Egyptian Heritage Research Articles

Geometric Patterns in Egyptian Architecture & Interior Design

This study will examine the role of geometric patterns in selected examples of Egyptian architecture, interior architecture and art. Ancient Egyptian, Coptic, and Islamic periods are the selected historical ages from Egyptian heritage due to the abundance of different works and styles with geometric pattern characteristics during their periods. In addition to the historical periods, the study will demonstrate some selected models from Egyptian contemporary architecture and arts. These models include architectural projects, traditional craft products and artistic works with geometrical characteristics. The study aims, through the extracted information, to increase the awareness about the effective role of geometric patterns as an architectural and artistic capability and to clarify the degree of freedom, flexibility and functionality as an inherent feature through demonstrating the different practices, styles and materials.

Threats to the archaeological sites of Egypt: a response to Fradley and Sheldrick

We appreciate Michael Fradley and Nichole Sheldrick's response to our 2016 Antiquity paper. They claim that our results are “potentially misleading”, that there is an incorrect “emphasis on looting as the most significant problem facing Egypt's heritage” and that our prediction model is flawed. Our paper, however, clearly focuses on the major population centre of Egypt—the Nile Valley and Delta regions—where the bulk of the archaeological sites are located. This is a basic Egyptological fact.

The effect of Underground Water on Heritage Sites (A case Study on Graeco-Roman Cemeteries in Alexandria)

Egypt's heritage is one of the most important world's historical civilizations that can be traced from the prehistoric period to the various stages of world civilization. Egypt is famous for its ancient civilizations and earliest and most famous monuments of the world Ancient Egyptian Civilization is one of the sources of modern culture. It attracted and influenced other people of the Ancient world, especially the Greeks and the Romans. The heritage of this civilization is a testimonial writer of their contribution to human progress, development and welfare. Thus, this heritage deserves the best ways for protection and conservation.

“I’d rather my brother was a bomber than a homo”: British Muslim masculinities and homonationalism in Sally El Hosaini’sMy Brother the Devil

Images of young British Muslim men engaging in terrorist activity or gang warfare proliferate in contemporary media. Such distortions frame Muslim males as a homogeneous and threatening presence within Britain; men who, despite living in the UK, are prone to a pathological form of masculinity supposedly inculcated by their religio-cultural background. In Terrorist Assemblages, Jasbir K. Puar develops the framework of “homonationalism” to examine the relationship between hostilities towards Muslims and growing acceptance of LGBT subjectivities in Euro-America. Puar argues that popular discourses stereotype diverse ethno-cultural groups under a distinct racialized, religiously-defined “Muslim” grouping. These Muslim “others”, recognized through racial and sartorial profiling, are assigned viewpoints that place them in opposition to the purportedly “enlightened” West. Puar shows how this dualism has been continually reproduced in cultural production, propagating the view that to be Muslim is to be axiomatically homophobic. This article assesses the extent to which homonationalism is replicated in the British film My Brother the Devil (dir. Sally El Hosaini, 2012). Set on a housing estate in Hackney, it depicts two London-born brothers of Egyptian heritage, Rash and Mo, as elder brother Rash leaves his “gangster” lifestyle after falling in love with photographer Sayid. My Brother the Devil invokes moral panics about young British Muslim men, as well as the increased visibility of homosexuality in recent UK media and cultural output, to probe connections between masculinity, sexuality, race, and class. However, this article posits that My Brother the Devil inadvertently upholds homonationalist binaries. By analysing the film, this paper contends that what Puar terms a “Muslim or gay binary” should be considered in a British context to address how certain “liberal” Muslim subjectivities are incorporated within imaginings of Britishness, at the exclusion of Muslim subjectivities that do not fit these prescriptions.

