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).

A collection of 29 papers on a wide range of Egyptological and Coptic subjects. Aspects of epigraphy, art history, architecture, artefactual studies, philology, and the history of Egyptology and Coptic studies are among the many topics discussed. Papers predominantly in Italian , with a few in French and one in English.

Cross-referencing visual depictions with the more meagre archaeological record, this study presents a typology of this significant artefact. It examines the ritual uses of the amulet, and discusses its symbolic place in Egyptian theology, drawing on the work of Jan Assman.

This collection of papers orignally given at a 2008 conference at Alexandria University presents recent archaeological work on the Lake Mareotis region of Alexandria, of considerable importance in antiquity as a hub of economic activity and of transport links. The volume brings together recent results from several different national expeditions and research projects in the region, including the Lake Mareotis Research Project, established jointly by the departments of Maritime Archaeology at Southampton and Alexandria Universities, and the Department of Underwater Antiquities Alexandria.

Egyptian mummies are perennially popular with visitors to museums but what is their relevance in the twenty-first century? And what can we learn from the study of these ancient remains? Mummies are an unparalleled source of scientific data, addressing a host of questions about life in one of the most highly developed societies of the ancient world. Although the ancient Egyptians left many written records, these tell only part of the story, and researchers rely heavily on human remains to complete the picture. These throw light on many important issues about which the inscriptions are often silent: physical anthropology, family relationships, life expectancy, nutrition and health, disease and the causes of death. They also of course provide a unique insight into the fascinating and complex processes of mummification; including not only the artificial preservation of the corpse, but also the ritual elements which played such an important part: the placing of amulets, the putting on of wrappings and the equipping of the body with religious texts and images. For many years, the only way to extract this data from Egyptian mummies was to unwrap them a process both destructive and irreversible. Then, the advent of modern non-invasive imaging techniques X-rays and Computerized Tomography (CT) scanning made it possible to look inside a mummy without disturbing the wrappings in any way. Now this technology has advanced still further. Thanks to the latest computer-generated images, we are able to perform a virtual unwrapping of a mummy and to embark on a journey within the body, visualizing every feature and amulet in 3D. The subject chosen for this ground-breaking experiment, the priest Nesperennub, has been one of the British Museums treasured exhibits for over a hundred years. His beautifully painted mummy-case has never been opened since it was sealed up by embalmers on the West Bank at Thebes shortly before he was buried, but now after 2,800 years technology has unlocked its secrets. This book takes the reader on a journey of discovery, gathering information about Nesperennub from a variety of sources. First, his place in history and his role in Egyptian society are pieced together from the inscriptions the formal record of his life which was intended for posterity. Then the 3D technology makes it possible to enter the mummy case and to explore the body, collecting data about Nesperennub as a person, seeing his face, assessing his health, and looking over the shoulders of the embalmers as they prepared him for eternal life.

This book gives a structured account of Egypt's transition from Ptolemaic to Roman rule by identifying key relationships between ecology, land tenure, taxation, administration and politics. It introduces theoretical perspectives from the social sciences and subjects them to empirical scrutiny using data from Greek and Demotic papyri as well as comparative evidence. Although building on recent scholarship, it offers some provocative arguments that challenge prevailing views. For example, patterns of land ownership are linked to population density and are seen as one aspect of continuity between the Ptolemaic and Roman period. Fiscal reform, by contrast, emerges as a significant mechanism of change not only in the agrarian economy but also in the administrative system and the whole social structure. Anyone seeking to understand the impact of Roman rule in the Hellenistic east must consider the well-attested processes in Egypt that this book seeks to explain.

Between 2004 and 2008 the Centre for Maritime Archaeology (CMA), University of Southampton and the Department of Underwater Antiquities of the Egyptian Supreme Council for Antiquities (SCA), in conjunction with the Centre for Maritime Archaeology and Underwater Cultural Heritage (CMAUCH), University of Alexandria, conducted five seasons of survey along the shores of the western arm of Lake Mareotis, Alexandria, Egypt. This was to be the first systematic, comprehensive survey of the region, the aim being to more fully appreciate the nature of Lake Mareotis and the role it played in the economy of ancient Alexandria. An initial visit to the region in 2002 alerted the co-directors of the subsequent project, Lucy Blue (CMA) and Sameh Ramses (SCA), to the huge potential of the area, as well as the immediate threats that the archaeology of the region faced.

In this study the author focuses on trade and markets in New Kingdom, Egypt. Contents: 1) Introduction and overview of internal exchange systems and the Egyptian economy; 2) Theoretical approaches to the Egyptian economy; 3) Local markets; 4) Economic transactions of movable goods (in particular relation to Thebes; 5) The 'Swtyw' ('traders'; 6) Real estate and land exchange; 7) Trade in slaves.

