Egypt In Period Research Articles

Classical Cats. The Rise and Fall of the Sacred Cat

This is the definitive book on classical cats. The cat has played a significant role in history from the earliest times. Well known is its role in the religion and art of ancient Egypt, no less than its association with witchcraft in the Middle Ages. But when did the cat become a domestic companion and worker as well? There has been much debate about the position of the cat in ancient Greece and Rome. Artistic representations are sometimes ambiguous, and its role as a mouse-catcher seems often to have been carried out by weasels. Yet other evidence clearly suggests that the cat was as important to Greeks and Romans as it is to many modern people. This book is the first comprehensive survey of the evidence for cats in Greece and Rome, and of their functions and representations in art. Donald Engels draws on authors from Aesop to Aristotle; on vase-painting, inscriptions and the plastic arts; and on a thorough knowledge of zoology of the cat. He also sets the ancient evidence in the wider context of the Egyptian period that preceded it, as well as the views of the Church fathers who ushered antiquity into the Middle Ages.

Infant feeding and weaning practices in Roman Egypt.

Current knowledge of infant feeding and weaning practices during the Roman period in Egypt is limited to scanty documentary and iconographic evidence. Stable nitrogen and carbon isotope analysis provides another avenue to explore this question. A sample of 49 infant and juvenile human skeletal remains from the Kellis 2 cemetery in the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt, was used to determine patterns of infant feeding and weaning. delta(15)N values indicate that supplementary foods were introduced at around 6 months of age, and that weaning was complete by 3 years of age. By 6 months of age, delta(13)C values become increasingly enriched over adult values, and reach peak enrichment at approximately 1.5 years of age. Beyond this age, delta(13)C gradually declines to approach adult values. This enrichment in infant delta(13)C values is indicative of consumption of (13)C-enriched supplementary foods. Based on isotopic study of faunal and botanical remains from the ancient village of Kellis, we conclude that at approximately 6 months of age, infants were fed milk of goat and/or cow.

A Turk of the West: Sir Edgar Vincent's Career in Egypt and the Ottoman Empire

This article examines the concept of the ‘gentleman capitalist’, as embodied by the career of Sir Edgar Vincent (1857–1941), arguing that a career as a financier was not incompatible with the status of a gentleman in Victorian Britain. From the 1830s, both the City of London and the British government agreed on free trade as the bedrock of British commercial policy, and the use of financial power as a means of extending both formal and informal empire. The life of Sir Edgar Vincent is discussed in detail, particularly his period in Egypt as Financial Adviser to the Khedive and in Constantinople as Director-General of the Imperial Ottoman Bank. The article concludes that Sir Edgar believed absolutely in Britain's civilizing mission in the Middle East, promoting her interests whenever possible, but equally that he had no qualms about using his official position for financial gain.

The Impact of Rome on the Egyptian Pottery Industry

This paper looks at pottery as one key to understanding the effects on Egypt of incorporation into the Empire. We look at the impact pottery had on Egyptians and measure aspects of that impact to consider degrees and forms of acculturation, and its limits. Only in recent years has research, fostered particularly by the French Institute and its publication, the Cahiers de la ceramique egyptienne, begun to give adequate attention to pottery of the period in Egypt. One result, strikingly underscoring the complexity of the interactions between indigenous and new social forces, has been to demonstrate that production and distribution of Roman pottery in Egypt long outlasted rule. We can now see that this

Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt. W. J. Murnane , E. S. Meltzer

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsTexts from the Amarna Period in Egypt. W. J. Murnane , E. S. Meltzer Leo DepuydtLeo Depuydt Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Near Eastern Studies Volume 58, Number 4Oct., 1999 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/468759 Views: 2Total views on this site Copyright 1999 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt

Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt

AMS Radiocarbon Dates from the Predynastic Egyptian Cemetery, N7000, at Naga-ed-Dêr