An aesthetic vision to enrich university students clothing using Nubian symbols by means of canvas stitch motifs

The research seeks to take advantage of two enriching resources of honored Egyptian heritage, The first is the popular Nubian Heritage, which is one of the most important sources of artistic creativity and design. It represents one of the most popular traditions that emphasize our Egyptian identity, where this heritage is an important and influential value in the national heritage due to his simplicity, innate and dependence on the surrounding environment, and the maintaining of this popular tradition and re-drafted to keep pace with contemporary reality is the best way to confirm the specialty of culture. The second is the art of embroidery with canvas as it represents one of the old Fine Arts as history, which we find it does not take enough interest in the decoration of our clothes, despite what is distinguished by its ease of learning and implementation and beauty in shape and production, the problem of this research is in the blending Egyptian identity global influences that have become prevalent creativity to varying degrees, and the control of foreign schools of thought and break creative sprit stemming from the popular culture. This research aims to identify the aesthetic values of the symbolic indications of symbols of Nubian folklore, and to try to take an advantage of these aesthetic values in the development of decorative contemporary designs clothing collection to enrich the university students, the implementation of these designs as motifs by using canvas stitch.The Study followed a descriptive and analytical approach as a means of research. Advantage has been taken of the popular Nubian Heritage in the preparation of a range of designs with the Egyptian character and compatible with the contemporary trends of clothing university students, and its number is (15) The design is inspired by some of the art symbols Nubian They (the triangle - Crescent - Star – hand - veil - Palm - potted planting ), and implementing (7) designs, including in the form of motifs canvas stitch , then employ these motifs on (21) closing pieces of clothing university students, where he had been recruited each Motive three closing pieces cut in a variety of distributions, these motifs are characterized as moving can be installed and disassembled again and re-distributed to the same clothing or used to decorate clothing or some other supplements.A questionnaire has been prepared to assess these designs and apply it on (100) female students from the university. Approval of design as a whole of 86%: 97%, which is high ratios indicating the enthusiasm of the students on this design significantly,

Earthquake ground motion simulation at Zoser pyramid using the stochastic method: A step toward the preservation of an ancient Egyptian heritage

Strong ground shaking during earthquakes can greatly affect the ancient monuments and subsequently demolish the human heritage. On October 12th 1992, a moderate earthquake (Ms=5.8) shocked the greater Cairo area causing widespread damages. Unfortunately, the focus of that earthquake is located about 14km to the south of Zoser pyramid. After the earthquake, the Egyptian Supreme council of antiquities issued an alarm that Zoser pyramid is partially collapsed and international and national efforts are exerted to restore this important human heritage that was built about 4000years ago. Engineering and geophysical work is thus needed for the restoration process. The definition of the strong motion parameters is one of the required studies since seismically active zone is recorded in its near vicinity. The present study adopted the stochastic method to determine the peak ground motion (acceleration, velocity and displacement) for the three largest earthquakes recorded in the Egypt’s seismological history. These earthquakes are Shedwan earthquake with magnitude Ms=6.9, Aqaba earthquake with magnitude Mw=7.2 and Cairo (Dahshour earthquake) with magnitude Ms=5.8. The former two major earthquakes took place few hundred kilometers away. It is logic to have the predominant effects from the epicentral location of the Cairo earthquake; however, the authors wanted to test also the long period effects of the large distance earthquakes expected from the other two earthquakes under consideration. In addition, the dynamic site response was studied using the Horizontal to vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) technique. HVSR can provide information about the fundamental frequency successfully; however, the amplification estimation is not accepted. The result represented as either peak ground motion parameters or response spectra indicates that the effects from Cairo earthquake epicenter are the largest for all periods considered in the present study. The level of strong motion as indicated by peak ground acceleration reaches the value of 250gals which is considerably high. At the end, it is worth to mention that the information resulted from the present work may be useful for the planned restoration decision of the Zoser pyramid site.

Challenges Facing Coptic Heritage Tourism in Egypt A Case Study On: Wadifeiran Region

Despite the fact that Egypt owns a huge fortune of Coptic heritage sites (i.e. The Monastery of Saint Anthony, El Bagawat Necropolis, the Red Monastery and the White Monastery, etc.), heritage tourism in Egypt is known only by Pharaonic monuments. Accordingly, it is necessary to focus on the Egyptian Coptic heritage. The current paper aims at shedding light on the importance of the Egyptian Coptic heritage as a main component of the Egyptian heritage tourism as well as exploring the different challenges facing Coptic heritage in Wadi Feiran Region. Within this context, interviews were conducted with key representatives of Coptic heritage experts. It was concluded that different challenges are facing Coptic heritage in Egypt such as: there is no department of Coptology in the Egyptian universities; Coptic conservators are quite rare in Egypt; Mismanagement of Coptic heritage sites endanger them as well as Lack of security measures worsened the situation.

