Walls Of Temples Research Articles

War in Ancient Egypt: The New Kingdom, and: Warfare in Ancient Egypt (review)

Reviewed by: War in Ancient Egypt: The New Kingdom, and: Warfare in Ancient Egypt Antonio Santosuosso War in Ancient Egypt: The New Kingdom. By Anthony J. Spalinger . Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishing, 2005. ISBN 1-4051-1373-3. Maps. Photographs. Illustrations. Notes. General bibliography. Index. Pp. xx, 291. $29.95. Warfare in Ancient Egypt. By Bridget McDermott . Stroud, U.K.: Sutton Publishing. 2004. ISBN 0-7509-3291-0. Illustrations. Appendixes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xi, 212. £20.00. Anthony J. Spalinger's War in Ancient Egypt leaves the reader puzzled at times but there is no doubt that this work is a valuable source for historians interested in the 600 years of warfare of the New Kingdom. That period coincides with the reign of Ramesses II, one of the most charismatic pharaohs (but not the greatest warrior; that, in my view, was Thutmose III), with Megiddo and Kadesh, two of the best known battles of the Ancient Near East, and with the triumph and eventual decline of Egyptian imperialism. Spalinger argues that the early XVIII Dynasty was a transitional period in military terms. Originally the navy was the backbone of both conquest and defense. Ships on the Nile allowed the pharaoh's soldiers to respond quickly to any threat, especially in Upper Egypt but also in Lower Egypt. The navy remained an important instrument in the expulsion of the Hyksos, an Asiatic people perhaps from Transjordan, as Donald R. Redford thinks, or maybe from a more northerly location between Palestine and Lebanon, as Spalinger seems to argue. Later, ships continued to be a commercial and at times a military lifeline between the Delta and the Near Eastern coast, Crete, Cyprus, and southern Anatolia. But after the expulsion of the Hyksos, chariotry became the main agent in the establishment of Egyptian supremacy over the Ancient Near East. It became the most prestigious sector of the military, closely associated to the pharaoh who saw the army as a direct expression of his power. Occupation of the highest military posts was a privilege of a hierarchy of landowners whose independence, however, was closely controlled by the pharaoh. Fighting for the state, the pharaoh, and the god Amun were intertwined in the belief that the function of war was the suppression of chaos. Spalinger's book, which is also valuable for the bibliographical excursi at the end of each chapter, should be read in conjunction with Donald B. Redford (Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times [Princeton, N.J., 1992]) in order to have a more complete picture of the times. The strength of Spalinger's work is its wealth of information and scholarly treatment of aspects, logistics most of all, usually ignored or superficially treated in accounts of the warfare of Ancient Egypt; its weakness lies, however, in the same abundance of details, repeated too often—an approach that leaves the reader asking for conclusions which never arrive or, if they do arrive, are too cryptic. More careful editing would have solved this problem. Normally it is quite easy to agree with Spalinger's views. Yet there are also conclusions which are quite debatable or wrong. For instance, Ramesses, Spalinger says, "won the battle [of Kadesh]; his tactics were [End Page 207] superb" (p. 226). That conclusion is surprising to say the least. Most historians agree that the battle was an Egyptian defeat or a draw or at best a pyrrhic victory (on this, see my analysis of the evidence and the views of other historians in "Kadesh Revisited: Reconstructing the Battle Between the Egyptians and the Hittites," Journal of Military History 60 [1996]: 423–44). In the aftermath of the encounter the Hittites extended their dominion: they kept Kadesh and imposed their supremacy southward into Upe and Damascus. It is likely that the endless repetition of the battle on the walls of Ramesses' temples aimed at symbolizing the close ties between Ramesses and the god Amun and at reaffirming that the pharaoh survived in spite of his mistakes during the campaign. The truth is that Ramesses never dared to move on Kadesh afterwards. Bridget McDermott's book is an alternative presentation of ancient Egyptian warfare. Unlike Spalinger, McDermott begins her story around 3200 BC...

