Ptolemaic Times Research Articles

The Gebelein Region in the Third Intermediate and Late Periods

While relatively much is known of Gebelein in the second and third millennia BCE, as well as the Ptolemaic times, the role of the town of Per-Hathor and its surrounding in the Third Intermediate (c. 1076–747 BCE) and Late (c. 747–332 BCE) periods remains largely obscure. The aim of this paper is to examine the existing sources pertaining to the history of Gebelein with the particular focus on state activities in the area, diachronic changes in settlement pattern and sacral topography, as well as funerary landscape in the first three-quarters of first millennium BCE and analyse the available information in a regional context. For this, published and unpublished records are utilised, together with the results of the current field prospection in Gebelein.

Zur Frühentstehung der Osirisliturgien an den Beispielen der Kapellen des Osiris Ptah Neb Anch und Osiris Neb Anch in Karnak

Summary Papyrus Schmitt, dated in early Ptolemaic times, offers a clue to the earliest date of the writing of the mortuary liturgies of the Old and Middle Kingdom, which were transformed into Osiris liturgies. Mortuary liturgies were always recited from papyrus scrolls, as attested for example by the ritual Papyrus BM EA 10819 from the New Kingdom. Examples of Osiris liturgies on papyrus as part of the grave goods of private individuals are generally attested from the early Ptolemaic period onwards. At the same time, there can be no doubt that parts of the mortuary liturgies from the Old and Middle Kingdom were already performed in temples as part of the Osiris cult before their later canonisation on papyrus. In the following, ways of transmission will be presented that can explain the introduction of Osirian recitation texts into the temple cult before the beginning of the Ptolemaic period and thus before the point of time universally accepted for the canonisation of Osiris liturgies.

The Holocene history of the Faiyum Lake (Egypt) based on sediment characteristics, diatoms and ostracods contents

There are relatively few Holocene lake sediment core sequences available for north-east Africa. This study examines the developmental history of Faiyum Lake (Egypt) by detailed lithostratigraphic description together with microfossils and geochemistry, of two adjacent lake sediment cores. The recovered sedimentary sequence consists of predominantly lacustrine facies divisible into five sedimentary units. Early Holocene sediments (Unit II; c. 9.9–8 ka cal BP), overlying late Pleistocene aeolian sands (Unit I), comprise sub-mm laminations (non-glacial varves) of white diatomite and calcite inter-bedded with yellowish-green mineralogenic layers indicating a deep freshwater lake phase. Early middle Holocene sediments (Unit III, c. 8 to 6 ka cal BP) consists by pockets of non-glacial varved laminae intercalated with turbidites and increasing thick silty clay layers, indicating a shallow freshwater lake phase with increasing nutrients. The late middle Holocene lake phase, Unit IV (c. 6 to 4 ka cal BP) is grey massive mud with occasional thick (>1 cm) diatomite-carbonate layers and thin gypsum and iron-hydroxides layers indicative of a lake shrinking phase but with a large level fluctuation sand evaporation phases when freshwater inflow diminished. The late Holocene lake phase (unit V, c. 4 ka cal BP-present) reveals bioturbation and increasing fine sand with artifacts corresponding to further lake level declines and fluctuations as water management intensifies during and after Middle Kingdom and Ptolemaic times. Together with geochemical and microfossil evidence, sedimentology of the studied cores indicate a series of major environment changes affecting the whole lake system throughout the Holocene.

The African Incense Trade and Its Impacts in Pharaonic Egypt

Among ancient Egypt’s most prized imports were resins and other aromatics obtained mainly from or through Nubia and Punt, an area that included the African and Arabian shores of the southern Red Sea. Egyptian texts emphasized the association between these places and the imports of aromatics, indicating that the use of incense and other types of aromatics was likely a foreign introduction to ancient Egypt. This paper surveys the Egyptian terminology for specific and general forms of incense and proposed modern identifications. It presents the evidence for Egyptian contact with Punt in the context of the incense trade and shows the importance of African aromatics within several spheres of Egyptian culture from the late Predynastic to Ptolemaic times. Egyptian religious practices embraced incense as a signifier of the divine, and Nubian gods in the Egyptian pantheon were intimately associated with incense. Apart from religion, aromatics played important roles in the political realm, and both the aromatics trade and processing were a state enterprise. We explore the political, economic, and commercial networks that shaped the importation of aromatics in ancient Egypt and the implications for understanding cultural appropriation and intercultural entanglement between Egypt and its southern neighbors.

