Ancient Egypt & North Africa (incl. Roman period)
More general subjects:
Clashing Religions in Ancient Egypt
Exploring Different Layers of Religious Beliefs
What did ‘religion’ mean for the Ancient Egyptians? Was the state involved in acting as a unifying and founding force for Egyptian religion or can we still identify some clashes between different religious practices? To what extent did different rituals practices and beliefs intersect and merge across time and space? Such questions have long preoccupied scholars working in the field but they have often only been considered through the lens of official ‘centralized’ texts. Yet increasingly there is an acknowledgement that such texts require calibration from archaeological data in order to offer a more nuanced understanding of how people must have lived and worshipped.
The chapters gathered in the volume aim to offer a thorough exploration of Egyptian cultural and religious beliefs and to explore how these impacted on other areas of daily life. Contributors explore the connection between religion and central power the paradigms around burial and access to the afterlife the interconnections between religion demonology magic and medicine and the impact of multicultural interaction on the religious landscape. What emerges from this discussion is an understanding that the only truly identifiable clash is that between modern Eurocentric perspectives and the views of the ancient Egyptians themselves.
Coins of the Ptolemaic Empire, Part 2: Ptolemy V through Cleopatra VII
Volume 1: Historical Introduction, Volume 2: Catalogue of Precious-Metal Coins, Volume 3: Catalogue of Bronze Coins
Thirty years in the making Coins of the Ptolemaic Empire Part II by Catharine C. Lorber is the long-anticipated second half of the Coins of the Ptolemaic Empire (CPE) project featuring the coins struck by Ptolemy V–Cleopatra VII. As with Part 1 Lorber essentially rewrites the sections on these rulers in J. N. Svoronos’ classic but now much out-of-date Ta Nomismata tou Kratous ton Ptolemaion (1904). The body of coinage catalogued by Svoronos is enlarged by hundreds of additional emissions in precious metal and bronze recorded from subsequent scholarship from hoards from commercial sources and from private collections. Lorber’s attributions dates and interpretations rest on numismatic research conducted after Svoronos or on the latest archaeological and hoard information. She also provides extensive historical and numismatic introductions that give the coins deeper context and meaning.
Hathor la Menit dans les temples de Dendara et d’Edfou
Une étude philologique, iconographique et sémiologique
Cette recherche se positionne dans la continuité d’une première étude portant sur le collier-menit dans les temples ptolémaïques et publiée dans la collection Monographies Reine Élisabeth. Ce collier qui est un des objets sacrés d’Hathor porte également le nom de l’entité divine du même nom forme d’Hathor de Dendara et d’Edfou dont cette étude fait l’objet. En tant que forme d’Hathor quels sont les termes les parures les actions la gestuelle qui pouvaient la différencier de la grande Hathor si toutefois cela est envisageable ces deux divinités étant intimement associées ?
Une partie de cette recherche porte sur l’étude de la chapelle du collier-menit. Les textes et les épithètes de la déesse ont été ici analysés d’un point de vue stylistique afin d’essayer de comprendre la démarche des hiérogrammates et la raison d’être d’une telle chapelle dédiée à Hathor la Menit sachant que pour les deux autres formes secondaires d’Hathor : « Hathor-chef-du-grand-siège » et « Hathor-uraeus » il n’en existe point.
Hathor la Menit est la récipiendaire de nombreuses offrandes qui ont été étudiées et contextualisées afin de comprendre son implication dans chacune de ces scènes et de cerner au mieux la personnalité de cette déesse. Son étude dans le temple d’Edfou s’imposait afin de comprendre comment elle était perçue dans ce temple apollonopolitain.
Les travaux rhétoriques P. Oxy. 1827 et 4810 : deux copies du même scribe
P. Oxy. XV 1827 (= MP3 2548) et LXXI 4810 (= MP3 2293.01) conservent des fragments de littérature oratoire. Les deux copies sont l'oeuvre du meême scribe. L'exercice rhétorique 4810 tire sa substance des chapitres XXXI-XXXVI du livre I de Thucydide. Le rhéteur de 1827 a recueilli des matériaux lexicographiques phraséologiques et idéologiques dans les deux longs discours suscités par l'affaire de la Couronne (Eschine vs. Démosthène) sans nécessairement traiter le même sujet.
La tradizione fulgurale antica e medievale con la riedizione di un testimone della ceraunoscopia greca (P.Oxy. VI 885)
Examine in detail the ancient and medieval tradition of ceraunoscopy that is the divinatory interpretation of lightning. Furthermore it offers a new edition of with commentary on P.Oxy. VI 885 an important papyrological testimony to ceraunoscopy.
Céramique incisée et vision du monde à l’époque nagadienne. À propos d’un vase inédit du musée de Berlin
Un vase inédit conservé au musée de Berlin présente un décor gravé qui peut sans doute possible être attribué à la culture nagadienne. Original par certains aspects ce décor trouve des parallèles auprès d’autres vases incisés lesquels permettent d’en proposer une datation et au-delà une interprétation de sa frise de motifs et surtout de la structure qu’ils adoptent.