Mixed Courts of Egypt and International Arbitration

Historically, Mixed Courts of Egypt, and recently international arbitration, have led to controversial debates as to their role in the Egyptian legal system. The Mixed Courts have been and are often still considered an infringement of Egyptian sovereignty because they were established during colonialism. However, the courts came into existence because Egypt needed a new, efficient legal system to end the consular courts, which were created under the Capitulations Treaties in the Ottoman Empire and caused unequal and sometimes biased treatment of Egyptian nationals. But beyond the geopolitical and historical context, the Mixed Courts have contributed to the development of the modern Egyptian legal system and Egyptian heritage in comparative law and international private law. Although the Mixed Courts and international arbitration proceedings are similar (e.g., different nationalities and legal backgrounds of judges and arbitrators, the possibility to apply different laws to the parties’ disputes), the historical and political context that resulted in the creation of the mechanisms is different. Thus, the claim that international arbitration would overstep Egyptian sovereignty is unfounded. On the contrary, Egypt’s desire to have a modern set of arbitration rules is shared with other States seeking participation in the economic globalization, and international arbitration has proved to be an appropriate mechanism for international trade dispute resolution.

HISTORIC CAIRO IN THE ERA OF AUGMENTED REALITY: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

Currently, it became necessary for many cultural heritage sites to use modern technologies to remain competitive and attractive. Augmented Reality (AR) technology has been recommended to adopt in cultural heritage sites due to its role in attracting visitors, providing them with information, enhancing their experiences and learning in an enjoyable way. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore the current situation of implementing AR in Historic Cairo as one of the famous Islamic heritage sites in Egypt. Based on judgmental sample, the primary data has been collected using qualitative semi-structured interviews with the representatives of key organizations that are responsible for the Egyptian heritage sites. The findings of the practical study revealed that until now, none of the archeological sites in Historic Cairo implementing AR technology-although its potential benefits- because of some challenges. Finally, the current study has been concluded by important suggestions that could encourage the implementation of AR technology at Historic Cairo.

Egyptian Religion and Culture through Rabbinic Vision

EGYPTIAN RELIGION AND CULTURE THROUGH RABBINIC VISIONEgypt and Egyptians are mentioned in the Hebrew Bible more than any other foreign land or nation, in fact, no fewer than 680 times.1 This amount is approximately as much as the mentions of Assyria, (150x), Babylonia (287x), Aram (133x), and Edom (112x) altogether (total, 682x).2 Several stories of Israel's patriarchs, particularly Abraham and Joseph (Gen 12:1020; 37-50), took place in or against the Egyptian background. A number of biblical laws were defined in contrast to the Egyptian customs (e.g., Exod 8:22; Lev 18:3; Deut 4:15-19; Ezek 20:7), and the rational for some others was the Israelite slavery in Egypt.3 A nature-hymn (Psalm 104) engages with the hymn to Sun god (Ra') written by Akhnathen (Amenophis IV), and some biblical wisdom literature (e.g., Proverbs 22:17-24:35) is related to the teaching of Amen-em-apt. There are also many prophecies on Egypt and Egyptians in the Eiebrew Bible (e.g., Isaiah 19; Jeremiah 46; Ezekiel 29-32). Nonetheless, without a doubt, the narrative about the Israelite experience in and the Exodus from Egypt (Exod 1-15) have the greatest impact on the Israelite /J ewish collective memory, every generation, even as of today. It became the symbol of God's direct interaction in defense of His chosen people. That is to say, He Himself interfered and defeated the evil oppressors and their deities and saved Israel. No wonder, therefore, that scholars in all times and places, Jews and non-Jews, devoted numerous works on the Exodus and the ancient Israelite literary heritage and its encounters with that of the Egyptians.4Yet, although Egypt and Egyptians are mentioned in rabbinic literature much less than in the biblical literature, there are plentiful Egyptian elements in the various branches of the rabbinic literature.5 The knowledge of Egypt and Egyptian culture among the rabbis was based not only on biblical texts, but also on their own visits to Egypt, particularly the large Jewish Diaspora of Alexandria, and visits of Egyptians, particularly Jewish traders, scholars, and tourists, to the Land of Israel. Even though, except for a few essays on the encounter of the Egyptian religion and literature with rabbinic sources,6 there is not even a single monograph that systematically and comprehensively discusses this interesting theme. How could such a situation be explained? Seemingly, this state of the research does not stem only from the quantity and quality of the biblical material on Egypt and Egyptians in comparison to rabbinic sources. Rather, it stems also from the fact that the biblical and ancient Israelite history and literature-as part of Jewish and Christian canons-were and are predominant among Christians, and to some extent also among Jews, in all times and places. In contrast, rabbinic literature was almost exclusively studied and researched by Jews. Moreover, none of the important Egyptologists was or is engaged with rabbinic literature, and, vice versa, none of the rabbinic scholars was familiar with the Egyptian sources. The rare combination of an excellent scholar in rabbinic literature and well-trained Egyptologist is perfectly encompassed in Rivka Ulmer's work. Thus, evidently, the monograph under review should be considered as a pioneer work and unique contribution to rabbinic studies as well as Egyptology.Egyptian Cultural Icons in Midrash is large in quantity and rich in substance, insights, and methods. It investigates various tannaitic and amoraic sources, generally midrashic, that related to Egyptian religion, culture, language, and literature against their historical setting in the Greco-Roman world. Although the rabbis did not focus on historical analyses, often the construction of Egypt in rabbinic texts strikingly matches with what we currently know concerning the ancient Egyptian religion. Ulmer shows that Jews were engaged with the Egyptian cultural heritage far beyond the biblical literature and biblical period as well as beyond their own defined Jewish cultural sphere. …