La « carte d’Artémidore » ? Le delta des Ptolémées!

Abstract As some scholars have already suggested, the « Artemidorus map » does not depict a Spanish landscape, but a huge river delta. This article argues in favour of the Nile delta in Ptolemaic times. The three main river courses at the centre of the map correspond exactly to what Ps.Skylax (340 BC) called the « Sebennytic », « Mendesian » and « Phatnitic » mouths (stomata). Some peculiarities, like the Bubastis island and the Red Sea canal, seem to confirm this identification.

LA IMPORTANCIA ECONÓMICA Y TEOLÓGICA DEL LUGAR DE NACIMIENTO DE EL IBIS

The article gives a new explanation for the masses of sacred ibises and their remains inside the Egyptian ibis burial places (Ibiotapheia) especially in Ptolemaic times. We find no traces of a continuous flow of pilgrims visiting sanctuaries of Thot and offering single ibis mummies to venerate Thot privately. The many new Ptolemaic nourishing places of the ibis (Ibiotropheia/Ibion) are economically closely connected to the distribution of new Fields of the ibis, sold by the administration also to foreigners like kleruchoi-soldiers. This happened in combination with the installation of many new cult places and cult statues of Ibis- and Baboon-gods, all maintained by an Ibion-organisation. Every newly founded local ibion in the Nile valley delivered selected sacred ibises to a new local Greek-Egyptian Hermaion where they fulfilled roles of gods during feast days and oracle procedures. Collection of dead ibises from the Ibion and their deification, then the mass burial of all animal remains and finally the rebirth of young sacred ibises inside an Ibion secured the immortality of the Ibis-god. This Ibis- god protected all over Egypt the pharaoh’s New Year feast and his enthronisation corresponding to the mythological role of the ibises as supporters of Thot during the first creation.

The Genesis of the Coptic Identity: An Inquiry into the Awakening of Coptic Ethnic Consciousness

In this article I intend to examine and refute the theory that the Egyptian population was rigidly divided into two isolated and antagonistic groups, the so-called autochthons (indigenous population) and foreigners (Greeks, succeeded by Romans and Byzantines). This supposed dichotomy was said to have begun during early Ptolemaic times (3rd c. B.C.) and lasted through the Arab conquest of Egypt in 645 and beyond. I focus my attention mainly on the Byzantine period (4th c. A.D. until 645) and I challenge and reject the view that the Monophysite (Coptic) Christian community of Byzantine Egypt represented the indigenous population, which had a common ethnic origin, in contrast to the foreign oppressors. Finally, I express the view that only after the Arab conquest of Egypt in 645 can we discern a latent ethnic differentiation between the Monophysite Copts and Dyophysite Melkites, which reached its peak at the time of the Melkite patriarch of Alexandria Cosmas I (ca. 727–768) and marked the final break of the two religious communities of Egypt.Â

TWO TEXTS OF CARRYING THE PROCESSION OF THE GOD HORUS AND THE GODDESS HATHOR AT EDFU TEMPLE

Edfu temple is one of the most complete and well-preserved of all the Egyptian temples. Theactual building only dates back to Ptolemaic times. I aim with this essay to develop theunderstanding of the two Processions of Horus of Behdety and Hathor which are existed onthe second Hypostyle Hall through the examination of the iconographies, epithets, nature androle. The processions with statues were reminiscent of the annually journey that the statue ofthe goddess Hathor undertook by boat from Dendara to Edfu. Here I am trying to investigatequestions of the physical movement of the portable barks carrying each temple’s divine statueand to better understand the ritual events.

