The biblical image of Eve has powerfully influenced ideas about women for the past two millennia. Yet, as Carol Meyers argues in Discovering Eve, the image of the first of women as subservient and dependent does not represent some irreducible historical truth. Rather, it represents the androcentric constructions of a group of urban elite males (including, most notably, the Apostle Paul and Rabbi Yohannan) who had a decisive effect on the founding of Judaeo-Christian traditions. Meyers produces convincing evidence, archaeological, scriptural, and sociological, that ancient Israelite woman fulfilled a role very different from that of the biblical Eve. The real Eve, she demonstrates, was a figure of some social substance, a strong and important figure in the social and familial milieux.

From the mid-20th century onwards, consolidated study of the merchant archives from the Old Assyrian trading colony at Kanes (Ku ltepe) has not only transformed our understanding of the social, economic and political dynamics of the Bronze Age Near East, but also overturned many preconceived notions of what constitutes pre-modern trade. Despite this disciplinary impact and archaeological investigations at Ku ltepe and elsewhere, our understanding of this phenomenon has remained largely text-based and therefore of limited analytical scope, both spatially and contextually. This book re-assesses the Old-Assyrian trade network in Upper Mesopotamia and Central Anatolia during the Middle Bronze Age (c. 1970 - 1700 BC) by combining in some analytical detail the archaeology (e.g. material culture, settlement data, etc.) of the region both on its own terms and via a range of spatial approaches. The author offers a comparative and spatial perspective on exchange networks and economic strategies, continuity and discontinuity of specific trade circuits and routes, and the evolution of political landscapes throughout the Near East in the Middle Bronze Age.

The lector is first attested during the 2nd Dynasty and is subsequently recognised throughout ancient Egypt history. In previous studies the lector is considered to be one of the categories of the ancient Egyptian priesthood. He is perceived to be responsible for the correct performance of rites, to recite invocations during temple and state ritual, and to carry out recitations and perform ritual actions during private apotropaic magic and funerary rites. Previous treatments of the lector have rarely considered the full extent of his activities, either focusing on specific aspects of his work or making general comments about his role. This present study challenges this selective approach and explores his diverse functions in a wide ranging review of the relevant evidence. Why did he accompany state organised military, trading and mining expeditions and what was his role in healing? In the temple sphere he not only executed a variety of ritual actions but he also directed ritual practices. What responsibilities did he fulfil when sitting on legal assemblies, both temple-based and in the community? Activities such as these that encompassed many aspects of ancient Egyptian life are discussed in this volume.

For more than four decades, biblical experts have tried to place the story of Exodus into historical context--without success. What could explain the Nile turning to blood, insects swarming the land, and the sky falling to darkness? Integrating biblical accounts with substantive archaeological evidence, "The Parting of the Sea" looks at how natural phenomena shaped the stories of Exodus, the Sojourn in the Wilderness, and the Israelite conquest of Canaan. Barbara Sivertsen demonstrates that the Exodus was in fact two separate exoduses both triggered by volcanic eruptions--and provides scientific explanations for the ten plagues and the parting of the Red Sea. Over time, Israelite oral tradition combined these events into the Exodus narrative known today.

Skillfully unifying textual and archaeological records with details of ancient geological events, Sivertsen shows how the first exodus followed a 1628 B.C.E Minoan eruption that produced all but one of the first nine plagues. The second exodus followed an eruption of a volcano off the Aegean island of Yali almost two centuries later, creating the tenth plague of darkness and a series of tsunamis that "parted the sea" and drowned the pursuing Egyptian army. Sivertsen's brilliant account explains inconsistencies in the biblical story, fits chronologically with the conquest of Jericho, and confirms that the Israelites were in Canaan before the end of the sixteenth century B.C.E.

In examining oral traditions and how these practices absorb and process geological details through storytelling, "The Parting of the Sea" reveals how powerful historical narratives are transformed into myth.