The Egyptian Heritage and Museums - Retirado

Artigo retirado por suspeita de plágio

Control of Late Holocene Geo-processes on the sustainable development plans of the Tineh Plain, NW Sinai coast, Egypt

The Tineh Plain NW Sinai coast has been the subjected of several studies related to its stratigraphy, geoarchaeology, and sustainable development. Recently, the name of the Tineh Plain has emerged following the government of Egypt’s decision to establish a new economic project to develop the Suez Canal Sector (Suez Canal Corridor Mega Project). Landsat and SPOT satellite images acquired for years 1984, 2000, 2006, 2008 and 2010 to detect temporal changes coupled with field relations, verification, sampling, analyzing and photographing were conducted. Change detection of LU/LC show six classes; the beach, the wetland (El-Mallaha lagoon), Sabkhas or salt marshes, urban, agriculture, and fish breeding farms. In 1984, the beach (4.2 km2), El-Mallaha lagoon (26.4 km2), sabkhas or salt marches (236.7 km2) were reduced due to expansion of agriculture (120.3 km2), fish breeding farms (35.7 km2) and controlled by sediment characteristic (salinity and grain size). Accordingly, fish farms grow northward of the Tineh Plain while reclamation and cultivation extends southward. Such activities may threaten the archaeological sits at Tell El-Farama (The City of Pelusium). Three geomorphic units detected, these are the beach, the strand plain, and the deltaic plain. The beach is flat with concavo (accreted) - convex (eroded) shoreline. The strand plain made of accreted beach ridges of very low bundles, set at slight mutual angles, which sometimes truncate one another. The deltaic plain surface composed of intercalations of sand and mud of shoreface, mouth bar, and distributary channel fill. The accreted ridges representing four paleoshorelines related to Late Holocene and dated back to 400–500BP, 1100–1200BP, 1400–1500BP, and 1700–1900BP, those record the Late Holocene history (sea level, floods, and tectonics) of the Tineh Plain. The study area is waiting a plan of sustainable development, it represents phase “A” East Port Said of the Suez Canal Corridor Mega Project. This study raise the alarm of constructing heavy industries and other logistics related to shipping on the fragile environments of the Tineh Plain. This is in fact due to active tectonism, and sediment characteristics. The activities related to agriculture, fish breeding, and salts and food industries are recommended in the framework of sustainable development. It is important to include the Suez Canal Corridor Project a plan to save the ruins of fortifications of Tineh Plain. These are not only Egyptian heritage but also a world one record the history from the Persian invasions of Egypt about 6th or 7th Century B.C., through the Byzantines in 859–860, the Greeks in 954–955, the Arabic Conquest, and the Crusaders in the 12th Century. A cooperation and support from the international organization such as UNESCO should be conducted.

