Egypt

Opposite A pair of gold flies (EA 59416) from the British Museum. top The golden flies (CG 52671) of Queen Ahhotep. above Jewellery of the Twelfth Dynasty princess Khenmet, including a chain with golden flies (CG 52976).

Golden flies as military awards? It doesn’t fly!

PhD research by Taneash Sidpura refutes a well-established theory.

Egypt’s golden couple: a family affair

John Coleman and Colleen Darnell present new interpretations of the imagery from the fascinating reign of Akhenaten and Nefertiti.

Egypt’s Golden Couple: when Akhenaten and Nefertiti were Gods on Earth

Review by Sarah Griffiths This new exploration of Akhenaten and Nefertiti’s unique vision for Egypt and their rise to divine status is presented in an unusual format, with each chapter headed by a short dramatic reconstruction. Such vignettes are perhaps…

Win a copy of ‘Tutankhamun and the Tomb that Changed the World’ by Bob Brier

Do you recognise where in Egypt this photograph was taken?

1200px Egyptian Mummy and Painted Cartonnage of an Unknown Woman Walters 791 Detail C

The Past

This week: Mummies

The ancient Egyptian process of mummification holds a unique place in the popular imagination – inspiring exhibitions, movies, books, and countless school trips. As we learn this week on The Past, however, Western responses to this extraordinary and costly practice…

The Past

Mummies Quiz

In 1922, a team led by which British Egyptologist excavated Tutankhamun's tomb?

Right Ramesses II as he may have looked at 45 (right) and at 90 years old (far right), in reconstructions by scientists in Liverpool and Cairo based on CT and photographic data.

The face of Ramesses II

A team from the Liverpool John Moores University ‘Face Lab’ and the University of Cairo have created reconstructions of the face of Ramesses II at the ages of 45 and 90. The images were created using computed tomography (CT) data,…

Above The 1.3 km long tunnel discovered under the Ptolemaic temple of Taposiris Magna.

Tunnel unearthed beneath temple of Taposiris Magna

A 1.3 km tunnel has been discovered 13 metres beneath the Ptolemaic temple of Taposiris Magna, west of Alexandria. The massive 2 metre high structure appears to be similar to the Eupalinian Aqueduct on the island of Samos, and is…

Opposite The gilded cartonnage outer decoration of the mummified body of a woman. From Hawara, c.AD 100.

Going for gold: reconsidering mummies from the Graeco-Roman period

The exhibition Golden Mummies of Egypt opens in February at Manchester Museum for its only European showing after an international tour that has included venues in the USA and China. Curator Campbell Price discusses the artefacts on display and their significance to the Greek and Roman Egyptians and to modern visitors.

Opposite Francis Frith in Turkish Summer Costume, 1857. below left Abu Simbel, Colossal Figure on the Façade of the Great Temple, 1860. below right Island of Philae, Colossal Sculptures, 1860.

Francis Frith in Egypt

Julia Skinner explores the life and work of the pioneering photographer
who documented the great monuments of ancient Egypt.

A Golden Statuette

In each issue of Ancient Egypt magazine, Dr Campbell Price describes a key artefact from Egyptology collections around the world. His choice for AE 135 is from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA).

Left A gold ring found in the Northern Cemetery at Amarna bearing the hieroglyphs ‘Daughter of the Lady of the Two Lands’. above A necklace of hollow gold beads also found at Amarna.

Golden jewellery found in burial in Amarna

The Egyptian-British archaeological mission working in the Northern Cemetery (Tombs of the Nobles) at Amarna has uncovered a burial containing fine pieces of gold jewellery. The grave contained the remains of a young woman wrapped in textiles, who was buried…

A Grand Spell of Sunshine: The Life and Legacy of Francis Frith

Review: Hilary Forrest Many readers will be familiar with the name Francis Frith, which is associated with the world of picture postcards, often of seaside views or famous sights. What you will discover from this fascinating and detailed work is…

Above A stool from the Tomb of Kha and Merit (TT8). below A gesso painted stool from the Tomb of Kha and Merit (TT8).

Hilary Wilson explores the afterlife of two Egyptian stools

The double-curved seat of the ancient Egyptian stool makes it much more comfortable than the traditional Western styles. When examples were discovered by early Egyptologists, the design was soon copied by contemporary furniture-makers.

Above A golden tongue and other gold fragments that were placed on the deceased in the newly discovered burials at Quesna. left One of the burials at the Quesna quarries cemetery.

Mummies with golden tongues discovered in Quesna

The thin gold tongue-plates were placed in the mouth to help the deceased transform into a divine being in the afterlife.

Style From The Nile: Egyptomania in Fashion from the 19th Century to the Present Day

REVIEW: Cathie Bryan Fashion is a neglected subject in reception studies of ancient Egypt, with the exception of the Egyptianising vogue inspired by the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb (1922). Campagnol, a teacher of the history of fashion in Milan, goes…

Travels in an antique land: the Temple of Nekhbet-Hathor at Elkab

Each issue, AE magazine goes off the beaten track to explore some of Egypt’s lesser known sites, new museums, and newly opened monuments, with tips to help the independent traveller. In this issue, the intrepid Karl Harris searches for a small New Kingdom temple in the Wadi Hilal at Elkab.

Left The new visitor centre at San el Hagar (Tanis). right The newly discovered Roman bathhouse at Esna.

Burials and bathhouses: a round-up of some of the latest Ancient Egyptian discoveries

A Spanish team has announced the discovery of the remains of 60 mummies, buried in two tombs close to the tomb of the New Kingdom vizier Amenhotep-Huy in el-Assasif (West Bank of Luxor).