This book contains a selection of nineteen articles published by K.R. Veenhof, focusing on his main field of study: law and trade in the Old Babylonian and Old Assyrian society of the early second millennium B.C. They were originally published in journals, conference proceedings and collective volumes over the past fifty years. Their reissue here is motivated by their lasting value and their fundamental importance to the study of these subjects. It includes both "broad" articles, which give an introduction to or an overview of a specific subject, e.g. Old Assyrian trade and the practice of justice in Babylonia in the early second millennium B.C., and "narrow" ones that give an in-depth study of a single issue or a single text, such as a problematic paragraph of Hammurabi's law code or the meaning of the noun isurtum. The first two articles provide a general introduction to the subject; the next nine focus on Old Assyrian society, and the final eight concern Old Babylonian. The inclusion of "broad" and "narrow" articles makes this publication of interest both to the well-informed general reader interested in the Ancient Near East and to the specialist working on Old Babylonian and Old Assyrian society. Prof. dr. Klaas R. Veenhof (1935) was a teacher at the Catholic University of Nijmegen, professor at the Free University of Amsterdam and from 1982 until his retirement in 2000 professor at the University of Leiden. Key publications are his dissertation "Aspects of Old Assyrian Trade and its Terminology" (1972), "The Old Assyrian list of year eponyms from Karum Kanish and its chronological implications" (2003), and several editions of Old Assyrian texts, especially "Altassyrische Tontafeln aus Kultepe" (1992) and Kultepe Tabletleri 5 and 8 (2005 and 2010).

Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Properties in Arab States provides a bird's-eye view of the phenomenon of illicit trafficking of cultural properties and serves as a reference point for governments, enforcement agencies, international organizations, stakeholders, and civil societies. It focuses geographically on the Arab World: the countries in the Middle East, Gulf of Arabia, Horn of Africa and North Africa. To date a holistic approach to the topic in this region has been lacking. The book investigates the nature of illicit trafficking of cultural properties, the means and impact of illicit activities and crimes perpetrated against archaeological sites and museums. Through up-to-date information, grounded on solid research data, it traces the routes of illicit trafficking and analyzes the actual situation of the targeted region with an eye on the implementation of the international conventions. The aim is to investigate possible firm responses to illicit trafficking and determine the priorities and needs of this region. The outcomes are visible recommendations on the challenge of illicit trafficking of cultural properties in the Arab region, promoting modalities for sharing data and encouraging the review of legislative and judicial systems and practices connected to illicit trafficking of cultural properties. Finally, the work encourages the coordination of stakeholders and the use of technological advances to fulfil this monumental duty.

This volume is the first of a series on the ceramics from the Egypt Exploration Society's excavations in the Anubieion at Saqqara. The desert edge overlooking the Nile Valley was intensively used for two and a half millenia before its selection as the site of the mainly Ptolemaic temple. Mastaba tombs, pyramids and their associated temples, densely packed shaft tombs and a Late Dynastic cemetery came and went, many leaving evidence of former magnificence, while invisible beneath shifting sands lies fragmentary testimony to the kings, queens, nobles and commoners buried here and the priestly communities who ministered to their needs in the afterlife. Two volumes have described the surviving structures and the large and small objects found and analysed in the area's complex stratigraphy; the present volume adds the evidence of that most prolific of ancient artefacts, the pottery, for the whole period from the first use of the area until the eighth century BC. Published and some unpublished parallels from Saqqara itself, from the city of Memphis, where most of those buried here lived and died, and from further afield, place each type in its geographical and chronological context to trace the evolution of the ceramic repertoire in the Saqqara/ Memphis area through the major periods of ancient Egyptian history.