Much of our understanding of early periods in Near Eastern archaeology depends on synchronisms with ancient Egypt. Chronological problems in the early Dynastic and Predynastic periods in Egypt indicate that a more accurate radiocarbon-based chronology would be desirable, but dates from the critical Predynastic period are not abundant at this time. Dates from Predynastic cemeteries are unfortunately rare, though reliable radiocarbon dates from these contexts are especially valuable because of their ability to tie relative ceramic chronologies to more recent radiocarbon chronologies from Predynastic settlement sites. Since most of the cemeteries were excavated nearly a century ago, though, the prospects for obtaining radiocarbon dates have seemed dim. This article reports the successful completion of 12 AMS radiocarbon assays on materials from the Predynastic cemetery at Naga-ed-Dêr. Aggregated results indicate the cemetery was probably in use between about 3800 and 3090BC. Four distinct use phases in the cemetery are discerned. The results constitute one of the first series of AMS dates from a suite of individual graves in a Predynastic cemetery where full artefact inventories are known. Not only are they important for themselves, but also for the comparative value the contents of the dated graves have with other interments at other sites. A comparison of these results with other radiocarbon dates from Upper Egypt establishes synchronisms between the cemetery and settlement sites, while helping to fill in gaps in the known radiocarbon chronology.

Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt

Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt

Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt

Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt

Fractionalized Estates in a Centralized Regime: the Holdings of Al-Ashraf Qāytbāy and Qānṣūh Al-Ghawrī According to Their Waqf Deeds

AbstractThe article examines two cases of estate management from the late Mamlūk period in Egypt: shares in rural properties appropriated from former state lands by Sultans al-Ashraf Qāytbāy (872-901/1468-96) and Qānṣūh al-Ghawrī (906-22/1501-16) as indicated in their charitable endowment (waqf) deeds. Its objectives are: first, to plot the location of these property shares and thereby to determine whether any clustering or other geographic patterns are discernible. What does the location of sites suggest about the concept of property accumulation, the security of rural landholdings in the Delta and Nile Valley, and a proprietor's sense of his holdings as a coherent entity? Second, what are the implications of fractionalized shares for the operations of Egypt's fiscal and land administrative bureaus under the Mamlūk regime? The phenomenon of estate holding by shares facilitated the sultans' attempts to create private sources of revenues they could exploit to ward off bankruptcy in the face of their troops' fiscal demands.

Bibliography of the Prehistory and the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt and Northern Sudan - 1998 addition. Topographical index.

Bibliography of the Prehistory and the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt and Northern Sudan - 1998 addition. Topographical index.

Libyan Period Royal Burials in Context

AbstractThis essay will examine to what extent the archaeological evidence from North Africa does or does not reveal an indifference to permanent funereal memorials in the form of monumental superstructures. In particular, comparison will be made with the royal tombs of Tanis from the Libyan Period in Egypt. The validity of the Marxist derived assumption that nomadism is a lifestyle unconcerned with monuments to the dead will also be considered in this context.In historical times, coastal North Africa has been colonized repeatedly, and each group has provided an additional layer of cultural influence. While this colonial process did not eliminate the influence of the underlying native system, this layered colonization of Cyrenaica and the various indigenous groups of the region had a profound effect on the development of funerary architecture. Hybrid funerary systems and architectural forms developed, and it is perhaps a synthesis of these forms which could truly be labelled as ‘Libyan’, since it is their unifying features which define the characteristic attributes of that culture's approach to the treatment of their dead.

From Farmers to Pharaohs: Mortuary Evidence for the Rise of Complex Society in Egypt

