The anonymous mastaba AS 106 was archaeologically investigated by the Czech Institute of Egyptology in 2018. Its architectural layout remained quite well preserved, although it had suffered from looting activities in the past. The tomb consists of a rectangular north south oriented mastaba, which was constructed of mud bricks and sand bricks, creating its outer walls, and fill of limestone chips as its core. It contains two burial shafts and a cruciform chapel that were built into the masonry of the mastaba. The eastern wall of the mastaba is protected by a perimeter wall with an entrance to the tomb complex in the north. Although the name of the tomb owner as well as his titulary were not preserved, the architecture and pottery equipment point to his lower social position. The dating of the tomb was also based on its archi tectural and pottery analyses. Both denoted the early Fifth Dynasty. Two contexts with larger amounts of pottery discarded from the cultic places indicated that the mortuary cult at AS 106 lasted at least until the end of the Sixth Dynasty.
Coffins made of clay, unfired or fired, were not common in the burial assemblage in the Early Dynastic Period and the Old Kingdom. They appear sporadically, in only a few cases compared to the total number of graves across various cemeteries. Some pottery coffins from these periods have small holes in their bottoms and lower sidewalls. The purpose of the perforations remains unclear. However, another type of puncture typically located in the upper part of the sidewalls, often in the corners, and in the lids seems to have been made for practical reasons.
At Karnak, in the courtyard of the Middle Kingdom, a mysterious little platform has been observed four times since it was excavated in 1947 by H. Chevrier. In 2021, the dismantling of its north east corner revealed, 80 cm below its surface, the remains of a Middle Kingdom garden on which Byzantine ceramics were unex pectedly found. The same pottery was found deeper down, where the garden had been destroyed by a deep foundation trench. This article will explain why the platform could only have been built from the Byzantine period onwards to fill the drainage shaft installed by Amenhotep I in his limestone foundation.
The representation of territory was a longstanding concern for the ancient Egyptians. They produced a considerable body of documentation that offers valuable insights into their understanding and conceptualisation of their land and areas beyond. Rooted in the religious domain, this body of documents forms what I termed a Sacred Geography Discourse. This discourse is primarily known in its Greco¬ Roman period form. However, the earliest geographical lists, notably the first processions featuring fecundity figures that personify geographical entities, can be traced back to the Old Kingdom. Originating in the Third Millennium BC, this discourse can be examined through the structure of these documents, the entities they depict, and the accompanying captions related to the fecundity figures. By analysing these elements in conjunction with changes in territorial organisation and the administrative apparatus during the Fifth Dynasty, it is possible to trace the origins of the Sacred Geography Discourse and determine when it began to reflect a deliberate conceptualisation of territory.
Despite the numerous projects carried out at the Qubbet el¬ Hawa necropolis during the 19th and 20th centuries, no work was undertaken in tomb QH33 until 2008. The tomb was reused during the periods following its constrction in the late 12th Dynasty, during the reigns of Senwosret III and Amenemhet III (1837–1773 BC). The period of re¬ use spanned from the Second Intermediate Period to the Late Period. Consequently, numerous artefacts were unearthed during the excavation conducted by the University of Jaén in 2008–2018. The present article aims to present unpublished material from QH33, namely an assemblage of stone sarcophagi from the final periods of occupation of the tomb corresponding to the Saite and Persian Periods (26th and 27th Dynasties, 600–500 BC).
During the excavation of the mastaba of Vizier Ptahshepses at Abusir in 1968, Zbyněk Žába, the then director of the Czechoslovak mission, found almost two thousand relief fragments in one of the rooms of the spacious tomb. The assemblage included numbered and unnumbered pieces that had been stored there by German Egyptologist Ludwig Borchardt, who uncovered three royal pyramids and several non¬ royal tombs at Abusir in the first decade of the 20th century. A thorough examination of the field documentation (photos and drawings) prepared by Žába’s team showed that many of the fragments originated from the excavation of Nyuserre’s pyramid complex and the adjacent non¬ royal tombs. This paper focuses on selected fragments of relief decoration from non¬ royal tombs, which extend our knowledge of afterlife dwellings in the hitherto almost unexplored cemetery situated between the pyramids of Nyuserre and Sahure and around the latter.
