Tattooing in the ancient nile valley
In the second of her articles describing the practice of tattooing in ancient Egypt and Nubia, Renée Friedman looks at the surviving evidence from the New Kingdom onwards.
Africa
The Oxyrhynchus Papyri: From ancient trash to historical treasure
What can the famous papyrus corpus tell us about the ordinary people of late-ancient Egypt? Richard J Britton investigates.
Ancient Egypt Magazine 149
• Amenemhat II: the pharaoh behind the Great Sphinx of Tanis
• Tattooing in the ancient Nile Valley
• Ani’s life after death: Hathor and Opet
• Cleopatra’s children: who survived?
• Egypt in Constantinople: examining the monuments
• Christiane Desroches Noblecourt: a legendary life
• The Nile perch: the ‘King of Fish’
• Travels in an Antique Land: hidden treasures
Amenemhat II: Golden are the souls of Ra
Wolfram Grajetzki continues his series on the Twelfth Dynasty pharaohs with one of the lesser-known kings of the Middle Kingdom: Nubkaura Amenemhat II.
Tattooing in the ancient Nile Valley
In the first of two articles describing the practice of tattooing in ancient Egypt and Nubia, Renée Friedman looks at the surviving evidence from the Predynastic Period to the Middle Kingdom.
Ancient Egypt Letters 149
Your opportunity to comment on articles in the magazine or on any Egyptological subject that interests you.
Hidden treasures
Karl Harris continues his ‘Travels in an Antique Land’ with visits to the First Intermediate Period Tomb of Ankhtify at Mo‘alla, and a multi-era temple complex dedicated to the god Montu at Tod.
Cleopatra’s children: The last of the Ptolemies
Diana Bentley traces the fates of the four children of Cleopatra VII following the Roman invasion of Egypt in 30 BC.
Christiane Desroches Noblecourt: A legendary life
Simone Petacchi explores the life and work of a unique French Egyptologist.
Win a copy of Ancient Egypt: a photographic history by Nigel Fletcher-Jones, published by Amber Books
Where is this? If you know, email the Editor peter@ancientegyptmagazine.com before 31 August with your answer, giving your full name, address, and a contact phone number. One lucky reader will have their name selected at random from all the correct…
Ani’s life after death – 5: Hathor and Opet
Andrew Fulton ends his series exploring this famous Book of the Dead with a final scene featuring Hathor and Tawaret.
Hilary Wilson on… The King of Fish
Hilary looks at the symbolism attached to one of the major food sources for ancient Egyptians.
Bust of Ankhhaf
An unusually lifelike piece of sculpture, supposedly depicting an important Old Kingdom official, is analysed by Campbell Price.
Another Nefertiti
Two decades after the discovery of the famous Berlin bust, a chance discovery was made in 1933 of a sculptors’ workshop at Amarna containing another unfinished head of Akhenaten’s queen.
