REVIEW BY SIMON BAKER Anyone with more than a passing interest in the history of the SAS may well be familiar with the regiment’s genesis myth: in 1941, a tall Commando called David Stirling, in hospital after a nasty parachute…
This year sees the marking of two significant anniversaries: the centenary of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb by the British archaeologist Howard Carter, in excavations funded by Lord Carnarvon; and the bicentenary of the use of the Rosetta Stone by…
Ancient Egypt has provided endless inspiration for artists and designers, whether ancient or modern. Benjamin Hinson and Anna Ferrari, curators of a new exhibition on Egypt’s artistic legacy, investigate this cultural phenomenon, its links to politics and power, and how contemporary Egyptian artists have made ancient imagery their own.
Dylan Bickerstaffe investigates the discovery and documentation of Tomb KV36 and assesses what we now know about “The Lion of the Battlefield”.
Conservators working in the Temple of Khnum in Esna, Upper Egypt, have uncovered new details of the building’s colourful ceiling frescoes. Construction on the temple began in the Ptolemaic period and continued into the Roman period, with decoration completed during…
A century after Tutankhamun’s tomb first captured the world’s attention, a new exhibition at the Bodleian Library offers fresh insights into the famous discovery through archival material. Amy Brunskill visited to find out more.
Review by Miroslav Bárta. The Old Kingdom papyri count among the rarest of finds. For several decades, the Abusir papyri archives from the pyramid complexes of the Fifth Dynasty kings Neferirkare and Nyuserre and queen-mother Khentkaus were among the earliest…
Review by Andrew Robinson. The Rosetta Stone, dated 196 BC, is of course famous worldwide – and perhaps the best-known object in the British Museum, following its 1801 capture by the British army from its French military discoverers in Egypt.…
‘Yes, wonderful things’ is the oft-quoted response Howard Carter gave when, on 26 November 1922, Lord Carnarvon asked if the archaeologist could see anything through a hole in the inner doorway of the tomb of the young king Tutankhamun.
Review by Aidan Dodson. In 2013, a remarkable discovery was made at the site of Wadi el-Jarf on the Egyptian Red Sea coast. It comprised a group of papyri, which not only proved to be the oldest inscribed examples of…
Review by Barbara E Borg ‘The real essence of an age is better revealed among trivial and commonplace things than among prominent monuments and great leaders.’ The opening sentence of this book captures succinctly its underlying principles. Following two chapters…
For this issue, Campbell Price choses a small stela in Manchester’s collection that commemorates the official responsible for the creation of a famous statue.
Joseph L. Thimes reassesses the 2010 genetic testing of the royal mummies and proposes a new set of tests to build a more accurate Amarna family tree.
Review by Salima Ikram. This book, based on a PhD thesis, focuses on Egyptian ‘animal worship’ from the 3rd to the 2nd millennium BC. In the introduction, the author states that the work aims to use multiple theoretical perspectives and…
A team of scientists have used CT (computed tomography) scans to ‘unwrap’ Amenhotep I digitally and learn more about the mummy and its contents.
Within the space of three years between 1798 and 1801, Napoleon’s aspirations for an eastern empire were smashed. Not in Europe, where he reigned militarily supreme, but far away in the Near East – by Nelson at the Battle of…
At Home in Roman Egypt offers the first full-scale investigation of life as experienced by the ordinary people of Roman Egypt in the 1st to 4th centuries AD. It approaches the subject by looking at the life course, following people’s…
What was understood about the gods, goddesses, spirits, and demons in ancient Egypt depended to a great extent on what was being explained or taught and by whom, when, and where. What was formally written down was also governed by…
As shown by the excitement surrounding the discovery of Tutankhamun 100 years ago, mummies and Egyptian tombs have an impressive ability to capture our imagination. Richard Marranca speaks to Egyptologist Salima Ikram to find out more about these funerary finds, from early medicinal mummies to recent revelations at Saqqara.
• Luxor temple: where kings became gods
• Art and ancestors in ancient Peru
• Eternal beauty: what did kallos mean to the ancient Greeks?
• Domitian: portraying imperial power
• John Craxton and the art of ancient Greece
William Stroock analyses the decisive battle of the 1973 Yom Kippur War: a massive clash of Egyptian and Israeli armour in the Sinai Desert.
Fabrizio Bagatti has made a major contribution to Lawrence of Arabia studies with the publication of this volume. Until now, we have had only the edited selection of his military dispatches published by Malcolm Brown or the facsimile reprint of…
The latest on acquisitions, exhibitions, and key decisions.
After coronation, the new pharaoh would head to the temple at Luxor to assume the royal ka that flowed from the gods Horus and Re all the way down Egypt’s line of rulers. Nigel Fletcher-Jones takes us on a procession through this all-important site, developed by kings strengthening their claims to divine ka.
On the north and south walls of the Chapel at the Temple of Hatshepsut, mirrored reliefs show a procession of figures bringing offerings to the enthroned female pharaoh
Among the objects found were bronze artefacts, imported Greek ceramics, and wicker fruit baskets still containing grape seeds
It signalled a new age of empire – an age of armed intervention by industrialised European armies. The Scramble for Africa had begun. In this extended extract from his new book, MHM Editor Neil Faulkner analyses the battle in which Victorian Britain destroyed an Egyptian nationalist movement and took possession of the country.
CA explores the latest archaeological news from across the globe, including the discovery of the world's oldest Christian monastery.
The ancient Egyptian necropolis at Giza is one of the most celebrated archaeological sites in the world. Although the iconic pyramids dominating the plateau continue to excite awe and curiosity, these royal tombs are only one aspect of an extraordinary site. A new book reveals how the rich and poor, and the living and dead, rubbed shoulders at Giza, as Mark Lehner and Zahi Hawass told CWA's Matthew Symonds.
A tomb belonging to King Djoser, an ancient Egyptian pharaoh who lived in the Third Dynasty, over 4,500 years ago, has recently reopened to the public after extensive restoration work.
A multidisciplinary project that uses a wide range of techniques to study ancient Egyptian mummies is shedding new light on the secrets hidden beneath their wrappings, as Marzena Oz.arek-Szilke, Marcin Jaworski, Wojciech Ejsmond, and Stanisl´aw Szilke explain.
Inscriptions were also found on the walls of several buildings, with passages from biblical and early Christian texts written in Greek.
The letter is dated 6 October of that year, just weeks before the battle that marked a turnaround in Allied fortunes in the war.
The most exciting discovery was that of an intricately sculpted and well-preserved alabaster bust of Alexander the Great.
With her high cheekbones and long neck, she has been described as the 'world's first supermodel'. When her portrait bust went on display in 1923, she was hailed as an icon of timeless femininity. Since then, Nefertiti has been admired by everyone from Hitler to Beyoncé, and has provided inspiration to artists and writers around the world. Beyond all the adulation, however, what do we really know about this mysterious woman whose face has become so ubiquitous?
The wife of the ‘heretic’ king Akhenaten, Queen Nefertiti is today one of the most iconic of all ancient Egyptians, thanks to her painted bust revealed to the world in 1923. Aidan Dodson charts the career of this remarkable queen, a hard-headed pragmatist who became a forgotten – and possibly murdered – king.