REVIEW BY CAMPBELL PRICE The book’s introduction sets the scene by briefly describing the find, with a chronological sketch of the archaeological landscape of Saqqara the subject of the first chapter. The caching phenomenon – the deliberate gathering and deposition…
REVIEW BY HILARY FORREST William Flinders Petrie, known to many as the ‘Father of Egyptology’, left a huge legacy of Egyptological material – not only artefacts, but also many writings. He also produced many typological catalogues based on his excavations.…
Dinosaur bones discovered in 1977 in the Kharga Oasis have recently been identified as a species of herbivorous dinosaur new to science. The remains, which included vertebrae and limb, pelvis, and shoulder bones, date to about 75 million years ago,…
Egyptian researchers have used three spectroscopic techniques for rapid analysis of gemstones from Egypt, revealing their origins and providing a window into historical trade routes. Gemstones peridot (olivine) and emerald, and semi-gemstones beryl, amazonite, and amethyst, from mines in the…
A round-up of some of the latest news from the world of ancient Egypt.
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Germany have recreated the smell of the mummification balm used on the noblewoman Senetnay, wet nurse to Amenhotep II. The team used gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, and other techniques to analyse…
A joint team from the Ministry of Antiquities and the University of Colorado have completed the restoration and reinstallation of a number of huge granite columns at Ashmunein, in Minya Governorate. Known as Hermopolis Magna in the Graeco-Roman era, the…
Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a ship that sank in the Mediterranean Sea, approximately 650 metres off the coast of el-Alamein. Dating to the 3rd century BC, the ship was carrying a cargo of wine amphorae imported from Rhodes.…
• Poisonous paint: exotic but dangerous pigments in ancient Egyptian art
• House of Life: the central repository of knowledge
• Cleopatra II: the ‘traditionally untraditional’ queen
• Huy: the High Steward Amenhotep
• Magical honey: unusual uses in ancient Egypt
• Reflecting ancient life: precious mirrors
Among the many treasures recovered by archaeologists and antiquarian collectors from Egypt are papyrus copies of a remarkable text written more than 4,000 years ago: The Teaching of Ptahhatp. Bill Manley investigates this often-overlooked survival from ancient Egypt and one vizier’s contributions to the dawn of literature.
In the first part of a new series on deception in World War II, Taylor Downing tells the story of Lieutenant-Colonel Dudley Clarke, Britain's flamboyant pioneer of misinformation.
REVIEW BY PATRICK MERCER When I joined the army there were sphinxes all over the place: on cap badges, collar badges, sporran badges, embroidered on Regimental Colours… The Gloucesters even wore two, one fore and another aft, to commemorate fighting…
• Nelson and the Nile: The Battle of Aboukir Bay, 1798
• Europe 1943: turning the tide of WWII
• Cromwell and Fairfax: how the English Civil War was won
• Terror in Tuscany: the cruel siege of Siena
• American Patriot: Paul Revere’s ‘midnight ride’
Roger Forshaw investigates this intriguing institution and its role in ancient Egyptian society.
Continuing his series of articles about individuals who influenced events in Egypt during their lifetimes, Wolfram Grajetzki now turns his attention to one of the most important members of Amenhotep III’s court in Memphis.
Ancient Egyptians used honey in cooking, especially to sweeten dishes in the absence of sugar, and in medicine, for its healing properties and to soothe coughs. They also used it for more unusual purposes, as Amandine Marshall reveals.
Barbara Boczar investigates the sources of the wonderful colours used by ancient Egyptian artisans.
Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones continues his new series on the later Ptolemaic queens, focusing on the tangled family relationships of the second Cleopatra.
Mirrors, as we know them, did not exist in ancient Egypt, so what did the elite use to check their elaborate make-up?
Geoffrey Lenox-Smith attends the ‘soft opening’ of Giza’s new blockbuster museum.
For this issue, Dr Campbell Price chooses a beautifully painted object from the Louvre Museum in Paris.
A major step forward in understanding and dating ancient Egyptian ceramics.
A round-up of some of the latest news from the world of ancient Egypt.
Analysis of the contents of a Ptolemaic Bes-shaped jug from the Tampa Museum of Art in Florida has revealed a complex concoction of fermented fruit, psychoactive plant-based substances, and human fluids that include breast milk, oral and vaginal fluids, and…
A study just published by an interdisciplinary team from Belgium and France has revealed small changes and ‘touch-ups’ to paintings in Theban tombs, showing that images were often adapted and reworked during their execution, rather than created by means of…
Routine work on fragments of a Ptolemaic Period papyrus at the University of Graz Library in Austria has revealed traces of stitching, suggesting the text was once part of a book, rather than a scroll. Found at el-Hiba necropolis in…
The American-Egyptian South Abydos Project team has completed the restoration of the Tetisheri Pyramid, the last such structure to be built for an Egyptian queen. It was erected as a memorial to the queen by her grandson Ahmose I, founder…
Analysis of the silver bracelets belonging to the Fourth Dynasty queen Hetepheres I has revealed the origins of the silver ore used in Egypt, and the extent of Egypt’s trading networks. A team led by researchers from Macquarie University in…
Tutankhamun’s face has been recreated by researchers from Australia, Italy, and Brazil to demonstrate a new modelling technique based on the use of digitised graphic information. Although the team did not have access to the king’s actual remains, they were…
Two mummification workshops – the largest and most complete ever found – have been discovered by the Egyptian mission working in the Sacred Animal Cemetery (Bubasteum) at Saqqara. Dating to the Thirtieth Dynasty and Ptolemaic periods, each structure was made…
Your thoughts on issues raised by the magazine.
REVIEW BY HILARY WILSON This collection of papers from a 2019 Cairo conference represents current research into the life of women in ancient Egypt. By applying contemporary social values and gender assumptions, late 19th- and early 20th-century scholarship tended to…
Do you recognise this place?
REVIEW BY CAMPBELL PRICE Many readers may remember the documentaries made for British television on Egyptian subjects by John Romer in the 1980s and 1990s. I vividly recall his impassioned delivery, which struck my schoolboy imagination as something different from…
REVIEW BY TANEASH SIDPURA The objects from Ahhotep’s burial at Dra Abu el-Naga, dating to the Eighteenth Dynasty, are a fascinating assemblage of mostly gold and other expensive materials, and are certainly worthy of further study. However, rather than being…
REVIEW BY JPP Colin Reader is a geologist who has combined his professional knowledge with his passion for Egyptology to produce a fascinating geological history of the country. The title of his book derives from Herodotus’ assertion that the ancient…