Training of Local Community Youth in Dahshur, Egypt, as Local Tour Guides and Heritage Guardians

In an attempt to shift the strategy in Egypt toward sustainable heritage tourism a project was designed aiming to (1) integrate the archaeological site with local natural and rural heritage resources, (2) increase local awareness, (3) engage local community in a scheme of heritage economic development, and (4) valorize of Dahshur as a special tourist destination. The pilot project was implemented in Dahshur, which is a part of the World Heritage Site-Memphis and its Necropolis. The project included a training program for local tour guides who were introduced to (1) of how to become a tour guide, (2) Introduction to archaeological, natural, and rural resources of the area, and (3) the basic elements of cultural heritage management. Another program was devoted to enhance the awareness of local youths of the significance and values of the heritage resources in their vicinity, and to encourage them to take part in protecting and conserving heritage at risk from looting, neglect, and a transformation of local traditional dwellings. Without such programs, no measures for protecting Egyptian heritage, now in great danger, and promote sustainable tourism will succeed given that local communities are at present marginalized and excluded from the management of Egyptian heritage resources.

Factors affecting the retention of sentential negation in heritage Egyptian Arabic

This study investigates the areas of resilience and vulnerability in sentential negation in heritage Egyptian Arabic and explores their theoretical implications. Egyptian heritage speakers completed three narrative production tasks, five experimental production tasks, and a acceptability judgment task. The results indicate that they have a full grasp of the location of negation and its configurational properties, but diverge from native speakers in such aspects of sentential negation as merger with lexical heads and dependency or licensing relations. We propose that these asymmetric patterns are due to various factors, including the age at which a structure is typically acquired in the L1, as well as its morphological and syntactic characteristics. The results of this study have implications for the ongoing debate in heritage language research about the linguistic areas that display greater stability/vulnerability. For example, phrase structure seems less vulnerable than licensing dependencies and the mapping between syntax and the morphological interface.

Book Review: The Archaeotopography of Egypt

THE ARCHAEOTOPOGRAPHY OF EGYPT Architecture, Astronomy and Sacred Landscape in Ancient Egypt. Giulio Magli (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2013). Pp. xii + 272. £60. ISBN 9781-10703-208-8.This is not another book on fantastic Egyptian archaeology and astronomy. The reader will not find the typical lunatic fringe theories claiming that monuments of ancient Egypt hold secrets of arcane long-forgotten civilizations. The title is explicit: this book deals with architecture, reflected in the impressive pyramids and the not less suggestive temples; astronomy, expressed in alignments to relevant celestial vault configurations; and sacred landscape, where different elements combine to create what, in the words of the author, would be a dynastic landscape. Here 'dynastic' must be read in the strict sense of the word: how familiar ties were reflected in the architecture and connected with local topography and the sky, creating a symbolic world that, in the mind of the author, must have been obvious to its constructors.The volume analyses the relationship between astronomy and dynastic power in the course of Egyptian history from the proto-dynastic to the New Kingdom. It focuses on the crucial role of astronomy in the creation of the monumental temple and burial complexes, including the pyramids. Magli, an astronomer himself but working in a Faculty of Architecture where he lectures on Egyptian heritage, interprets the term Archaeoastronomy in a very wide sense which might perhaps be more properly termed Archaeotopography, following Michael Hoskin's suggestion.In consecutive chapters, the author travels through the history of ancient Egypt and describes a long series of extremely suggestive interactions. This short review cannot easily go into the details. However several of Magli's key ideas should be stressed. He proposes Akhet Khufu, the burial complex of Cheops, as a single master project integrating most of the monuments of the Giza Plateau, including his and Khefren's pyramids. Cheops would have been following his father Snefru who, according to Magli's theory, also followed a master plan (nothing to do with a trial and error process) in the design and construction of the several pyramids he built. A third highlight of the volume is the idea of several elaborated dynastic landscapes, including the most suggestive topographic and astronomical alignments, and what he has termed 'symbolic invisibility'. One advantage of these hypotheses is that they include a prediction. The author forecasts where some 'lost' pyramids of the Old Kingdom, notably Userkare's, should be located. If he were right, such a find would be a tremendous confirmation of his ideas, which I have found well grounded, if hypothetical.On the other hand, I believe that Magli fails in his interpretation of inter-cardinal directions in Upper Egypt, notably in proto-Dynastic Abydos and New Kingdom Thebes. He claims that the idea that the Egyptian temples were mainly orientated towards the Nile tends to be overplayed in Egyptological literature, an hypothesis (as defended by our research group) which is a workaround to reconcile Nile orientation (notably inter-cardinal) with the astronomical one, an explanation which, according to Magli, would be too far from what we know about the Egyptian architect's way of thinking. …