Top A coloured terracotta figurine depicting the goddess Isis Aphrodite. above The remains of a Graeco Roman funerary structure with colourful tiled floors. left A rare find: a complete Roman Period mummy portrait.

Funerary structure and Fayum portraits unearthed

An Egyptian team excavating at Gerza (ancient Philadelphia) in the Fayum has discovered a large Graeco-Roman funerary building with coloured tile floors, and a number of complete and partial mummy portraits. The team also found a number of anthropoid and…

Above Imaginative reconstruction of a Western Desert Neolithic settlement, based on archaeological evidence from sites mentioned in the text.

Neolithic settlements of the Western Desert: Proto-villages of Stone Age Egypt

Following his exploration of rock art in the Western Desert in AE 127, Julian Heath continues his occasional series exploring Egypt’s prehistoric past, looking for evidence for the earliest settlements in the Western Desert.

Right The wrapped mummy of Ramesses III from the Royal Cache.

The Royal Cache at Deir el-Bahri, 1881

The amazing discovery of more than 50 royal mummies.

Tea on the Terrace: Hotels and Egyptologists’ Social Networks, 1885-1925

REVIEW: Anna Garnett For many of us, it is the human stories behind major archaeological discoveries that first spark our fascination with Egyptology. Who were the people on the excavation teams? What did they do, and how did they spend…

Right Steps leading down to the newly discovered Eighteenth Dynasty tomb in the Western Valley at Luxor.

Royal tomb discovered near Valley of the Kings

The tomb is thought to date to the Eighteenth Dynasty

Far left One of the Late Period burials discovered at Tell el Deir in New Damietta. top left Golden amulets discovered in the Late Period burials at Tell el Deir. left Miniature pottery canopic jars from Tell el Deir.

New tombs and golden amulets found in New Damietta

The burials contained bodies that were covered with thin gold foils in the shapes of Isis, Bastet, and other deities.

Ancient Egypt Magazine 134

• Warrior Tutankhamun: fragile pharaoh no more
• The first resurrection of Tutankhamun
• Howard Carter: his lasting legacy as an artist
• Medicine and healing: treating the sick in ancient Egypt
• Exploring the ancient Egyptian diet
• Exhibition: Daughters of the Nile

The Past

Face of Ramesses II reconstructed

3D reconstruction work has enabled researchers to put a face to Rameses II, one of Egpyt's most powerful pharaohs, 3,300 years after his death.

ABOVE Excavations at Gerza have uncovered new examples of Roman era Fayum portraits in a large funerary building.

Funerary finds in Fayum

Inside the funerary structure, archaeologists found a number of rock-cut and stone-lined burial chambers containing a variety of burials, ranging from simple interments to examples of high-quality embalming.

Hilda Petrie (1871-1956)

Having learnt Arabic, Hilda would hire and pay their workers. She slept in a hut at Tarkhan with 80 skulls by her bed, living off canned pilchards and bully beef.

LEFT The Colossi of Memnon, built c.1360 BC. These two quartzite sandstone statues of King Amenhotep III, each 18m in height, once flanked the entrance through the first pylon of his mortuary temple at Kom el Hettân in Western Thebes. A diminutive figure of Amenhotep’s queen, Tiye, stands by the king’s legs.

Chariot kings: the image of the pharaohs

From Ahmose I to Horemheb, the depiction of kings in Egypt’s 18th Dynasty was a tale of tradition and innovation. Even as the image of the chariot-riding warrior pharaoh became entrenched, there were more radical changes to come with the Amarna style of Akhenaten, as Guy de la Bédoyère explains.

Highlighting hieroglyphs at the British Museum and the Petrie Museum

This autumn marked 200 years since the ‘hieroglyphic code’ was cracked, allowing scholars to read and understand the ancient Egyptian script for the first time in centuries, and revolutionising our understanding of the people who used it. Carly Hilts visited two London-based exhibitions reflecting this milestone.

Ancient Egypt 134 Letters

Your thoughts on issues raised by the magazine, plus what’s coming up in future issues. Email the Editor: peter@ancientegyptmagazine.com with your comments.

Above left The sarcophagus with broken lid belonging to Ptahemwia, Treasurer to Ramesses II. left Painted wall scene in the Tomb of Ptahemwia.

Sarcophagus of Ramesses II’s Treasurer uncovered at Saqqara

Following the discovery of the tomb of Ramesses II’s Treasurer Ptahemwia at Saqqara, the Egyptian team has now uncovered his pink granite sarcophagus in the main burial chamber.

Above The Great Pyramids on the Giza Plateau. New research shows that during the Old Kingdom, a now dried up branch of the Nile allowed the transport of stone blocks to the building site, which today is surrounded by desert.

Nile branch key to construction of Giza pyramids

The study suggests that the existence of a Nile branch during the Old Kingdom allowed the Egyptians to transport heavy stone blocks by water close to where these monuments were built.

Left Excavations at Saqqara at the site where pottery vessels containing cheese were discovered.

Archaeologists find ancient Egyptian cheese

The remains of a white cheese were found in pottery vessels unearthed at Saqqara

Tutankhamun – Pharaoh, Icon, Enigma: Lost for Three Thousand Years, Misunderstood for a Century

by Prof. Joyce Tyldesley.Headline, 2022ISBN 978-1-472-28984-1Hardback, £22. Do we need another book on Tutankhamun? The author herself has already published two Tutankhamun-focused works – the 2012 Tutankhamen’s Curse (reviewed in AE 71) in particular already covers much of the same…

Daughters of the Nile

Coinciding with the centenary of the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, a major exhibition Daughters of the Nile: women and society in ancient Egypt opens in Madrid (Spain). Its curator, Nacho Ares, invites us on a journey into the past to learn about the role of women in the world of the ancient pharaohs.