Pharmacy and Medicine in Ancient Egypt presents the proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Pharmacy and Medicine in Ancient Egypt (Barcelona, October 25-26, 2018). The conference included presentations on new research and advances in the topics covered in the first two conferences (Cairo, 2007 and Manchester, 2008). It showcased the most recent pharmaceutical and medical studies on human remains and organic and plant material from ancient Egypt, together with related discussions on textual and iconographic evidence, to evaluate the present state of knowledge and the advances we have made on pharmacy and veterinary and human medicine in Ancient Egypt. The conference program combined plenary sessions, oral communications and posters with discussions that established interdisciplinary collaborations between researchers and research groups to formulate breakthrough approaches in these fi elds. Participation in the conference and poster sessions ranged from distinguished researchers and professors from academic institutions, museums and universities, to postgraduates and doctoral students at the beginning of their careers.

The pyramids of Giza have stood for more than four thousand years, fascinating generations around the world. We think of the pyramids as mysteries, but the stones, hieroglyphs, landscape, and even layers of sand and debris around them hold stories. In Giza and the Pyramids: The Definitive History, two of the world's most eminent Egyptologists, Mark Lehner and Zahi Hawass, provide their unique insights based on more than four decades of excavating and studying the site. The celebrated Great Pyramid of Khufu, or Cheops, is the only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world still standing, but there is much more to Giza. Though we imagine the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure and the Sphinx rising from the desert, isolated and enigmatic, they were once surrounded by temples, noble tombs, vast cemeteries, and even harbors and teeming towns. This unparalleled account describes that past life in vibrant detail, along with the history of exploration, the religious and social function of the pyramids, how the pyramids were built, and the story of Giza before and after the Old Kingdom. Hundreds of illustrations, including vivid photographs of the monuments, excavations, and objects, as well as plans, reconstructions, and images from remote-controlled cameras and laser scans, help bring these monuments to life. Through the ages, Giza and the pyramids have inspired extraordinary speculations and wild theories, but here, in this definitive account, is the in-depth story as told by the evidence on the ground and by the leading authorities on the site.

Theban Tomb 188 is the sole archaeological site in the ancient Theban necropolis securely dated to the reign of the "heretic pharaoh" Akhenaten (1353-1336 BCE). The result of several years of clearance and recording by Dr. Susan Redford, director of the Akhenaten Temple Project's Theban Tomb Survey, this richly illustrated book provides a detailed description of the remaining wall scenes and texts of this historically important ancient monument. In the fourteenth century BCE, Pharaoh Akhenaten attempted to institute a radical religious reform and moved his capital city to Amarna. This book publishes important evidence related to the Amarna period in ancient Egypt, specifically the plans, reliefs, and inscriptions of Theban Tomb 188, belonging to Parennefer, the tutor and butler of the king. Dr. Redford's detailed archaeological study traces the rapid evolution of ideology, iconography, and iconoclasm, as revealed in Parennefer's tomb. The decoration kept pace with the momentous changes in the king's thinking, so that, when dovetailed with the pictorial evidence from the excavations of the great Gem-pa-aten temple at Karnak, it becomes possible to chronicle these rapid changes. This definitive study of the tomb of Parennefer will appeal to archaeologists, Egyptologists, historians of religion, and art historians working on the ancient Near East.

Most ancient history focuses on the urban elite. Papyrology explores the daily lives of the more typical men and women in antiquity. Aphrodito, a village in sixth-century AD Egypt, is antiquity's best source for micro-level social history. The archive of Dioskoros of Aphrodito introduces thousands of people living the normal business of their lives: loans, rent contracts, work agreements, marriage, divorce. In exceptional cases, the papyri show raw conflict: theft, plunder, murder. Throughout, Dioskoros struggles to keep his family in power in Aphrodito, and to keep Aphrodito independent from the local tax collectors. The emerging picture is a different vision of Roman late antiquity than what we see from the view of the urban elites. It is a world of free peasants building networks of trust largely beyond the reach of the state. Aphrodito's eighth-century AD papyri show that this world dies in the early years of Islamic rule.

