The Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period royal decrees were documents commissioned by the king and placed at the gates of temples with important messages concerning the regulation of work, cultic, and economic activities. In this article I review the validity of these texts as sources of historical research for modern scholars and their effective use as documents by the ancient Egyptians. I propose that royal decrees offer valuable information concerning the king's access and impact on temple economies at the end of the Old Kingdom and beginning of the First Intermediate Period. This access remained continuous and unchanged until the second half of the reign of Pepi II when non-royal patronage becomes more prominent in the texts and the presence of royal sealings decreases. I challenge the impression that royal decrees had no practical validity for the ancient Egyptians by showing that the permissions and restrictions exposed in the decrees are consistent with shifts in rhetoric and external evidence for historical change at the end of the Old Kingdom.
A recent project concerning the Portico of Obelisks in Hatshepsut's temple at Deir el-Bahari included documenting the decoration at a higher resolution than the 1908 publication by & Eacute;douard Naville, yielding interesting linguistic, visual, and historical details regarding Hatshepsut's boats. The linguistic element concerns the name of a vessel discovered after combining the text on a loose block and an inscription in the reconstructed part of the portico's wall. A both linguistic and visual detail is the specific hieroglyph used as the determinative for the obelisk barge, probably showing its appearance. The detailed depiction of various types of boats taking part in transporting obelisks is the visual part, which still raises issues concerning the historic accuracy of the scenes. New block identification allowed us to identify the boat name, to confirm some boat structures, and also to confirm the presence of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III in the scene.
The article provides a comprehensive analysis of how the term "Canaan" and its variations are used in Egyptian sources from the New Kingdom period. It explores the appearances of "Canaan" and "Canaanite" in various contexts, such as military campaigns, topographical lists, monumental inscriptions, and administrative records. Through a detailed examination of these sources, the study aims to clarify whether these terms refer to the entire region known as Canaan or to specific localities within it, such as Gaza. When the ethnicon "Canaanite" is used, it is possible to determine that the individuals came from the land of Canaan, and that the term does not mean "Gazan." The findings highlight that "Pa-Canaan" should be translated as "that which belongs to Canaan," and that the article "p;" should not be understood as the definite article, but as the possessive article/prefix "p;-(n)." The toponym "Canaan" in topographical lists appears in specific geographical contexts, namely together with Sharuhen and Raphiah on the coastal plain of the southern Levant, and once next to Ashtarot and Rehob in the Beth Shean Valley, and seems to refer to a specific place rather than a region or land, namely Gaza and its environs.
This paper will explore the ritual power and significance of gold for Nubian cultic practitioners at the ancient Egyptian temple of Philae, located at the traditional border between Egypt and Nubia. Philae was a place of cultural, religious, economic, and military interaction between Egyptian and Nubian populations, both of whom engaged in religious practices at the temple, often jointly. Though co-religionists, Nubian practice diverged in specific ways from that of Egyptian priests and practitioners. Long associated with gold, Nubia served as the primary source of this precious metal for ancient Egypt. This paper will explore the presentation of gold by Nubians at the temple of Philae as recorded in hieroglyphic texts that decorate the temple walls and in the words of Nubian visitors who inscribed their prayer texts on the temple walls primarily in the Egyptian language (Demotic), but also in the Meroitic language and in Greek. Additionally, I will describe the unique symbolism and ritual power of gold in the Nubian religious practices at Philae.
Representations of the military provide important sources of evidence for our understanding of how the instability of the civil war impacted the values and priorities of the ruling elite. This paper examines all of the known elite military wall scenes and funerary models from the First Intermediate Period and early Middle Kingdom by investigating their owners, content, and locations in the tomb. Through an innovative comparative analysis, this paper identifies, for the first time, the distinguishing features between the two media in their portrayal of the military. It proposes reasons for their distinctive representations and what stimulated the appearance of the military theme among funerary models. By considering these artistic developments alongside the changing historical circumstances, the analysis reveals that a period of instability in society impacted the ruling elite's preparation for the afterlife, increasing the desire to publicly promote their military leadership and to maintain eternal access to protection.