In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in multinational, archaeological research into the origins of civilization in the Nile Valley north of Aswan. This has resulted in a more precise definition of the cultural differences between Upper and Lower Egypt in Predynastic times and of the manner in which northern Egypt came to be dominated economically and culturally by southern Egypt in the century or more preceding the beginning of the First Dynasty. In From Farmers to Pharaohs, Kathryn Bard advances this understanding with a reanalysis of material recovered from Upper Egyptian Predynastic cemeteries at Nagada by W. M. F. Petrie in 1894-1895 and at Armant by O. H. Myers in the late 1920s and early 1930s. In Chapter 1 Bard briefly surveys the full range of current theories concerning state formation in Egypt and then provides a detailed and critical review of archaeological work that has been accomplished throughout Egypt relating to the Predynastic period. This includes Bard's own surveys and excavations in the Hu region of southern Egypt between 1989 and 1991. Bard stresses the unique characteristics of ancient Egyptian civilization, especially its symbolic association of major institutions of social control with a mortuary cult that had its origins in the Nagada culture of Upper Egypt. This suggests that the emphasis in the prehistoric archaeological record of Upper Egypt on cemeteries rather than on large urban centers, palaces, and temples is culturally significant rather than an accident relating to the preservation or recovery of the archaeological evidence. Bard's approach accords with Michael Mann's (1986) powerful theoretical formulation concerning multiple sources of power in complex societies. Bard then surveys the general archaeological literature relating to the interpretation of mortuary evidence. For the past 25 years the analysis of burials has been to archaeology what the study of kinship once was to social anthropology: a cutting edge of critical debate and measure of intellectual progress. Bard traces how interpretations of material evidence relating to funerary behavior have been systematically theorized; how alternative theories have been elaborated, tested, and modified; and how progress has been made in building an integrated theoretical framework. Bard pays attention to explanations that seek to account for both cross-cultural regularities and the culturally-specific aspects of mortuary behavior. One of the few major studies she does not consider is Aubrey Cannon's (1989) examination of cyclical fashions and the impact of status emulation on funerary practices. She establishes the persistent tendency, beginning in Predynastic southern Egypt, for funerary customs to reflect social status through the elaboration of graves and grave contents. The theoretical literature suggests that the longterm persistence of this practice may be a culturally-specific eature of ancient Egyptian society. A third chapter, dealing with the chronology of the Upper Egyptian Predynastic period, is followed by the application of divisive cluster analysis (specifically the BMDP K-means clustering technique) to detect socially significant cultural patterning in Predynastic cemeteries at Armant and Nagada. At Armant a well-documented cemetery containing about 200 graves exhibits increasing mean sizes of graves and quantities of grave goods from the Nagada I to IIIa periods (3800-3050/2950 B.c.). Cluster analysis reveals a continuation of small numbers of relatively richer and large numbers of relatively poorer burial types into the Nagada IIIa period, when the poorer graves tend to disappear. The geographical division of the Armant cemetery into east and west sections also suggests some kind of moiety or descent group division within the A mant community. The absence of evidence for complex social hierarchies and for a clearly differentiated elite is in keeping with the interpretation of Armant as a small farming community. Nagada, which was one of the major centers of Predynastic Upper Egypt, is associated with a series of cemeteries containing about 3000 graves, half of which had their contents recorded. These cemeteries contained some

Preliminary report on a study of the materia medica of the Graeco-Roman period in Egypt

Preliminary report on a study of the materia medica of the Graeco-Roman period in Egypt

The Libyan Period in Egypt: An Essay in Interpretation

AbstractThe common assumption that the Libyans who governed Egypt during the ‘Third Intermediate Period’ (c. 1070–715 BC) were Egyptianised is misleading. The nature and provenance of the extant evidence tends to obscure the retention of their ethnic identity, but this is apparent in the persistence of Libyan names and titles in Egypt. The influence of these Libyans can be traced in the fragmented political structure of the period, which represents decentralisation, not anarchy; in the erosion of the distinction between king and subject; in the disintegration of convention in language and script; and in the cessation of elaborate preparation for death and the afterlife.

Two radiocarbon dates for freshwater shells from hierakonpolis: Archaeological and geological interpretations

Abstract Shells of two species of freshwater bivalve ( Unio willcocksi Bullen Newton and Etheria elliptica Lamarck) from the predynastic Gerzean (Nagada II) Decorated Tomb at Hierakonpolis, Egypt have given dates of 5000±90 bp for the tomb, and 12,900±120 bp for an episode of Nile terrace accumulation (correlated here with the Sahaba-Darau aggradation event). The archaeological and geological significance of these results is discussed, together with an outline of problems associated with radiocarbon dating of shell. Comparisons are made with the few other radiocarbon dates available for the Predynastic period in Egypt and possible reasons for the presence of shells in the tomb are considered.