Freemasonry in Turkey: a by-product of Western penetration

Towards the middle of the nineteenth century, various European Masonic obediences set up lodges throughout the Ottoman empire, many in Istanbul, while another important centre was Smyrna. Freemasons were also active in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Cyprus and Macedonia. Lodges were established in the main political, economic and cultural centres of the Empire. There was a strong parallelism between the Ottoman Masonic geography and that of European colonial expansion. It is easy to delineate the social and ethnic structure of lodges, but we know less about what was going on behind the walls of Masonic temples. For sure, Ottoman Freemasons, like their brethren in other parts of the world, when not busy with ‘table works’ or ceremonies, dedicated themselves to philanthropic activities. A considerable part of the annual income of the lodges was used to finance various charitable works (assistance to orphans, to brethren in distress …) and to fund educational institutions. The lodges were also places for the discussion and exchange of ideas about current themes: socialism, feminism, venereal diseases, progress of science, etc. Some mingled with politics, displaying a highly nationalistic discourse. The politicization of Ottoman/Turkish freemasonry climaxed during the years of the Young Turk revolution (1908–1914), when an autochthonous obedience was created. One of the goals of the new organization, coldly received by most European freemasonries, was to rid the Ottoman Empire of foreign penetration. After the proclamation of the Turkish Republic in 1923, this national freemasonry continued to flourish, except for 13 years between 1935 and 1948 when Masonic activity was banned.

Perspectives on Germplasm

The very early years of the beginnings of agriculture are understandably difficult to chronicle. How, and why does one become a farmer? Perhaps someone noted that a stand of plants with grains or fruit bore edible materials over and over again. Someone else may have found that seeds could be saved. Others may have discovered that it was easier to stay in one place than to move about constantly. Increasingly sophisticated tools for planting, cultivating, and harvesting would be developed. Structures for seed storage, and methods for confining animals for domestication would follow. The perception that some plants performed better than others would lead to selection and the development of the first identifiable varieties. These would also become desirable for trading and therefore the movement of early germplasm from one location to another would be the rudimentary beginning of germplasm exploration and acquisition. Documented collection trips came later. One of the earliest known is a collecting trip sent by Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt to an almost legendary place called Punt to collect incense trees for the royal gardens. This occurred about 1500 BC (Fig. 1). Thutmose III, Pharoah after Hatshepsut, sent a collecting trip to Syria, in about 1450 BC, which brought back seeds, fruit, and plants of various species (Fig. 2). Over the ensuing centuries, plants and animals were transported from place to place. For example, lettuce (Lactuca sativa) probably originated in the Middle East and traveled to Egypt, where it was first recorded in tomb paintings during the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom, about 2500 BC (Fig. 3) (Keimer, 1924; Harlan, 1986). It moved around the Mediterranean Basin and was recorded in Persia (550 BC) and Greece (430 BC). It was recorded in Rome (164 AD), where it became very popular. There were several named varieties of different types. It was The value of germplasm has been described in various ways: as the raw material, or the life blood, of plant breeding, as the key to the maintenance of diversity of living forms on earth, as an indicator of the origin of cultivated species. This paper will focus primarily, but not completely, on the first description, that germplasm serves as the source of genes for disease resistance, for environmental adaptation and tolerance, for yield improvement, for appearance and beauty, and other traits that enable plant breeders to bring about the improvement of our crop species and thereby insure the continued productivity of agriculture including horticulture. Of course, the ultimate goal is the availability, of generous supplies of food, feed, fiber, and ornament for the people of the world. The conversion of the human life style from the hunter-gatherer phase to the more sedentary production of food, or agriculture, is commonly accepted to have taken place about 10 millenia ago. At that time, everything that grew was germplasm, because there were no named cultivars. It was the beginning. In modern times, we tend to think of germplasm as consisting of landraces and wild forms introduced into the mainstream of breeding and production and that cultivars are the settled forms that are to be changed by the introduction of genes from new, not quite ready for prime time, forms. But, in fact, germplasm is still everything that grows. Our sources of genetic variation are domestic, modern, and heirloom cultivars, cultivars and landraces from somewhere else, genetic stocks, and wild relatives, both near and distant. We also should add to that list the accumulating stocks of DNA in various libraries. This paper is divided roughly into three parts. The first is historical, to chronicle some of the notable events of the past, to assess their significance, and to set the stage for the activities of the present and of the future. The second part is a discussion of the important aspects of modern germplasm activity: collection, storage, evaluation, application, and distribution. The third part is an assessment of modern trends in germplasm acquisition and plant breeding and how they may impact upon the future. Fig. 1. Temple wall drawing of two ships of Queen Hatshepsut's fleet showing incense trees being loaded on board.