The ‘anatomical’ crescent-shaped structure in Gardiner Sign-List F 34 and F 35
If our aim is to study the ancient Egyptian views on human medicine we need to relinquish our present-day anatomy model and examine what the ancient Egyptians believed about anatomy. The best information can be acquired by the precise observation of the organs depicted in the artistic renderings of butchery scenes and the details we find on the hieroglyphs F34 and F35. The “crescent-shaped structure” which both signs have in common plays a crucial role in the three-dimensional model we propose that connects heart stomach and lungs to form a single unit. Using relevant excerpts from pEbers the article demonstrates that this anatomical model with its direct reciprocal correlation is entirely acceptable in emic terms and corresponds completely to the function that has been attributed to each of these organs both in their normal healthy state and in pathological deviations.
Two Tax Receipts with Familiar Figures
Editions of two papyri from the British Library each of which belongs to well-known clusters: the receipts for merismos paid by Makaris son of Kerekos at Kerkesoucha Orous and the receipts for diagraphon paid by Kosma son of Proou probably at Saqqara.
Un sonaglietto inedito da Medinet Madi
Madinet Madi Missione congiunta delle Universita à di Pisa e Messina novembre 2001. In una piccola cantina sono stati rinvenuti diversi oggetti tutti in legno in particolare un sonaglietto (cm l. 161) la cui parte superiore e è fatta da giunco intrecciato mentre il manico e è costituito da fibre di papiro arrotolate. Potrebbe essere identificato con lo strumento a percussione greco detto πλαταγή.
Rezar, educar, proteger : el Salmo 1 en la documentación papirológica procedente del Egipto tardoantiguo
The testimonies to Psalm 1 from late antique Egypt reflect the enduring popularity of this text though its specific uses often remain uncertain. As the opening psalm of a book (Psalms) widely employed in both liturgical and educational contexts it is plausible that some of these testimonies were originally copied for such purposes. Furthermore given its promise of “bearing fruit in due season” it is not surprising that Psalm 1 was also invoked to secure divine protection potentially holding special significance for pregnant women.
Tutankhamun’s mummy equipment: wonderful and not so wonderful things
This comprehensive review of F. Haas Dantes’ Transformation eines Königs: eine Analyse der Ausstattung von Tutanchamuns Mumie (Basel 2022) carefully assesses the analysis and accompanying catalogue of the more than 100 objects placed on the king’s mummy. It identifies strengths and weaknesses of the work and offers important additions. It concludes that the publication is a rich and stimulating source of information on the object corpus and religious beliefs of the Post-Amarna Period but given its many inaccuracies and methodological flaws critical use of the work is recommended.
Xanthippos. From Alexandria to Callinicum (260-244 BC)
Xanthippos the friend of the architect Kleon; Xanthippos the trierarch of an expensive ‘nine’ in the harbor of Halicarnassus (Pros. Ptol. V 14110); Xanthippos the ephemeral governor of the Upper Satrapies (Pros. Ptol. VI 15060) - all three showing corresponding social and military profiles were one and the same person. Xanthippos' career in the service of the early Ptolemies extended over a period of more than fifteen years (260-244) strikingly coinciding with that of Apollonios the dioike ête ês (261-245). Any link with the Spartan commander who as the champion of the Carthaginian cause expelled a Roman army from African soil should be discarded. It would be absurd to suppose that the Alexandria-based gentleman of January 260 Ptolemaic trierarch in 258-257 had settled in Sparta before meddling in the First Punic War by May 255.
Les chevaux des Ptolémées : entre Grèce et Égypte, commerce et élevage d’animaux stratégiques pour l’armée et les agônes
I. Messène Alexandrie les agônes et les chevaux. - II. Chevaux de course et chevaux de guerre: un lexique différencié pour des montures différentes? - III. Compétitions agonistiques et cavaliers dans la chôra e égyptienne. - IV. L'élevage des chevaux en Égypte hellénistique. - V. Les chevaux des cavaliers-clérouques des éphèbes et des neaniskoi dans les gymnases de la chôra: 1. Aspects économiques; - 2. L'entraînement hippique. - Conclusions.
Another Coptic Letter from the Dioscorus Archive in the Collection of the Ghent University Library?
This article presents the first edition of P.Ghent Inv. 48 a sixth-century Coptic letter from the collection of the Ghent University Library. The document references taxes and officials related to the tax collection indicating a fiscal context. After analyzing the palaeography linguistic features prosopography and historical context the authors explore a possible connection between the text and the Dioscorus archive.
Στιππίον κογχισθέν (P.Yale IV 186) et le commerce linier dans l’Égypte tardive. II. Aspects de l’économie liniere à l’époque tardive
1. Rééditions. - 2. Métrologie de la filasse: mine livre et φορτίον. - 3. P.Col. VIII 238 et les revenus en στιππίον sur des terres linicoles. - 4. Le négoce du lin en Égypte tardo-antique.