The small town of Pathyris, modern Gebelein, is located south of Thebes. After a huge revolt suppressed in 186 B.C., a Ptolemaic military camp was built in this town, where local people could serve as soldiers-serving-for-pay. The Government took several initiatives to Hellenize the town, resulting in a bilingual society. The town produced hundreds of papyri and ostraka, discovered during legal excavations and illegal diggings at the end of the 19th century and in the 20th century. Katelijn Vandorpe and Sofie Waebens describe the history of the town and reconstruct the bilingual archives by using, among other things, prosopographical data and the method of museum archaeology.

Stone vessels from royal tombs or with royal inscriptions are catalogued for archaeologists of Egypt.

An assemblage of stone vessels and stone statues belongs to the extensive archaeological material brought to light during the excavations conducted by the Czech Institute of Egyptology in the mortuary complex of king Neferre (5th Dynasty) at Abusir. Neferres' assemblage represents a unique archaeological complex where the artefacts are complemented with their recorded archaeological context (structure, site, etc). The monograph includes not only the analysis of the stone vessels assemblage by its material characteristics, but also a separate chapter on certain aspects of the stone statues found in Neferre's mortuary complex.

by Fred Wendorf and Romuald Schild The Eastern Sahara is a fascinating place to study structures. These larger, more complex sites are almost prehistory. Confronted with the stark reality of a hyper always in the lower parts of large basins, most of which arid environment that receives no measurable rainfall, were formed by deflation during the Late Pleistocene lacks vegetation, and is seemingly without life, it would hyper-arid interval between about 65,000 and 13,000 seem to be an unlikely place to find a rich and complex years ago. Their location near the floor of these basins mosaic of archaeological remains documenting past was influenced primarily by one factor - water. During human presence. Despite this impression of a hostile wet phases, runoff from extensive catchment areas environment, there is widespread and abundant caused the development of large, deep, seasonal lakes, archaeological evidence. or playas, in the lowermost parts of these basins. This It is obvious that this area was not always a lifeless surface water would last for several weeks or months desert. Faunal and plant remains found in the excavations after the seasonal rains, and by digging wells after the at Holocene-age settlements, dating between 9500 and playa became dry, water could still be obtained during 5000 radiocarbon years ago, indicate that rainfall during most, if not all, of the dry season.

English summary: Comparative analysis of Kellia after 451 AD and synthesis of the development of the site. Studies and categorization of ceramics, coins, inscriptions, and decorations, and some specialized studies. French text. French description: Le Kom 1 (QIs 1), en marge de l'ensemble monastique de Qoucour Isy, dans le desert des Kellia, a ete fouille integralement entre 1965 et 1978. Il contenait les plus anciens temoins de l'occupation du site et le centre de reunion hebdomadaire des ermites, jusqu'a sa desaffectation au second quart du VIIe s. Developpe a partir d'un groupe de cellules primitives (seconde moitie du IVe s.), QIs 1 a ete dote de trois eglises (fin IVe s.; apres 451; dernier quart VIe s.). Neuf etats successifs sont decrits et reconstitues de maniere detaillee, dates par de riches ensembles ceramiques et monetaires. L'analyse propose les fonctions des constructions decouvertes: enceintes, tour-refuge, memoriae, cellules, locaux pour reunions et repas, cuisines, boulangeries, ateliers, magasins... Analyse comparee du second centre de reunion des Kellia, apres 451 AD (Qacr Ouaheida) et synthese du developpement du site. Etude et catalogues de la ceramique, des monnaies, inscriptions et decors (dont un opus sectile en verre). Etudes specialisees (reliques, installations textiles, restes vegetaux et animaux, briques et mortiers).

Ce volume de 779 p. dont 111 planches photographiques en couleur, illustre de 497 figures au trait donnees dans le texte ou dans l'un des 25 depliants de releves reunis, avec 3 plans, dans un coffret annexe, presente les resultats de sept campagnes de fouilles menees de 1981 a 1990 sur 10 ermitages de cette agglomeration monastique des Kellia. L'architecture, l'epigraphie copte, l'iconographie et la ceramologie fournissent pour chacun d'eux une abondante moisson de donnees nouvelles. Dans un important chapitre de synthese intitule Kirche und Diakonia: Gemeinschaftsraume in den Eremitagen der Qusur el-'Izeila, G. Descoeudres etudie les dispositifs architecturaux et les pratiques religieuses que revelent les salles communautaires, tantot agapeia, tantot eglises, qui marquent l'evolution de la vie monastique d'un ascetisme eremitique vers une pratique plus communautaire et plus ouverte aux pelerins (Peeters 2001)

Sinds meer dan een eeuw zijn Belgische archeologische missies aan het werk in Egypte. Veel van de door hen geleverde inspanningen en behaalde resultaten ontgaan het grote publiek. Dit boek probeert daaraan tegemoet te komen en biedt de lezer een overzicht van alle wetenschappelijke activiteiten die de voorbije eeuw door Belgische archeologische missies in Egypte werden verricht.