Masterpiece and Mass Product

Spanning the course of three millennia, the art of ancient Egypt stands out for its unique continuity. The fundamental rules of Pharaonic art were established around 3000 bc. The proportions of the human body, the style of cubist representation in relief and painting, the division of a tomb or temple wall into strips, and the adaptation of diverse forms into simple hieroglyphic images remained the principle elements of Egyptian art until the Imperial Roman era.

Identification of Godlikes through The Egyptian Religious texts

A comprehensive review of the religious texts; pyramidtexts(l), coffin texts(2), and book of the dead(3), reveals thatnumerous names of characters, who resemble gods, appear inthese texts having no reference in the other texts or in theinscriptions on the walls of temples and/or tombs. The ancientEgyptians, in their life, did not express any petitions or praysthose characters indicating doubts about their god-being andwhether they were gods acting in the netherworld or they werespirits who had a definite duty in the netherworld, SO~theybe dealt with as the so called ”godlikes” in this paper.Among the godlikes under this study whose namesfrequently appear in the religious texts, Nhb-Ksw, M3-l).3.f,ancl,.Cqn are.the godlikes to be considered in this respect. Nhb-kIw was drawn in various snaky forms. The mostimportant forms are: (1) a great snake having two heads eachwith a different neck,(5) and the tail is ended with a snakyhead(6). (Fig. 1,2), (2) a snake having a human limbs withraising hands to the mouth or carrying a small container, withw3dteye. This form is also graved on ’the basis of Sekhmetand Bastet thronesf/), (Fig. 3), and (3) a human form withsnaky head. This form is represented in the ivory.statuesin.

A Middle Assyrian Hoard from Khirbet Karhasan, Iraq

Khirbet Karhasan was excavated by the British Archaeological Expedition to Iraq, as part of the Saddam Dam Salvage Project. The excavations brought to light a hoard of Middle Assyrian faience ornaments, which formed a coherent assemblage. Collections of similar ornaments are known from Assur and Nimrud where they have been variously interpreted as decorating the rich garments for a god, a divine image, and even the walls of temples. In the absence of any other persuasive view a hypothesis is advanced based on the evidence of archaeological context, iconographic associations and a viable reconstruction, that the ornaments are equally adaptable to the decoration of ceremonial horse-harness.The tell of Khirbet Karhasan is situated on the right bank of the Tigris approximately 75 km north-west of Mosul. The site on the edge of a prominent terrace overlooks a broad floodplain. In 1986, prior to the flooding of the site, the Tigris channel was 3 km north of the tell. The tell was sheltered by low hills which formed the western slope of the valley some 500 m to the south of the site. The hills rose some 40 m above the tell to approximately 50 m above the floodplain.

Bands, Songs and Shamanistic Rituals: Folk Music in Korean Society (review)

