A generously illustrated selection of John Baines's influential writings on two core areas of ancient Egyptian civilization: the role of writing, which was very different in antiquity from what is familiar in the modern world, and the importance of visual culture. These questions are explored through a number of case studies. The volume assembles articles that were scattered in publications in a variety of disciplines, making available key contributions on core problems of theory, comparison, and analysis in the study of many civilizations and offering important points of departure for further research. Three wholly new essays are included, and the overall approach is an interdisciplinary one, synthesizing insights from archaeology, anthropology, and art history as well as Egyptology.

In this fascinating study, architect and Egyptologist Corinna Rossi analyses the relationship between mathematics and architecture in ancient Egypt by exploring the use of numbers and geometrical figures in ancient architectural projects and buildings. While previous architectural studies have searched for abstract 'universal rules' to explain the history of Egyptian architecture, Rossi attempts to reconcile the different approaches of archaeologists, architects and historians of mathematics into a single coherent picture. Using a study of a specific group of monuments, the pyramids, and placing them in the context of their cultural and historical background, Rossi argues that theory and practice of construction must be considered as a continuum, not as two separated fields, in order to allow the original planning process of a building to re-emerge. Highly illustrated with plans, diagrams and figures, this book is essential reading for all scholars of Ancient Egypt and the architecture of ancient cultures.

Established in 2006 by the Association for Near Eastern and Caucasian Studies in corporation with Institute of Oriental Studies and Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography (National Academy of Sciences of Armenia) AJNES is the only periodical in the Republic of Armenia devoted exclusively to the investigation of ancient and medieval cultures of the Near East and the Caucasus. Articles appearing in its pages are contributions of scholars of international reputation in history, archaeology, philology, art, religion and science. This book presents Issues 1 and 2 of ARAMAZD: Armenian Journal of Near Eastern Studies Volume XIV 2020 in one combined printed edition.

Contents include: The place of Nomos Arsinoites in the Egyptian administrative system under the Roman rule; Nomos Arsinoites - its nomarchai, strategoi and basilikoi grammateis. The Arsinoite merides; The Arsinoite toparchies; Komogrammateiai as administrative units. Village officials (komogrammateis, presbyteroi acting as komogrammateis, amphodokomogrammateis, komarchai); Pagi in the Arsinoite nome: Unification of the administrative structures.

The fifth annual Current Research in Egyptology Symposium was held in January 2004, at the University of Durham. The conference offers the majority of postgraduates researching Egyptology their first opportunity to present academic work to their peers, and to receive critical feedback. An interesting development in the direction of research in this volume is the emphasis on aspects of identity and individuality. (Oxbow Books 2006)

This work ('The High Priests of Amun in the 'wHm mswt' Era and the Twenty-First Dynasty') explores the chronological, genealogical and historical controversies from a very dark episode in ancient Egypt: the period at the end of the rule of Ramesses XI and the beginning of the Third Intermediate Period (XXI Dynasty). The research focuses on the role played by the Theban High Priests of Amun - a field of study so far neglected by other Egyptologists. In Spanish with an extended English summary.

An exploration of the social and military role of the Shardana mercenaries in Egypt during the 13th to the 11th centuries BC. In Italian.

Performance and Drama in Ancient Egypt examines archaeological and textual materials for evidence of performance-based activities in Egypt from the beginning of the historic period until the later Roman Empire. It takes as its starting point enactments of performance texts from the Graeco-Roman period done by the author's students and examines the widespread vogue for re-enactments on archaeological sites and in the mass media. Performance and Drama in Ancient Egypt presents an historically-based survey of ancient Egyptian performance activities that relates them to other cultural and historical developments. The materials discussed include texts, visual art, architecture and material culture. The author deals with issues that have been raised in the emerging field of performance archaeology as well as seeking to initiate a discussion on performance in Egyptology and related disciplines.