The first season of survey work in 1993 was undertaken in advance of the construction of the North Challenge Road initially between Geili and Atbara. This work was carried out in the SARS concession area from BM98, opposite the Pyramids of Meroe, to Atbara. A total of 170 sites were recorded and this was published in the first volume of Road Archaeology in the Middle Nile (Mallinson et al. 96). In addition, a report was prepared advising the Sudan National Committee for Roads and Bridges of areas which were likely to be damaged by the road construction. The following year it was indicated that due to the advanced development of the road design no rerouting would be possible. In response to this a rescue season was proposed to excavate the sites clearly at risk in the remaining few months before construction and grading began. A limited amount of funds was provided by the Haycock Fund and within this resource a project was assembled with SARS directed by Laurence Smith and Michael Mallinson. As a total of eight sites with 30 archaeological structures appeared directly on the road line a methodology was needed that would permit these to be properly excavated and recorded in the available time of three weeks that the funds would accommodate.

How can the built environment help in the understanding of social and economic changes involving ancient local communities? Arab Settlements aims to shed light on the degree to which economic and political changes affected social and identity patterns in the regional context from the Nabatean through to the Umayyad and Abbasid periods. Settlement analysis is understood to be a crucial tool for accessing the local material culture and characterising the specific identities of the concerned societies. For this purpose, the author compares eight case studies across the Middle East, considering their spatial organisation over a long period (2nd - 9th centuries AD). For the interpretation of the remains, the anthropological concepts of 'segmented societies' and 'pastoralism' are fundamental, providing possible explanations of some spatial patterns attested in the case-studies. The idea of 'Oriental' settlements underscores the marked continuity in the organisation of the buildings and the use of space revealed on different levels between the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods. Furthermore, the label of 'Arab settlements' is proposed in this context, highlighting the direct connection between social identities and built environment, with a direct reference to the development of an 'Arab' identity.

The Seventh Central European Conference of Egyptologists. Egypt 2015: Perspectives of Research (CECE7) was held at the University of Zagreb in Croatia in 2015. It was co-organised by two scholarly institutions: the Department of History at the Centre for Croatian Studies of the University of Zagreb, Croatia (Dr Mladen Tomorad), and the Department of Ancient Cultures of the Pultusk Academy of Humanities in Pultusk, Poland (Dr Joanna Popielska-Grzybowska). This book presents a selection of papers which were read at the conference. The volume is divided into six sections in which thirty-two scholars from fourteen European countries cover various fields of modern Egyptological research. The first group of five papers is devoted to language, literature and religious texts; in the second section three authors describe various themes related to art, iconography and architectural studies; the third group contains four contributions on current funerary and burial studies; in the fourth (largest) section, ten authors present their recent research on material culture and museum studies; the fifth is concerned with the history of Ancient Egypt; and in the last (sixth), two authors examine modern Egyptomania and the 19th century travellers to Egypt.

This book draws together the records from the excavations in the area of the Meroitic temple complex at Qasr Ibrim that took place mainly in the 1970s. This is the only major temple complex in Lower Nubia excavated in modern times. This volume provides an account of the excavations, as well as studies of the temple's painted decoration, the numerous graffiti on its walls and floors, and its fixtures and fittings, including several monumental Meroitic stelae. It highlights the role of the temple as a point of contact between Roman Egypt and the Meroitic Sudanese state.

Archaeology and Bible--two simple terms, often used together, understood by everybody. But are they understood properly? If so, why are both subject to such controversy? And what can archaeology contribute to our understanding of the Bible? These are the problems addressed by Professor Dever in this book.

Dever first looks at the nature and recent development of both archaeology and Biblical studies, and then lays the groundwork for a new a productive relationship between these two disciplines. His "case studies" are three eras in Israelite history: the period of settlement in Canaan, the period of the United Monarchy, and the period of religious development, chiefly during the Divided Monarchy. In each case Dever explores by means of recent discoveries what archaeology, couples with textual study, can contribute to the illumination of the life and times of ancient Israel.

Given the flood of new information that has come from recent archaeological discoveries, Dever has chosen to draw evidence largely from excavations and surveys done in Israel in the last ten years--many still unpublished--concerning archaeology and the Old Testament.