This volume reports on the use of conventional X-ray and CT-scanning to investigate a sample of 127 mummified animals in British museums. It presents a methodology for this relatively new field of study, showing how radiographic technologies can be used to identify species, the age and sex of the animal, body cavity contents, pathology and cause of death, as well as aspects of the mummification process.

This volume collates and analyses petroglyphs from the eastern desert of Egypt. Images of wild animals, domestic animals, anthropoids and boats, together with geometric patterns, are classified and assessed by statistical means to reach conclusions about the preferences of the artists in terms of subject matter, style, context and geographical distribution. The dataset is compared with petroglyphs from the Nile Valley and further afield to establish possible connections, contacts and influences. Issues of dating and meaning are also addressed.

Grafton Elliot Smith rose from a colonial Australian background to dizzying heights in the British scientific establishment. He became a world authority on neuroanatomy and human prehistory, holding chairs at Cairo, Manchester and University College, London. He was best known publicly for his challenging theory of cultural diffusion, crossing the boundaries of anthropology, archaeology and history, stemming from his expert knowledge of evolution. Most controversy raged about his "Egyptian" theory, which placed ancient Egypt as the dynamic source from which major elements of civilisation were spread by the migration of peoples and mores. This vision stemmed from his ground-breaking dissection of thousands of mummies in Egypt during the great excavations of the 1900s. His speculations, made in association with thinkers such as W H R Rivers and W J Perry, bore fruit in a spate of publications that sparked global debate, arousing particular anger from American ethnologists opposed to ideas of foreign influence upon Mesoamerican cultures. Elliot Smith's ideas were regarded at the time as authentic, if problematic, approaches to important issues in human history. They were subsequently to be caricatured or ignored in anthropological and archaeological disciplines that had moved on to other paradigms. Paul Crook shows how his ideas were developed in the context of his life and times, examining the debates they aroused, his attempts to incorporate anthropology within a broader interdisciplinary school under his leadership in London, and his opposition to Nazi race theory in the 1930s. There has been no full-scale biography of Elliot Smith and little of substance analysing his works. Despite shortcomings, his theory and reputation deserve rehabilitation. An Afterword brings general readers up to date about the whole "diffusion" debate.

"Peoples of the Sea" is, in some sense, the culmination of the series "Ages in Chaos." In this volume the erroneous time shift of classical history reaches its maximum span - 800 years With carefully documented evidence and indisputable arguments, Velikovsky places Ramses III firmly into the 4th century B.C. thereby solving, once and for all, numerous conundrums that historians had been confronted with in the past. He unveils the surprising identity of the so-called "Peoples of the Sea," clarifies the role of the Philistines and solves the enigma of the Dynasty of Priests. This volume leads Velikovsky's revised chronology up to the time of Alexander where it links-up with the records of classical chronology. In an extensive supplement Velikovsky delves into the fundamental question of how such a dramatic shift in chronology could have come about. Analyzing the main pillars of Egyptian chronology, he points out where the most dramatic mistakes were made and addresses the misunderstanding underlying the "astronomical chronology." In a further supplement he discusses the very interesting conclusions that can be drawn from radiocarbon testing on Egyptian (archeological) finds.

Papers from a seminar held at the University of Copenhagen in September 2006. Contents: A New Look at the Conception of the Human Being in Ancient Egypt (John Gee); 2) Between Identity and Agency in Ancient Egyptian Ritual (Harold M. Hays); 3) Material Agency, Attribution and Experience of Agency in Ancient Egypt: The case of New Kingdom private temple statues (Annette Kjolby); 4) Self-perception and Self-assertion in the Portrait of Senwosret III: New methods for reading a face ((Maya Muller); 5) Taking Phenomenology to Heart: Some heuristic remarks on studying ancient Egyptian embodied experience (Rune Nyord); 6) Anger and Agency: The role of the emotions in Demotic and earlier narratives (John Tait); 7) Time and Space in Ancient Egypt: The importance of the creation of abstraction (David A. Warburton); Index of Egyptian and Greek words and expressions."

The building process of the Egyptian pyramids has been the subject of many publications. However, a thorough review of this literature reveals that only certain aspects of this process have been studied in isolation, without taking into account the interaction between various activities involved, such as quarrying, transportation and buThe building process of the Egyptian pyramids has been the subject of many publications. However, a thorough review of this literature reveals that only certain aspects of this process have been studied in isolation, without taking into account the interaction between various activities involved, such as quarrying, transportation and building and without a sound quantitative basis. The present study aims at filling this gap by means of an integrated mathematical model.