Books Received

This book, an amplification of invited lectures given at Carleton College and the University of Minnesota in 1977, is really three-books-in-one (in five chapters). The first section describes the historic and anthropologic character of mankind's (continuing) relationship with symbiotic, and later domesticated, herd-animals; the second part traces “comparative healing” (the technical and religio-philosophical interdependance of animal and human medicine) from pre-dynastic, nilotic Egypt, Mesoptamia, Iran and India through the classic Egyptian period to the Greeks, Arabs, the Salerno School, the Renaissance and the foundation of both modern veterinary and human medicine. The final segment concerns itself with veterinary contributions (often unrecognized or neglected) to human medicine and welfare combined with the author's concept of a synergistic educational blend, a truly “Comparative Medicine,” and how it could be applied to the problem of biomedical research-training.Readers who liked “King Tut” will be enchanted by the treasure-trove of the first and second sections (three chapters), which are based both upon a review and interpretation of published works and in part on the author's travels.

Cattle, Priests, and Progress in Medicine

This book, an amplification of invited lectures given at Carleton College and the University of Minnesota in 1977, is really three-books-in-one (in five chapters). The first section describes the historic and anthropologic character of mankind's (continuing) relationship with symbiotic, and later domesticated, herd-animals; the second part traces “comparative healing” (the technical and religio-philosophical interdependance of animal and human medicine) from pre-dynastic, nilotic Egypt, Mesoptamia, Iran and India through the classic Egyptian period to the Greeks, Arabs, the Salerno School, the Renaissance and the foundation of both modern veterinary and human medicine. The final segment concerns itself with veterinary contributions (often unrecognized or neglected) to human medicine and welfare combined with the author's concept of a synergistic educational blend, a truly “Comparative Medicine,” and how it could be applied to the problem of biomedical research-training. Readers who liked “King Tut” will be enchanted by the treasure-trove of the first and second sections (three chapters), which are based both upon a review and interpretation of published works and in part on the author's travels.

Burattini's flying dragon

Largely as a result of frequent written reports by Pierre Des Noyers, secretary to the Queen of Poland, mid-seventeenth century scientists took a great deal of interest in the aeronautical work of an Italian engineer, Tito Livio Burattini. Born in Agordo, north of Venice, on 8th March 1617, Burattini early became a travelling scholar. By 1637 he had reached Egypt, where he helped John Greaves with his famous work on the pyramids. Despite his youth, he appears greatly to have impressed Greaves, who referred to him, with slight inaccuracy, as ‘Titus Livius Burretinus, a Venetian, an ingenious young man'. In 1641 Burattini returned to Europe, spending a little time in Germany and travelling on to Poland, where he lived until 1645. In 1647, after a visit to his native Italy and a second period in Egypt, he settled permanently in Poland, where he attempted, soon after his arrival, to establish himself at the court of Wladislaw IV (30th May 1595-20th May 1648).

Thutmose III's Accession and the Beginning of the New Kingdom

Previous articleNext article No AccessThutmose III's Accession and the Beginning of the New KingdomEdward F. WenteEdward F. Wente Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Near Eastern Studies Volume 34, Number 4Oct., 1975 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/372429 Views: 21Total views on this site Citations: 3Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1975 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Paul Åström Egyptian and Mesopotamian chronologies, Geologiska Föreningen i Stockholm Förhandlingar 104, no.33 (Jan 2010): 260–261.https://doi.org/10.1080/11035898309455267J. Desmond Clark The Cambridge History of Africa, (Mar 2008).https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521222150Barry J. Kemp Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period in Egypt, (Feb 1982): 658–769.https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521222150.011