124BOOK REVIEWS The ominous undulations of Kim Chi-wön's mysterious "Lullaby" can be contrasted to her insightful character study "A Certain Beginning." While a darkness of physical detail and a suggestion of morbidity run through all three stories by O Chöng-hüi included in this volume, each conjures up its own unique world, shaped by the experiences of very different characters. Other translators of course will want to question some of the Fultons' word choices or solutions to textual problems. Be that as it may, what is notable is that the Fultons do more than get individual words and ideas over into English: they manage to produce literature. While they polish and emend until the language sounds natural, they also keep an eye on the aura and affective impact of the work as a whole. The nature of Korean literature itself has been changing over the last decade and this new generation of writers is now producing a new literature of international value that deserves sensitive, intelligent, and literary translation. The fiction of Kang Sök-kyöng, Kim Ch-wön, and O Chöng-hüi represents such a new literature and the translations of Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton represent the kind of English treatment it deserves. Marshall R. Pihl University of Hawaii Bands, Songs and Shamanistic Rituals: Folk Music in Korean Society , by Keith Howard. Seoul: Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1989. 295 pp. Plates, musical examples. Years ago I was invited by a leading Seoul newspaper to describe my impressions of Korea. I wrote a piece in which I recounted the strong feeling of association with the spirits I had experienced, when alone as shadows lengthened in the remembering courtyards of the Kyöngbok Palace, while resting in secluded shade by the grassy tomb of King Söng-dök in Kyôngju, and by empathetic involvement in emotional scenes at a shaman ceremony in the stony hills outside Seoul. The article was never used and the promised check never arrived, and I have since comforted (deluded?) myself that this was because I had spoken too openly of matters which Koreans did not care to admit to outsiders at that time, especially the continued force of shamanism in a modernizing country. The climate of tolerance has since changed, and although at the time of the research that led to this work (1982-1984), Keith Howard still found Chindo people on the defensive about their association with practices and practitioners traditionally despised— however essential to survival—the study of native Korean religion by generally sympathetic Western social anthropologists has begun to flatter those who once complained of their patronizing attitude. The government in particular recognizes that in the folk arts associated with popular religion it has an authentic source of entertainment and financial income. Shamanism is now admitted to be alive and well and living in Korea (South), but with official, foreign, and impressive interest focused upon it, how much longer can it survive in its ancient forms? BOOK REVIEWS125 Keith Howard is a social anthropologist with a special love of Korean folk music and a strong desire for its appreciation and protection. The purpose of his study was to investigate and record it in the Chindo region while it still retained its peculiar characteristics, and before it became standardized from Seoul as part of the national cultural heritage. Living in their midst for sixteen months, he earned the respect of the Chindo people, who not only rewarded him with their musical skills but just as valuably with their most private views and reminiscences . He has painted them all, with sympathy and understanding, in a picture which like a p'yongsaengdo tableau on a temple wall displays the religious, social, historical, and musical elements that are all essential to the makeup of a traditional Korean community. Closely involved though he became in Korean life and ways, he nevertheless has been able to step back and see it from all angles, and to avoid the commitment to partial viewpoints that weaken the scholarship of many Koreans themselves. The result is a book that I found hard to put down, full of...

A Note on the Detroit Relief of Ramesses II

IN 1972 there appeared in this journal the publication by W. H. Peck of a fragmentary limestone relief acquired in recent years by the Egyptian collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts.' The purpose of this communication is to indicate the true provenance of this relief, with related comment its date and decoration. On the date of the relief one can, I think, be more positive than the admirably cautious first editor. He has already made an excellent case stylistic grounds for an early Ramesside, even an early Nineteenth Dynasty date.2 The cartouche, as far as it is preserved, is typical of Ramesses II, and of practically no other Ramesses.3 Hence, its attribution to Ramesses II seems assured.4 And as there is no palpable trace whatever of this cartouche having been recut a lowered surface, not only the cartouche but the whole slab may confidently be considered an original work of the reign of Ramesses II. A feature of the decoration that one may especially emphasize is the great rarity of the headdress worn by the king in this relief. It consists not merely of the common plumes and horns (with or without a disc) upon a wig, but comprises also a winged solar disc with uraei-a feature in this combination that is nearly impossible to parallel in Pharaonic reliefs,5 and uncommon still later. It is precisely this extremely rare headdress that is the key to the provenance of this particular relief. While checking references for Ramesside projects currently in progress, the present writer chanced upon the description by Daressy of a limestone slab from some temple wall on which one sees the bust of a king who holds a censer whereon he throws pellets of incense. There remains only the end of the cartouche of Ramses II: [... mry,.. ms-sw].6 The point of interest to be noted is the headdress, not often seen: upon an ample wig fronted by a uraeus occur wavy ram's-horns supporting [disc and plumes],' the plumes no longer preserved; but the disc, instead of being unadorned, is furnished with wings and flanked by two uraei (italics added).8 In every way, this description (especially of the headdress) tallies exactly with the Detroit relief. In one important detail only does Daressy diverge. Peck quotes the