TWO DEMOTIC RECEIPTS OF r-rx=w

This article deals with two[i] demotic receipts of r-rx=w which kept in the Egyptian Museum at Cairo .the internal evidence refers to Gebelin provenance and late Ptolemaic period. These texts are known from the late Ptolemaic times to the Roman period. They are issued during the spring survey and cover both temple and king's land, 1and issued by the state agriculture office.2These texts were related to the cultivated land. The lands were not small were allotted to more than farmer to take care and till them. The lands were usually small had been allotted to one farmer. These kinds of lands were neglected, and the government aimed to be taken care and re-cultivated them. The farmers re-cultivated this neglected land without paying taxes for five years, then they must pay a reduced tax for another three years starting from the ninth year they must pay it fully.3

Reshaping the urban space: Bakchias in Ptolemaic and Roman times

The paper focuses on some important results obtained by an integrated approach using archaeological evidence, papyrological sources and different kinds of technologies in order to reconstruct the urban development of the site of Bakchias, located in the north-eastern part of the Fayyum region (Egypt). The Mission of Bologna University has excavated ancient Bakchias at Kom Umm el-Athl for over twenty years. In particular, the latest studies, conducted in partnership with Sapienza University of Rome since 2005, have revealed several new elements which are useful for reconsidering the urban development of the kome. In 2011, a GIS was constructed not only in order to store and manage the large quantity of data collected during these years, but also to analyse and process the information and to optimise the research goals. Indeed, the latest-field activities have brought to light numerous structures, both public buildings and private houses in different sectors of the archaeological area. At the same time, an analysis of the papyrological and epigraphic sources was carried out so as to comprehend the useful information about the spatial content, activities and buildings recorded for the settlement. The research was completed using different surveying approaches. All the data thus obtained were merged together in a GIS environment, in order to collect and manage all the information and to integrate the individual elements in a coherent workflow process. Spatial or distributional analysis of the data relating to the site enabled us to draw a series of thematic and phase maps of the Bakchias site. The execution of these diachronic plans, representing different chronological phases of the town, allowed us to evaluate the historical development of the site and urban plan transformations.

Did “Scripturalization” Take Place in Second Temple Judaism?

ABSTRACT Endemic to biblical scholarship is the presumption that the documents later included in Tanak were widely disseminated among Jews in Second Temple times. Given the largely illiterate population of those centuries, it remains an open question as to how such dissemination could have taken place. Using recent research from cognitive studies and social anthropology as a model for the discussion, this paper reexamines the ancient data and argues that neither the scrolls nor the content of the scrolls had been disseminated prior to the Hellenistic era. From Ptolemaic times into the early Hasmonean period, some limited dissemination of texts began, but widespread Jewish familiarity with themes, tales, and poetry we know as ‘biblical’ emerged only gradually from Hasmonean to Roman times.

L’équipement funéraire de la prêtresse thébaine Nestaneteretten

The aim of the article is to discuss the “dossier“ of Nestaneteretten (PP IX, 7112c), daughter of Ahmose and Taukesh. She was a sistrum-player of Amun-Ra in the temple of Karnak at the beginning of Ptolemaic times; at least, this is the most adequate era indicated by her funerary equipment assembled from different Egyptian collections. Among the objects belonging to Nestaneteretten are a stela with a “God’s decree“, a Ptah-Sokar-Osiris statue, a one-piece-cartonnage, a hypocephalus, and a Book of the Dead papyrus. The study is dedicated to the analysis of the objects.

Ancient rainwater harvesting systems in the north-eastern Marmarica (north-western Egypt)

AbstractIn arid and semi-arid regions runoff-fed agriculture has been common for millennia. Recent geographical and archaeological investigations in the north-eastern part of ancient Marmarica (north-western Egypt) revealed a dense network of water harvesting systems associated with settlements and production sites dating back to Ptolemaic times. The environmental conditions and the ancient water management strategies are characterised by minimal intervention but maximised effect and optimised utilisation of the scarce water (100–150 mm seasonal discharge) and soil resources of the region.