Between 1946 and 1947, Labib Habachi conducted archaeological excavations on Elephantine Island with the objective of excavating Heqaib’s sanctuary. During these excavations, Habachi unearthed some artefacts out of its surrounding areas, but he did not consider them substantial. Among these objects, there was a pottery oval artefact (No. 123) that was interpreted as a lamp by the Egyptologist. However, some reviews and recent studies of the area have raised some doubts about this object and its actual function. Therefore, this paper analyses the above¬ mentioned object and discusses Habachi’s proposal. In short, a votive function and a possible link with Khnum’s temple are suggested.
In the autumn of 2022, field research was resumed in the western part of Jebel Sabaloka in central Sudan. Attention was paid to two sites: Garn el -Tamada (SBK.W-67) investigated for the first time only in the reported field campaign, and Fox Hill (SBK.W-20) whose archaeological potential had been explored in detail already in previous years. In this report we present the main findings and observations made during three weeks in the field and highlight their relevance for extending the understanding of late prehistory of central Sudan as regards both the diversity of hunter -gatherer way of life as well as the complexity of the Mesolithic- -Neolithic transition.
The political conditions that arose in Egypt after the conquest by Alexander the Great and later by Augustus certainly led to profound changes in the social and cultural structure of the country in a multicultural way. Under these foreign dominations, the use of the plant world also changed. New plant species were imported, and new crops were established. The rose of heaven (Silene coeli -rosa (L.) Godr.) can be well considered among these newly introduced species since not native to Egypt, nor attested in Egypt before the Ptolemaic time. The contribution examines all the accessible data on Silene coeli -rosa (L.) Godr. It includes the results of the analyses on the archaeobotanical material of the rose of heaven preserved in European museums, as well as the mention of other archaeobotanical attestations that could not be seen in person. Textual data from papyri are also included, after a discussion of the possible ancient names of the plant. The data are then considered together to investigate: the way of introduction and diffusion of the species in the territory and all the possible fields in which it may have come into use (food, medical, and ornamental). The study shows a limited diffusion in the Egyptian land, but specific importance of the use of the plant in Fayum garlands, particularly in their innovative manufacture of the Graeco -Roman period. Its involvement in this type of innovation shows the complexity in which newly introduced plant species can be involved in phenomena of cultural contact and change.
This paper makes a case that the nb.t or “basket” whose surface area is calculated in Problem 10 of the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus is a segment of a circle whose two given dimensions – base of 9 and height of 4½ – identify it as a semicircular segment. The area is found by configuring the two given dimensions as the sides of a rectangle and then reducing the long side of the rectangle by two successive reductions of : 9 – = 8, and 8 – =7 , the product of 7 and 4½ yielding the area of the figure, 32. The shape of the nb.t has also been construed by other scholars as a hemisphere and as the lateral area of a semicylinder, with plausible- -sounding arguments mustered in favor of those interpretations. Those interpretations, however, depend upon operations not otherwise attested in the Middle Egyptian mathematical papyri. The interpretation put forth here is that the nb.t belongs to a family of two -dimensional plane figures having a flat base called a tp r, this dimension shortened by a figure -specific algorithm and multiplied together with a given second dimension to give the area of the figure.
In the spring season of 2023, another structure was excavated in the group of large shaft tombs situated in the western part of the Abusir necropolis and dating to late 26th or early 27th Dynasty. This tomb, lying about 30 meters from the sepulchre of Menekhibnekau, is of a middle size, with a burial chamber situated at a depth of 14 m. The burial chamber was accessible through a small shaft adjoining the northern side of the structure. Surprisingly, almost half of the depth of this shaft was found blocked with larger and smaller limestone blocks (some of them covered with reliefs) coming from the superstructure of the nearby tomb of Menekhibnekau. The chamber was almost completely filled with a white limestone sarcophagus. Its outer sides, as well as the sides of the chamber, were covered with a set of religious texts cut in relief. Inside the sarcophagus, orientated with its head to the north, a large figure of the goddess of the West was depicted. The tomb belonged to the “royal scribe” and “royal acquaintance” Djehutyemhat, whose parents were named Harsiese and mistress of the house Tashek (with another name Waheret). According to the anthropological examination, Djehutyemhat died at an age of about 25 years and was related to Iufaa and Menekhibnekau, the owners of much larger tombs situated nearby. The tomb, found without remains of any superstructure, was robbed already in antiquity.