Dever's work not only brings the reader up to date on recent archaeological discoveries as they pertain to the Hebrew Bible, but indeed goes further in offering an original interpretation of the relationship between the study of the Bible and the uncovering of the material culture of the ancient Near East. Extensive notes, plus the use of much new and/or unpublished data, will make the volume useful to graduate students and professors in the fields of Biblical studies and Syro-Palestinian archaeology, and the seminarians, pastors, rabbis, and others. This book provides stimulating, provocative, and often controversial reading as well as a compendium of valuable insights and marginalia that symbolizes the state of the art of Biblical archaeology today.

Asia Minor is considered to have been a fairly prosperous region in Late Antiquity. It was rarely disturbed by external invasions and remained largely untouched by the continuous Roman-Persian conflict until very late in the period, was apparently well connected to the flourishing Mediterranean economy and, as the region closest to Constantinople, is assumed to have played an important part in the provisioning of the imperial capital and the imperial armies. When exactly this prosperity came to an end - the late sixth century, the early, middle or even later seventh century - remains a matter of debate. Likewise, the impact of factors such as the dust veil event of 536, the impact of the bubonic plague that made its first appearance in AD 541/542, the costs and consequences of Justinian's wars, the Persian attacks of the early seventh century and, eventually the Arab incursions of around the middle of the seventh century, remains controversial. This volume explores a series of themes including the physical development of large and small settlements, their financial situation, and the proportion of public and private investment. Imperial, provincial, and local initiatives in city and countryside are compared and the main motivations examined, including civic or personal pride, military incentives and religious stimuli. The evidence presented will be used to form opinions on the impact of the plague on living circumstances in the sixth century and to evaluate the significance of the Justinianic period.

Domesticating Empire is the first contextually-oriented monograph on Egyptian imagery in Roman households. Caitlin Barrett draws on case studies from Flavian Pompeii to investigate the close association between representations of Egypt and a particular type of Roman household space: the domestic garden. Through paintings and mosaics portraying the Nile, canals that turned the garden itself into a miniature "Nilescape," and statuary depicting Egyptian themes, many gardens in Pompeii offered ancient visitors evocations of a Roman vision of Egypt. Simultaneously faraway and familiar, these imagined landscapes made the unfathomable breadth of empire compatible with the familiarity of home. In contrast to older interpretations that connect Roman "Aegyptiaca" to the worship of Egyptian gods or the problematic concept of "Egyptomania," a contextual analysis of these garden assemblages suggests new possibilities for meaning. In Pompeian houses, Egyptian and Egyptian-looking objects and images interacted with their settings to construct complex entanglements of "foreign" and "familiar," "self" and "other." Representations of Egyptian landscapes in domestic gardens enabled individuals to present themselves as sophisticated citizens of empire. Yet at the same time, household material culture also exerted an agency of its own: domesticizing, familiarizing, and "Romanizing" once-foreign images and objects. That which was once imagined as alien and potentially dangerous was now part of the domus itself, increasingly incorporated into cultural constructions of what it meant to be "Roman." Featuring brilliant illustrations in both color and black and white, Domesticating Empire reveals the importance of material culture in transforming household space into a microcosm of empire.

Among the numerous deities in the ancient Egyptian mythology, whose nature and function are still vague and obscure, are ms.w Bdst - 'Children of Weakness'. These beings are twice mentioned in the Book of the Dead chapter 17. The text fragments contain two local versions of the myth with ms.w Bdst - Hermopolitan (Urk. V: Abs. 1), and Heliopolitan (Urk. V: Abs. 22). Since the last text describes the combat between Re and the 'Children of Weakness', the same is likely to be reflected on the vignette, which depicts the battle of Re against ms.w Bdst, metaphorically shown in the form of a serpent. This book is a comprehensive study of the 'Children of Weakness' myth and the scene depicting the cat, cutting off the head of the serpent under the branches of the isd-tree found on the number of Book of the Dead chapter 17 vignettes.