Zariadres And Zarer

IT is now almost a century since Rapp cited, 1 among Greek texts relating to Persian customs and beliefs, the charming tale of Zariadres and Odatis, preserved for us by Athenaeus on the authority of Chares of Mytilene.2 The story is in brief as follows: Hystaspes and his younger brother Zariadres were said by the people of their land to be born of Aphrodite and Adonis. Hystaspes ruled Media and the lands below it, Zariadres the region above the Caspian Gates up to the Tanais. Beyond the Tanals lived the Marathi, ruled by Omartes, whose daughter Odatis was the most beautiful woman in Asia.3 Odatis dreamt of Zariadres, and loved him; and he too loved Odatis through dreams. He sought her vainly in marriage, for her father did not wish to give her to a stranger. Soon after, Omartes held a marriage-feast attended by his own kinsmen and nobles, and bade Odatis give a cup of wine to him whom she wished to marry. Zariadres, forewarned by Odatis, came in full haste across the Tanals, accompanied only by his charioteer, and entered the hall in Scythian dress as, weeping, Odatis slowly filled the cup. She recognized him with joy, and he carried her off. This tale, Chares states, was greatly esteemed by the barbarians of Asia, who painted scenes from it on the walls of temples, palaces, and even private houses, the nobles often giving the name of Odatis to their own daughters.

Schoolboys of the Ancient World

In the Greek papyri from Egypt we meet a little band of schoolboys. They are a remnant of their kin. The tousled heads which bowed over the clay tablets laboriously incised with wedge-shaped tables in the Sumeria of Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar are gone. No one even thought of carving them on a temple wall. Gone, too, are the lads of Egypt's temple schools. They had no free milk at school by the Nile, but each morning their mothers appeared with three rolls of bread and two jugs of beer to be consumed during lessons. ‘A boy who wanted more’, says the document which supplies the information, ‘is a gluttonous creature.’ Were there brown Oliver Twists among the budding scribes in the days when Tahutmes III was setting up ‘Cleopatra's’ needle ? The sturdy scribe who sits cross-legged in limestone in the Louvre looks as if he might have merry tales to tell of schooldays in his century. It was the twenty-seventh before Christ.

A CASE OF NONFILARIAL ELEPHANTIASIS TERMINATING WITH ALEUKEMOID ANEMIA

The combination of chronic edema and hypertrophy of the genitalia and extremities has been a well known disease entity in the tropics from remote antiquity. Probably the first recorded case is that of a woman pictured in an Egyptian bas-relief on a temple wall at Deir el Bahr. In modern literature the reported cases of elephantiasis, excluding those of the neurofibromatosis of von Reckling-hausen, fall into three main classes: the tropical cases of proved filarial origin, the instances of the hereditary elephantiasis of Milroy,¹and the sporadic nonfilarial cases occurring in temperate climates. In practically all the reported instances longevity has been the rule, and the authors have dealt almost exclusively with the methods and results of surgical treatment. The case here reported belongs to the sporadic group and is of unusual interest because of its progressive course and fatal termination with profound anemia, with a blood picture suggestive

The Metals Used by the Great Nations of Antiquity1

AT the beginning of this century little was known of the great nations of antiquity, except through the classic poets and historians, and the sacred writings of the Hebrew people. Since then our knowledge has been enormously increased by the labours of scholars and explorers; the ruins of ancient cities have been exhumed, and the contemporary literature of Egypt and Assyria, inscribed on papyri or tablets of clay, and painted or carved on the walls of temples, palaces and tombs, has been deciphered. What is in some respects still more important is, that objects found in these ruins have thrown great light upon the daily life of the people, and their ornamental and useful arts. One of the departments of this inquiry concerns the metals used by the different nations, and at the different epochs of their history; and it is to this that my attention will be confined this evening. The difficulty I experience is the vast amount of material; and I cannot attempt anything more than a general view of the subject, and some of the most salient points.

A SHORT SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF GYNECOLOGIC SURGERY.

In the busy rush of professional work and daily practice, it will, perhaps, prove of benefit to take a glance backward and for a few moments study the early beginnings of our most glorious profession—glorious for what it has achieved, more glorious still for the charity which its individual members are daily distributing to the pauper sick throughout the world. In most of the recent text-books of to-day one would imagine that surgery was almost entirely due to the invention and ingenuity of the various text-book authors, and that little or nothing is due to our illustrious predecessors in medicine. Many hundreds of years before Christ, medicine had made considerable progress, as shown by the inscriptions on the Egyptian monuments, as well as by the five medical papyri of very ancient date. On the walls of the Egyptian temples are found figure pictures representing the surgeon operating upon his

Age of the Temple Wall

Age of the Temple Wall

Age of the Temple Wall

Age of the Temple Wall