of a million fragments hidden in Egypt were discovered and distributed around the world, before becoming collectively known as "The Cairo Genizah," is far more convoluted and compelling than previously told. The full story involves an international cast of scholars, librarians, archaeologists, excavators, collectors, dealers and agents, operating from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century, and all acting with varying motivations and intentions in a race for the spoils. Basing her research on a wealth of archival materials, Jefferson reconstructs how these protagonists used their various networks to create key alliances, or to blaze lone trails, each one on a quest to recover ancient manuscripts. Following in their footsteps, she takes the reader on a journey down into ancient caves and tombs, under medieval rubbish mounds, into hidden attic rooms, vaults, basements and wells, along labyrinthine souks, and behind the doors of private clubs and cloistered colleges. Along the way, the reader will also learn about the importance of establishing manuscript provenance and authenticity, and the impact to our understanding of the past when either factor is in doubt.