Arabic plurals and root and pattern morphology in Palestinian and Egyptian heritage speakers

This study investigates heritage speakers’ knowledge of plural formation in their colloquial varieties of Arabic, which use both concatenative and non-concatentative modes of derivation. In the concatenative derivation, a plural suffix attaches to the singular stem (muhandis ‘engineer-sg.’ → muhandis-iin ‘engineer-pl’); in the non-concatenative, the relation between the singular (gamal ‘camel’) and the plural (gimaal ‘camels’) typically involves vocalic and prosodic alternations with the main shared similarity between the two forms being the consonantal root (e.g., g-m-l). In linguistic approaches, non-concatenative patterns have been captured in different ways, though the earliest and most recognizable approach involves the mapping of a consonantal root onto a plural template. We investigated heritage speakers’ knowledge of the root and pattern system in two independent experiments. In Experiment 1, oral narratives were elicited from 20 heritage speakers and 20 native speakers of Egyptian and Palestinian Arabic. In Experiment 2, another group of 24 heritage speakers and 24 native speakers of the same dialects completed an oral picture-description task. The results of the two experiments show that heritage speakers’ knowledge of the root and pattern system of Arabic is not target-like. Yet, they have a good grasp of the root and template as basic units of word formation in their heritage Arabic dialects. We discuss implications for debates about the acquisition of the root and pattern system of Arabic morphology.

Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis:

Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis:

What Has Happened to Egyptian Heritage after the 2011 Unfinished Revolution?

What Has Happened to Egyptian Heritage after the 2011 Unfinished Revolution?

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION WITH CULTURAL HERITAGE USING VIRTUAL TECHNOLOGIES

Abstract. Cultural heritage is neither static nor stable. There is a need to explore ways for effectively communicating with cultural heritage to tourists and society at large, in an age of immediacy, a time of multiple realities and to multi-cultural tourists. It is vital to consider cultural heritage as a creative and relational process where places and communities are constantly remade through creative performance. The paper introduces virtual technologies as an approach to attain effective communication with cultural heritage. This approach emphasizes the importance of "user, content and context" in guiding the production of virtual heritage, as opposed to technology being the sole motivator. It addresses how these three issues in virtual heritage need to be transformed from merely representing quantitative data towards cultural information using the proposed effective communication triangle through representing meaningful relationships between cultural heritage elements, users and context. The paper offers a focused articulation of a proposed computational platform of "interactive, personalized and contextual-based navigation" with Egyptian heritage monuments as a one step forward towards achieving effective communication with Egyptian cultural heritage.

Politics and Heritage in Egypt: One and a Half Years After the Lotus Revolution

With the break-in in the Egyptian Museum at the height of the ‘Lotus Revolution’ in January 2011 many heritage experts thought they saw their worst dreams come true: another ‘cradle of civilization’ threatened. One and a half years later the ‘½ Revolution’ did not bring the Egyptians the much desired prosperity. In the contrary, much seems to be worse than before January 2011 and unfortunately the heritage sector is no exception. Massive looting arose after the revolution and continues till today. This article tries to answer who these looters are and why the plunder of archaeological sites continues. Yet, many locals defended the sites in their vicinity. How come the local population felt connected to this heritage. For over 10 years they have been forbidden to enter the sites and the authorities even consider them a nuisance who need to be hidden for the massive tourist industry. The post-colonial narrative sheds much light on all these questions. It is noted that there is a huge lack of local involvement in Egyptian heritage as well as an almost absent scientific involvement of local scholars in Egyptology. There are signs that with the new government this will change. Firstly, western Egyptologists seem to realize they need to pay more attention to public/community archaeology and secondly, it is expected that Islamic heritage will be stressed in the coming years perhaps at the cost of Egyptology.