Throughout the past three decades, Nadav Na'aman has repeatedly proved that he is one of the most careful historians of ancient Canaan and Israel. With broad expertise, he has brought together archaeology, text, and the inscriptional material from all of the ancient Near East to bear on the history of ancient Israel and the land of Canaan during the second and first millenniums B.C.E. Many of his studies have been published as journal articles or notes and yet, together, they constitute one of the most important bodies of literature on the subject in recent years, particularly because of the careful attention to methodology that Na'aman always has brought to his work. Collected here are 23 essays on the Hurrians, the Egyptians and their presence in the Levant during the second millennium B.C.E., Canaanite city-states, the Amarna Letters, and the neighbors of Canaan in the north, such as Alalakh and Damascus. The essays range over such topics as scribes and language, archaeology, cultural influences, and the interrelations of the great powers during this period. The volume includes indexes of ancient personal names, place-names, and biblical references.

Excavations in the town of Elephantine between 1972 and 1991 uncovered more than 1600 clay seals, cylinder seals and various other sealing materials, forming one of the largest and most important seal assemblages from an urban Early Dynastic and early Old Kingdom site. At the heart of this substantial study is a catalogue of types, inscriptions and names, supported by an analysis of royal administration on the island of Elephantine, its social organisation and its professions. German text, English summary.

The mastaba of Mereruka is the most extensively decorated tomb of the Old Kingdom. As a vizier and husband of the eldest daughter of King Teti, Mereruka held an unusually large number of responsibilities and his tomb reflects the wealth and status he enjoyed. Consisting of 32 rooms, 16 of which are decorated, it includes his chapel, that of his wife, Waatetkhethor and his son Meryteti. Each of them possessed a separate shaft and burial chamber with those of Mereruka reflecting almost a Royal status. Despite its clearance in 1893, this important mastaba remains incompletely published. The present project intends to fully document and publish all parts of this tomb beginning with the least currently accessible to scholars. The present volume is therefore devoted to the chapel and burial chamber of Meryteti, son of Mereruka, grandson of King Teti and vizier of Pepy I.

Combining archaeological and environmental evidence with iconographic analysis, this study examines the place of the dog in pre-Pharaonic Egypt. After a discussion of the types of fox, jackal and hyena that would have inhabited Palaeolithic and prehistoric Egypt, Gransard-Desmond discusses the domestication of the dog, the development of different types, the history of the relationship between man and dog, the different uses made of dogs and their role in religion. In addition to seals, decorated tablets, figurines and paintings, the inclusion of dog figures in burial assemblages hints at their special place in early Egyptian society. Includes a catalogue of objects and sites. French text.

The second volume of the library catalogue, covering chiefly the sections on Archaeology and Philology. The Catalogue covers the library fund from the beginning of the existence of Prague Egyptological seminar, through the enlargement due to Jaroslav Eerny's donation in 1970s, and ends with new acquisitions up to year 2000.

A narrative history of the cavalcade of archaeologists, charlatans, thieves, self-promoters, and sightseers who have flocked to the Nile Valley since early times to study - or steal - the wonders of ancient Egypt. The scandalous rape of Ancient Egypt is a historical vignette of greed, vanity, and dedicated archaeological research. It is a tale vividly told by renowned archaeology author, Brian Fagan, with characters that include the ancient historian Herodotus; Theban tomb robbers; obelisk-stealing Romans; Coptic Christians determined to erase the heretical past; mummy traders; leisured antiquarians; major European museums; Giovanni Belzoni, a circus strongman who removed more antiquities than Napoleon's armies; shrewd consuls and ruthless pashas; and archaeologists such Sir Flinders Petrie who changed the course of Egyptology. Fagan's classic account of the cavalcade of archaeologists, thieves, and sightseers who have flocked to the Nile Valley since ancient times. Featured in this edition are new accounts of stunning recent discoveries, including the Royal Tombs of Tanis, the Valley of Golden Mummies at Bahariya, the Tomb of the Sons of Ramses, and the sunken city of Alexandria (whose lighthouse was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World). Fagan concludes with a clear-eyed assessment of the impact of modern mass tourism on archaeological sites and artifacts.