Some of the rulers of the Eighteenth Dynasty applied the designations of “Cool Waters of Horus and Seth” for marking their borders. These terms most certainly referred to the northern and southern celestial borders of the Egyptian Empire, and although they were surely geographically inspired, they cannot be tied to any specific geographical locations. The probable location of “the Cool Water of Horus” can solely be found on the Yale fragment of a late Egyptian world map positioned in its north western corner at the outer edge of the primal waters of the cosmos, beyond the depiction of the foreign countries of the region. Interestingly, “the Cool Water of Seth” was contrasted with the location of that of Horus in some of the royal inscriptions of the Eighteenth Dynasty. It must have been placed along the outer margin of the southern border of the Egyp tian cosmos. According to the royal ideology of the Eighteenth Dynasty, the pharaoh – who simultaneously embodied the composite power of Horus and Seth as he received his legitimacy to rule from both gods – was responsible for ensuring the eternal unity and prosperity of Lower and Upper Egypt, the mighty earthly river of which would also have been fed by these heavenly waters. Because of the will of the two gods, the Eighteenth Dynasty rulers could extend their power not only over Egypt but even farther to the surrounding foreign countries as far as “the Cool Waters of Horus and Seth” were imagined at the outer edges of the cosmos. There lay the ideologically “legitimate” northern and southern borders of the Egyptian Empire or at least for some of the most dominant Eighteenth Dynasty pharaohs, who were regarded with great appreciation by later rulers attempting to follow suit in their own royal ideology from time to time in a somewhat altered form.
The core fill of Khuwy’s tomb mostly consists of pebbles and pottery, mainly including rough ware such as beer jars and bread moulds. Nevertheless, one area in the tomb core fill contained sherds of fine ware bearing the remains of Old Hieratic inscriptions. These can be identified as jar dockets that were once among large- and medium sized storage jars with offerings. Even though the writings are very fragmentary, they still contain references to the dates of probably Djedkare’s reign as well as to the temple of Ptah. The origin of these jar dockets is unclear, but they were likely refuse of offerings from another tomb at Djedkare’s royal necropolis.
The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the Egyptian Section of the Museum of Crema (Italy). The first core of the collection comes from that of the late Carla Maria Burri (1935–2009), who worked in Egypt between the 1960s and 2000s. Moreover, the donation to the Museum of Crema of another private collection has been formalized at the beginning of 2020. The highlights from both collections are here discussed and presented together with the latest additions to the Egyptian Section, consisting of some antiquities from the collection of the late Professor Giampiero Guerreschi.
Kyphi was used as both incense and medicament during a very long period in ancient Egypt, as is attested in Papyrus Ebers and other sources. The present work is a continuation of recent papers and a book concerning the comparative study of the ancient Egyptian kyphi and the Orthodox Holy Chrism, with freshly confected kyphi containing all its 16 ingredients, at the premises of the Oenological Chemical Laboratory of the Agricultural University of Athens. Based on the recent results obtained from two independent Laboratories, this study attempts, in a third independent Laboratory, both to replicate a part of the previous experiments and to extend the scientific investigation, comparing the effectiveness of ancient Egyptian kyphi and pure smoke on other micro organisms. The possible antimicrobial effects of pure smoke and of kyphi smoke are investigated by performing fumigation experiments on bacterial and fungal cultures. Thus, the antifungal and antimicrobial activity of kyphi is studied by performing fumigation experiments to cultivations of Morga nella morganii W. ssp morganii [Gram (–) bacterium], Escherichia coli M. [Gram (–) bacterium], Staphylococcus hominis K.&S. ssp hominis [Gram (+) coccus], Staphylococcus epidermidis W.&W. [Gram (+) coccus], Klebsiella pneumoniæ S.&T. ssp pneumoniae [Gram (–) bacterium], and Candida albicans (R.) B. [Gram (+) fungus] in different conditions. The results show that the action of fumigation (pure smoke and kyphi) on selective and differential culture media has almost no effect on the growth of micro organisms. However, there is a clear direct effect of smoke (pure smoke and kyphi) on the micro organisms that appears stronger with kyphi in all dilutions (and mostly in 1/1000). The experimental data reinforce the evidence from previous studies that the impact of kyphi on yeasts is mostly greater than that on bacteria and cocci, with indeed notable results at the 1/1000 dilution. The addition of all components of kyphi did not negate its antimicrobial activity but enhanced it, mainly against Gram (–) bacteria and less against Gram (+) cocci. Thus, the antimicrobial action of kyphi should be considered collectively, together with all its ingredients.