This volume, published in memory of Barbara Adams, presents 57 contributions by authors from 16 different countries and contains the results of the latest research on Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt. In addition to papers originally presented at the 2002 conference in Krakow, there are the invited contributions by the friends and colleagues of Barbara Adams, including several on new discoveries from and thoughts about the site of Hierakonpolis.

Double names have a long history in Egypt. They are already attested on Old Kingdom funerary monuments, where concern about eternal life required a correct identification of the deceased. When Greek and Egyptian cultures came into contact under the Ptolemies, bilingual polyonymy (i.e. the combination of an Egyptian and a Greek name) became more popular. During this period, Greek ethnicity was valued as a symbol of power and social status, and was used to create borders between the rulers and the ruled. At the same time, however, it was a flexible concept and this made it a useful tool for crossing the very same boundaries it constructed. As ethnicity became a crucial aspect of one's identity, it is not surprising that bilingual polyonymy was well attested among those that formed a bridge between the ruling class and the Egyptian population: particularly military, administrative and priestly officials. Since they moved between largely separated ethnic contexts, combining names of different linguistic origins was a way to negotiate their ethnic identities. Rather than serving as a reliable source for ethnic origin, names can therefore be interpreted as an expression of the ethnic identity of an individual in a certain space or context.

These volumes of studies in honour of Manfred Bietak include contributions from a wide variety of research areas. Articles deal with pre- and proto-dynastic periods in Ancient Egypt as well as with aspects of dynastic to modern times. Others focus on the interaction between Egypt, the Levant, Cyprus, the Aegean and Phoenicia, whereas in another section Minoan, Mycenaean and Cypriote aspects are covered. Scholars from Near Eastern studies contributed as well as researchers working with Nubian and Meroitic material. Further articles cover issues from Graeco-Roman Egypt to Classical studies and Art History. Articles in a further section deal with Sciences and Chronology, reflecting Manfred Bietak's interest in these subjects as well.

The 12th International Conference for Nubian Studies was held at the British Museum, London, from 1st-6th August 2010. The conference, held every four years, is the only international gathering of archaeologists and scholars from associated disciplines which considers all aspects of Sudan and southern Egypt's ancient and more recent past. The main sessions, and main papers published herein, were devoted to a consideration of the Merowe Dam Archaeological Salvage Project, its aftermath and impact. Over the previous decade this has been the major focus of archaeological activity on the Middle Nile. The dam is now complete and the reservoir is full drawing a line under the fieldwork component of the project. It was felt timely, therefore, in the interim to obtain an overview of what was found during the many years of intensive work and the first main paper speaker in each session sought to do just that. They were followed by reports on sites, categories of objects and more thematic papers arranged broadly by period. These highlight that, while the focus of archaeological activity still remains in the Nile Valley where there is the densest concentration of sites and also where there remains the most concentrated threat to their survival, much work is being undertaken away from the river and in some cases outside its catchment area. The role of the deserts is increasingly being appreciated while the role of the savannah and areas even further south has yet to be given the prominence that it probably deserves.

The ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts form a corpus of ritual spells written on the inside of coffins from the Middle Kingdom (c. 2000-1650 BCE). Thus accompanying the deceased in a very concrete sense, the spells are part of a long Egyptian tradition of equipping the dead with ritual texts ensuring the transition from the state of a living human being to that of a deceased ancestor. The texts present a view of death as entailing threats to the function of the body, often conceptualised as bodily fragmentation or dysfunction. In the transformation of the deceased, the restoration of these bodily dysfunctions is of paramount importance, and the texts provide detailed accounts of the ritual empowerment of the body to achieve this goal. Seen from this perspective, the Coffin Texts provide a rich material for studying ancient Egyptian conceptions of the body by providing insights into the underlying structure of the body as a whole and the proper function of individual part of the body as seen by the ancient Egyptians. Drawing on a theoretical framework from cognitive linguistics and phenomenological anthropology, Breathing Flesh presents an analysis of the conceptualisation of the human body and its individual parts in the ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts. From this starting point, more overarching concepts and cultural models are discussed, including the ritual conceptualisation of the acquisition and use of powerful substances such as "magic", and the role of fertility and procreation in ancient Egyptian mortuary conceptions.