This volume contains twenty-five papers presented at the Third International Conference of the Dakhleh Oasis Project held in Melbourne in 2000, plus several other invited papers, which together reflect the multidisciplinary nature of the project. Five deal with Pleistocene and Holocene archaeology, including the first characterisation of the Older Middle Stone Age culture of the Oasis; there are three on pharaonic archaeology and fifteen devoted to Roman period Kellis. They include: discussions of the most recent archaeological work; the first detailed publication of a unique glass jug decorated with scenes of combatant gladiators, accompanied by colour images; and specialist reports on human skeletal remains.

Flinders Petrie began his long association with ancient Egypt and the Near East when he went to Giza to survey the pyramids in 1880. He continued to dig almost until his death in Jerusalem in 1942. During his long career he revolutionized Egyptian archaeology and indeed can be said to have founded modern scientific archaeology. But this book is not concerned with his scientific work, except tangentially, as Petrie had an admirable practice of publishing his excavations soon after they were completed. These letters and journals have been selected for their vivid account of living in Egypt and Palestine over sixty years. Even more they describe Petrie's austere approach to a dig where the archaeology was everything and creature comforts near nonexistent. Many anecdotes survive of life on one of Petrie's digs and the reality as revealed in these accounts is just as eccentric.

These lectures investigate the numerous miniature baked clay images from Canaan, Israel and Judah (c. 1600-600 BC). They constitute vital evidence for the imagery and domestic rituals of ordinary people, but significantly are not explicitly mentioned in the Old Testament. These terracottas are treated as a distinctive phenomenon with roots deep in prehistory and recurrent characteristics across millennia. Attention is focused on whether or not the female representations are worshippers of unknown deities or images of known goddesses, particularly in Early Israelite religion.

This detailed examination of the architecture of the tombs of Egyptian officials during the 18th Dynasty is based on a catalogue of Theban tombs. Making geographical and chronological comparisons, Wasmuth discusses evidence for architectural innovations, particularly in the extremely elaborate layout of chambers and passages. The study is illustrated throughout with tomb plans while the catalogue includes details of inscriptions and epithets as well as descriptions of the tomb design. German text.

The recent discovery and exhibition of an ancient Jewish ossuary (a burial box) that bears the inscription "James the son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" has stunned scholars and public alike. Could it really be that this small stone box actually contained the bones of James, the brother of Jesus Christ? While the preliminary scientific and paleographic study suggests that this ossuary may well be authentic (in other words, datable to the 1st century) and may well refer to James, the brother of Jesus, whose leadership to early Christianity in Jerusalem has become public, what is still shrouded in mystery is that this ossuary is only one of several that shed important archaeological light on the historical Jesus and the origins of Christianity.

In Jesus and the Ossuaries, Craig A. Evans helps all readers, expert and layperson alike, understand the importance of this recent find for the quest for the historical Jesus and any historical reconstruction of early Christianity. Evans provides an overview of the most important archaeological discoveries, including those near the Dead Sea, before summarizing archaeological findings relevant to 1st-century Galilee and Judea.

Against this backdrop, Evans then provides a detailed study of nine other inscriptions (six on ossuaries, three on stone slabs) that pertain in one way or another to the historical Jesus and the arguments for and against the authenticity and identification of the recently discovered James Ossuary (the tenth major inscription). Evans concludes his volume with a measured consideration of the historical, exegetical, and apologetic value of the archaeological data afforded by the several inscriptions.

This volume is the second produced by the Dakhleh Oasis Project devoted to reporting the preliminary results of its field work. The volume is divided into two parts: the first part includes reports on the study of various prehistoric and historic sites; the second part is devoted to the work on the settlement of Ismant el-Kharab, ancient Kellis, and two of its cemeteries. The latter papers include a description of the excavations, a discussion of the architectural evolution of the Main Temple Complex and the significance of the Large East Church, an attempt to reconstruct the Temple of Tutu using 3D computer modelling, and a study of the main wall paintings found in the Main Temple Complex. Several papers also present the results of research carried out on specific categories of artefacts and materials, such as the textiles, basketry and leather goods, ceramics, metals and metallurgy, oils, terracotta figurines, and the flora and fauna of ancient Kellis.