Zum altägyptischen Hohlmaßsystem

In the last century, ancient Egyptian measures of capacity have been determined mostly on the basis of papyrus Rhind (Hyksos time). It is not known, however, if the relation given there between dry measure and is exact (or meant to be so), nor how long it remained valid. Therefore other ways of approach should not be neglected. There is to be considered: (a) a demotic mathematical papyrus published by R. A. Parker which calculates the holy cubit as 343 hin, which means 1 hin = 1 cubic palm. (b) An inscription of late Ptolemaic times giving weight equivalents for the hin. Here remain however serious uncertainties of metrological interpretation. (c) Preserved measuring vessels and other vessels with inscribed capacities in hin. The resulting values vary between 443 ccm and 545 ccm for the hin. It is hardly permitted to refer all these different values to one standard. A value around 450 ccm is well represented and might correspond to a hypothetical formula 1 cubic = 320 hin. An appendix treats the (as measure of length) in Greco-Roman Egypt.

Zur kosmischen Konnotation des Zahlenwertes Dreißig

The number thirty can be considered as one of the most important organizing principles in ancient Egyptian thought, owing its record in a multiplicity of cultural contexts such as plays and feasts, textual and architectural creations, definitions of single gods or divine groups from the Old Kingdom down to Ptolemaic Times. The present study explores the intracultural meaning and symbolic value of the number. Equivalent to the moon-cycle and consequently a metaphor for rebirth, the number thirty incorporates the quality of cosmic totality.

Der Opferkult in den Vorhöfen der Tempel in Edfu, Medamud und Kom Ombo

Article Der Opferkult in den Vorhöfen der Tempel in Edfu, Medamud und Kom Ombo was published on January 1, 2002 in the journal Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde (volume 129, issue 1).

La table d'offrandes grande et pure d'Amon

(Res.d'A.). The title imy-st-(nt-)`n p3 htp `3 w`b (n) pr Imn, found in the titulature of Theban priests from the Third Intermediate Period to Ptolemaic times, is to be translated functionary (in charge) of the great and pure offering table of Amun. Different translations do not take into account the variants and the occurence of the expression the great and pure offering table of Amun outside priestly titles. The name and the location of this particular offering table and some other elements of the titulature of the same priests, such as `3 (n) w`b and p3 w3h are also discussed.

Die Gottin Mr. t: Entstehung und Verehrung einer Personifikation

Among the numerous deities invested with special spheres of responsibility in ancient Egypt is charged with the salutation of the deity (king or god) and the provision of cult-music. Since there is no lack of source material relating to the goddess from all periods right down to Roman times, readily provides an exemplary demonstration of a minor deity's transformation through time. Her original deification must have taken place during the 4th and 5th dynasties when the chorus designated came to be personified as the ritual figure Mr.t upon the house of Gold at the Hebsed and the first Priests-of-Mr. t-titles appeared. To the characteristic iconography, tress of hair and special gesture taken over from the chorus by the deity more symbols came to be added: the mysterious House of Gold, the place where statues were fashioned; the heraldic plants of Upper and Lower Egypt; and, in Ptolemaic times, the harp.

Holocene lakes and prehistoric settlements of the Western Faiyum, Egypt

Holocene lake stages in the Faiyum depression commenced with a high lake stand during the 10th millennium bp, followed by an early Holocene lake from 8500 to 7000 bp. A pronounced recession and the development of a palaeosol preceded another rise to a mid-Holocene, high lake level from 6500 to 5100 bp. A major drop in level coincided with the late Neolithic and Early Dynastic. The Moeris lake witnessed by Herodotus is also documented. The drop in lake level during early Ptolemaic times marked the end of the freshwater lake and was apparently, in part, a result of declining Nile floods. Terminal Palaeolithic sites are associated with the early Holocene lake and Neolithic sites with the mid-Holocene phase. Prehistoric settlements were placed near lake-margin marshes and ponds. The richness of the lake margin in aquatic resources and its susceptibility to short- and long-term fluctuations influenced both subsistence and settlements, and is believed to have encouraged a para-agricultural economy.

A Bohairic School Text on Papyrus

Previous articleNext article No AccessA Bohairic School Text on PapyrusElinor Mullett HusselmanElinor Mullett Husselman Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Near Eastern Studies Volume 6, Number 3Jul., 1947 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/370829 Views: 5Total views on this site PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.