The hypocephalus is an element of Late Period and Ptolemaic funerary equipment - an amuletic disc placed under the head of mummies. Its shape emulates the sun's disc, and its form is planar, although it occasionally has a concave shape (in such cases, it protects the head as a funerary cap). The earliest known example can be dated to the 4th century BC and the latest to the 2nd/1st century BC. The Hypocephalus: an Ancient Egyptian Funerary Amulet analyses both the written records and iconography of these objects. So far, 158 examples are known; several, unfortunately, from old descriptions only. The relatively low number shows that the object was not a widespread item of funerary equipment. Only priest and priestly families used them, those of Amon in Thebes, of Min in Akhmim, and the ones of Ptah in Memphis. Among the examples, no two are identical. In some details, every piece is an individualized creation. Ancient Egyptian theologians certainly interpreted hypocephali as the iris of the wedjat-eye, amidst which travels the sun-god in his hidden, mysterious and tremendous form(s). The hypocephalus can be considered as the sun-disk itself. It radiates light and energy towards the head of the deceased, who again becomes a living being, feeling him/herself as 'one with the Earth' through this energy. The texts and the iconography derive principally from the supplementary chapters of the Book of the Dead. Some discs directly cite the text of spell 162 which furnishes the mythological background of the invention of the disc by the Great Cow, who protected her son Re by creating the disc at his death.

Pottery of Manqabad presents a catalogue of selected pottery from the monastic site of Manqabad (Asyut, Egypt), which has, since 2011, been the object of an ongoing study and conservation project at the University of Naples 'L'Orientale' (UNIOR). The ceramic material, dated to the Late Antique Period, derives mostly from the SCA warehouse of el-Ashmunein, where it was kept soon after its accidental discovery in 1965. About 40 items derive from the surface collection and survey conducted on the site during the last fieldwork season (2018). The typologies identified include the most relevant Byzantine classes and a particular link with production from the Middle Egypt region. Part of the field survey was devoted to the analysis of the pottery material still in situ, found in the Northern Sector of the site where a 230m long row of monastic housing units is located. Further investigations will hopefully support the hypothesis of a local pottery production area, which could be identified in a large 'dump' at the southern end of the site. More generally, the analysis of the ceramics from Manqabad has underlined the undoubtedly high cultural level of the local monastic community, which can be deduced also from the textual, architectural and wall depiction evidence from the site. Manqabad was largely unknown to the scientific community, but since the first season of work by the Italian-Egyptian project, it has emerged as an important venue for the religious development of Coptic culture between the second half of the Vth to the end of the VIII- early IXth century AD.

Current Research in Egyptology 2017 presents papers delivered during the eighteenth meeting of this international conference, held at the University of Naples "L'Orientale", 3-6 May, 2017. Some 122 scholars from all over the world gathered in Naples to attend three simultaneous sessions of papers and posters, focussed on a large variety of subjects: Graeco-Roman and Byzantine Egypt, Nubian Studies, Language and Texts, Art and Architecture, Religion and Cult, Field Projects, Museums and Archives, Material Culture, Mummies and Coffins, Society, Technologies applied to Egyptology, Environment. The participants attended seven keynote presentations given by Rosanna Pirelli (Egyptologist), Irene Bragantini (Roman Archaeologist) and Andrea Manzo (Nubian Archaeologist) from the University of Naples "L'Orientale"; Marilina Betro (Egyptologist) from Pisa University; Patrizia Piacentini (Egyptologist) from Milan University; Christian Greco (Director of Turin Egyptian Museum) and Daniela Picchi (Archaeological Museum of Bologna). Delegates were able to take advantage of a guided tour of the Oriental Museum Umberto Scerrato (University of Naples "L'Orientale"), access to the National Archaeological Museum of Naples (MANN) and guided tours of the archaeological site of Pompeii and the Gaiola Underwater Park. The editors dedicate this volume to the late Prof. Claudio Barocas who inaugurated the teaching of Egyptology and Coptic Language and Literature in Naples.