What do the pyramids of Egypt really represent? What could have driven so many to so great, and often so dangerous, an effort? Was the motivation religious or practical?

Richly illustrated with more than 300 photographs and drawings, Sticks, Stones, and Shadows presents an entirely original approach to the subject of pyramid building. Unlike other books discussing these majestic structures, this book reveals the connection between devices that served both a practical need for survival and a spiritual belief in gods and goddesses. Few have closely examined Egyptian technologies and techniques from the origins of pyramid development to the step-by-step details of how the ground was leveled, how the site was oriented, and how the stone was raised and placed to meet at a distant point in the sky.

Nevertheless, this is much more than a how-to-do-it book. Martin Isler also asks and answers questions virtually ignored for the last century. He discloses, for example, the ancient use of shadows--now denigrated to the ornamental back-yard sundial--but once an important tool for telling the height of an object, geographical directions, the seasons of the year, and the time of day. Isler also reinterprets the ancient "stretching of the cord" ceremony, which once was thought to have only religious significance but here is shown as the means of establishing the sides of a pyramid.

Often referred to as the Butcher's Tomb, the decorated tomb of Irukaptah in the Unis Cemetery at Saqqara has been fully recorded for publication. A well-preserved example of Old Kingdom rock architecture, it retains much of its painted decoration. An outstanding feature is the large number of engaged statues, some left in various stages of completion which provide valuable information on the progressive steps in the execution of rock-cut statuary. The volume includes some comparisons of significant artistic and architectural features with data from other near-contemporary tombs.

This volume contains progress reports on the work of these two seasons as well as a number of short reports on excavations at the Roman site of Kellis (Ismant el-Kharab). Contents: Preliminary Reports on the 1992-3 and 1993-4 Seasons (A J Mills); Interim Report on the 1992 Season (M McDonald and K Walker); Interim Report on the 1993 Season (M McDonald); 'Ein Birbiyeh (A J Mills); Deir el-Haggar (A J Mills); Excavations at Ismant el-Kharab (ancient Kellis): Settlement and Cemeteries: Excavations in the Cemeteries of Ismant el-Kharab (M Birrell); Coinage Preliminary Report (G E Bowden); Progress on the Coptic texts from Ismant el-Kharab (I Gardner); Interim Report on the West Tombs (C A Hope and J McKenzie); Epigraphy at Ismant el-Kharab (C Marchini); Brief Report on the Study of Ceramics (S F Patten); Plant Remains from Ismant el-Kharab (U Thanheiser); A Painted Panel of Isis (H Whitehouse).

Recent books about Jesus and early Christianity can be divided into two kinds: those that examine the life and work of the historical Jesus prior to his death and those that reconstruct events between JesusGCO death and the writings of the first Gospels. SawickiGCOs provocative book challenges the results of both kinds of research by using both archaeology and anthropology to situate Jesus clearly in his Galilean cultural context. Sawicki contests recent portraits of Jesus as a Mediterranean peasant, a Cynic sage, or the convener of a fellowship of equals. In addition, she calls into question readings of ancient Galilee that emphasize it as a society marked simply by economic stratification or by an GC honor-shameGCY sociology. Rather, she discovers the Galilean JesusGCO indigenous cultural idiom in its material structures for the negotiation of kinship, the management of labor, the distribution of commodities, and the construction of gender. SawickiGCOs book is the first to balance classical urban archaeology against the more recent archaeology of villages and of local and regional commerce. It frames current issues in Jesus research in terms that can guide both ongoing village excavations in Israel and responsible exegesis of the Gospels in church and academy. Marianne Sawicki is the author of Seeing the Lord: Resurrection and Early Christian Practices. For: Seminarians; graduate students; biblical archaeologists