Ancient Egyptian barque oracles had a recent counterpart in the phenomenon of “table turning”, an occult process experienced in Nineteenth Century Spiritualist séances. The séance table’s small scale successor, the Talking Board, ensured that oracular locomotion persisted throughout the Twentieth Century; its best known embodiment – the Ouija board – remains popular even today. Scientific studies have helped to elucidate the behavioural drivers that govern table turning and Ouija sessions; these reveal that good faith groups are dominated by an auto suggestive process known as the ideomotor response (IMR). Learnings from such studies suggest that a hierarchy of up to four drivers (two conscious and conditional, two unconscious and continuous) would have underpinned the significance laden movements of Egyptian barque oracles. Such oracles constitute an early form of what is today called Artificial Swarm Intelligence (ASI); “human swarming” enables networks of individuals whose interactions are governed by real time feedback loops to converge quickly on optimal solutions. The paper also examines the possibility that Ouija – the name bestowed in 1891 upon the “Egyptian luck board” that went on to dominate the Talking Board market – might genuinely reflect an ancient Egyptian word with the approximate sense of “good luck”, just as the board’s pioneers claimed it did.
This paper describes the archaeological, topographical and geomorphological survey and modelling of the topography of Dra Abu el Naga from prior to the building of the New Kingdom tombs until today. The ancient topography of Dra Abu el Naga has been reconstructed, offering a more accurate and complete image of this part of the necropolis for the study of its organisation, and the distribution and placement of the tombs. This work opens up new lines of investigation into the landscape of the necropolis and this approach could be productively applied to other ancient Egyptian tombs, necropolises and funerary landscapes in general.
This article examines and explores the attested occurrences of the linguistic metaphors of deafness in the Egyptian literary, biographical and medical texts, with a special examination of their significances and con notations. It examines how the Egyptian culture expresses its values through various metaphors of deafness. The article also considers the virtues and vices of deafness in literary and biographical contexts. It examines the cognitive approaches to different lexical semantics of the Egyptian words for deafness. Comparative liter ary, biographical and medical sources, inscriptions in private tombs, statues, papyri and stelae are examined. The article also examines deafness to Maat and its consequences. The Egyptian lexemes and expressions designating deafness will be examined in lexicographical, phraseological and thematic textual analyses.
In the 2021 archaeological season at Abusir, the shaft of the tomb of Wahibremeryneit, containing the largest intact embalming deposit ever found in Egypt was excavated. From about 370 transport amphorae discovered in different states of preservation, more than 250 have been hitherto examined, including a fine assemblage of Greek transport amphorae. Aside from smaller or larger ceramic vessels which were put into amphorae, the other waste embalming material comprised a mixture of sand, lumps of clay/mud, chaff, straw, charcoal, myrrh, fragments of wood and a rather large quantity of decayed linen cloth impregnated with oil and other substances. This embalming deposit is very valuable as it contains all of the materials used by embalmers in the mummification of the body of commander of the troops of Greek mercenaries Wahibremeryneit.
The rock -cut tomb of Penmes is located on the so -called Bubasteion cemetery at Saqqara, a site which has been explored by the Egyptian mission of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities headed by Dr. Mostafa Waziri, Secretary General of the SCA. The tomb was found during the end of the second excavation season in 2019. The article describes the architecture of the tomb, which contained some decorated elements such as a window slab and a false door, as well as finds including wooden statues. In addition, inscriptions provide us with evidence on the tomb owner and the members of his family that can be confronted with the preliminary results of the investigation of human remains found in the tomb.