This thesis, sure to prove controversial, examines the geometry of Old Kingdom Royal tomb architecture, arguing for far greater levels of mathematical sophistication than hitherto admitted. Adding his own contribution to the Black Athena debate, Lightbody also claims that the debts in measurement, geometry and mathematics which the Greeks owe to the Egyptians has also not been fully recognised, not least due to an overfocusing on philological evidence.

Although Egyptian amphorae containing wine were labelled, these labels never state whether the wine inside was red or white. Using analysis of residue samples from amphorae this study determines what kind's of wine could be covered by this generic labelling, and also investigates a further product called shedeh, which transpired to be a more complex wine. The study also contains a well-illustrated cultural overview of wine in Ancient Egypt, and a comprehensive bibliography.

An important survey of the dental health of Ancient Egyptians, investigating the effects of diet and living conditions. Miller uses as evidence a selection of skulls from the Duckwoth collection in Cambridge and from the Department of Palaeopathology at the British Museum, ranging in date from the Neolithic (c.4000 BC) to the Greek period (c.300 BC). The study aims to trace trends in dental health through this period and relate findings to documentary and archaeological evidence for changes in diet.

This work investigates the ways in which six Syro-Palestinian deities - Baal, Reshef, Hauron, Anat, Astarte and Qadesh - were integrated into the Egyptian pantheon in three contexts: royal scenes, personal religion and amalgamation with Egyptian indigenous deities. Its methodology is drawn from two anthropological theories - the 'tributary relationship', and 'translative adaptation'.

In his book "Ramses II and His Time," Immanuel Velikovsky continues his reconstruction of ancient history. This volume covers the best-known of old Egypt's pharaohs, Ramses II. Velikovsky points out how little we know about this famous ruler. His revised chronology places Ramses II firmly into the 7th century B.C. and not, as we have been led to believe, hundreds of years earlier in the 13th century B.C.. Ramses II's adversary was thus none other than Nebuchadnezzar. We are made privy to fascinating personal details about this great Chaldean ruler, whose autobiography Velikovsky was able to locate. As in the first part of the series "Ages in Chaos," this volume unearths a string of erroneous theories and dismisses as pure fantasy several other aspects of the traditional written history concerning the ancient world. We learn, for example, that the so-called Hittite Empire is an historical invention and, in another critical paragraph, Velikovsky leads us the to the proper understanding of the Bronze- and Iron Ages. In the extensive supplement, Velikovsky deals with the age-calculating method of radiocarbon dating and its surprising connections to his own theories.

This study investigates identity and concepts of Egyptian-ness in the sharply contrasting worlds of New Kingdom and Coptic Egypt. Horbury analyses the effects of official belief systems on the lives and identities of ordinary Egyptians, using letters as the primary source material, as well as the built environment. In particular the role of the strong New Kingdom state is examined, as is the effect of the official rejection of the Pharaonic past in the Coptic period.

This monograph explores the unity of the modern concepts of magic and science in Egyptian medicine. After an initial chapter analysing the types of sources with which any study of this subject must engage, the author looks at how the Egyptians conceptualised magic, how Egyptian doctors arrived at diagnoses, and at treatments, including medicines, spells and amulets.

This study investigates the drivers for the development of the elite Late Period tombs of the necropoleis of Memphis. It studies their conceptual basis in the context of the social and political situation of the Late Period. It examines the landscape of Memphis and explores the geographic, geological and man-made features that encouraged the creation of a sacred landscape with a view to discovering what features made this a desirable place for the building of tombs and why Late Period clusters of tombs were built in some parts of that landscape but not in others; it also considers the significance of their alignment. It sets out to discover what religious, social or ancestral factors made the elite choose the location of the individual tombs, what determined their structure and how they relate to older as well as contemporary structures. Finally, the reason for the positions of the different burial grounds of Memphis, and the interrelation between them, is explored in order to establish the socio-political factors influencing that choice.

The concepts of territory and territoriality are analysed on the basis of anthropological and archaeological data. It is assumed that territory and territoriality are more complex concepts than simple space occupation. For the case of Egypt in the Old Kingdom, the author of this volume considers different variables related to the ideology and to the socio-political and economic systems of the Egyptian state. Its consolidation, the royal power legitimisation and that of the elite, and the socio-political and economic system are here considered from their unification in the Early Dynastic period, to the Old Kingdom, when the state expanded and its political and ideological maturity was achieved.

Social Aspects of Ancient Egyptian Domestic Architecture Aby Aikaterini Koltsida How important is the study of the domestic architecture of a society in order to reveal the everyday life of its inhabitants? How significant is the space within which people live and interact in order to understand the structure and function of a family? How much does the space influence the relationships developed among the people living under the same roof? Is there a characteristic house plan to cover the everyday basic needs of an ancient Egyptian? In this study, the author looks at the function and use of a domestic unit and the everyday life of its occupants.