Disability in Ancient Egypt and Egyptology: All Our Yesterdays
REVIEW BY ANNA GARNETT This important new collection of essays explores what disability meant to the people living in the Nile Valley thousands of years ago, and the lived experience and reception of disability within the field of Egyptology over…
A Categorisation of Ancient Egyptian Watercraft, from Predynastic Petroglyphs to the Khufu Boats
REVIEW BY J PETER PHILLIPS This extremely detailed and complex work is exactly what it says on the cover, and supplements the author’s previous books, published by BAR in 2012 and 2022, which categorise watercraft of the Old, Middle, and…
Chicago on the Nile: A Century of Work by the Epigraphic Survey of the University of Chicago
REVIEW BY ALAN L JEFFREYS Emily Teeter’s book, which accompanies a recent exhibition at the ISAC Museum (see ‘Exhibitions’ in AE 145), relates the story of the University of Chicago’s Epigraphic Survey expedition to Egypt, and the team’s efforts to…
Yearning For Immortality: The European Invention of the Ancient Egyptian Afterlife
REVIEW BY CAMPBELL PRICE The goal of the afterlife – towards which so many wealthy ancient Egyptians apparently strove, and in the attainment of which so many objects and monuments were created – is fundamental to our idea of ‘ancient…
From Objects to Histories: Studies in Honour of John H Taylor
REVIEW BY ROGER FORSHAW This monumental Festschrift, four years in preparation, celebrates John H Taylor’s distinguished career at the British Museum, both as a curator and a scholar. Aptly titled, the volume captures John’s remarkable dual expertise: his keen…
New Perspectives on Ancient Nubia
REVIEW BY ANNA GARNETT The histories, cultures, and archaeologies of ancient Nubia remain a source of much scholarly debate, and centring our research on the people of the ancient Nile Valley is especially important at this time of political turmoil…
Tomb of a prince
A new Fifth Dynasty tomb has been discovered at Saqqara by an Egyptian mission led by the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the Zahi Hawass Foundation for Antiquities and Heritage. The 4,400-year-old tomb belongs to Userafra, a previously unknown son…
Tomb of a tax collector
The owner of a tomb discovered in the 1970s in el-Assasif has finally been identified by a joint Egyptian-Canadian (University of Ontario) mission. Following the first archaeological work since the discovery of the tomb, known as Kampp 23, the team…
Fortress of the East
Recent excavations at Tell Abu Saifi in the Qantara region (Ismailia) have revealed new military architecture at the site of two fortresses dating back to the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. Located in the northern Sinai Desert, the ‘Fortress of the…
Multiple finds at the Ramesseum
A number of well-preserved Third Intermediate Period tombs have been uncovered at the Ramesseum by a French-Egyptian mission (the Supreme Council of Archaeology and the French National Research Centre and Sorbonne University). The tombs, discovered in the north-eastern area, contained…
Breaking news
As we were going to press, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced the discovery of three new tombs in Dra‘ Abu el-Naga on the West Bank of Luxor. Dating to the New Kingdom, the three tombs, each with a…
Ancient Egypt Magazine 148
• The search for Thutmose II: finding the pharaoh’s lost tomb
• Thutmose II: who was he?
• Colourful costumes: clothing of goddesses, gods, kings, and queens
• The lost Egyptian labyrinth: unpicking an ancient puzzle
• Ani’s life after death: in the field of reeds
• What can ancient skulls tell us?
• Egyptian ginger cats: honorary soldiers of Rome
Seeing red
A few years ago, Sarah Paris – then a graduate student at Cambridge University – asked if she could access the human skeletons from Khok Phanom Di in order to study the mortuary use of red ochre. I excavated this great Neolithic site in 1985, and I willingly agreed. Last year, she completed her doctoral dissertation and at the last Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand, she won the prize for the best presentation by a graduate student.
Garden cities
Spring is upon us in the northern hemisphere and people are venturing out into the open again: into their gardens, onto their balconies, into urban parks or the countryside to enjoy the miracle of spring and the verdant, flowering flora that accompanies it.
Early bone-tool production
An assemblage of bone tools found in Tanzania is revolutionising our understanding of early human technologies.
Chain of Fire: campaigning in Egypt and the Sudan, 1882-1898
REVIEW BY PATRICK MERCER If, as a youngster, you enjoyed those wonderful films Khartoum, The Four Feathers and Young Winston, you were not alone. I sat as transfixed as the spear that skewered General Gordon, as the bayonets that shimmered…
Tutankhamun: The immersive exhibition
A recently opened experience in London is using virtual-reality technology to explore the life and times of one of ancient Egypt’s most famous pharaohs, as Carly Hilts reports.
The surprise discovery of the tomb of Thutmose II
Judith Bunbury of the New Kingdom Research Foundation (NKRF) describes how ten years of work led to the discovery of one – possibly two – new royal tombs for the same king.
The tombs of Thutmose II
The discovery of a new Egyptian royal tomb in Western Valley C (adjacent to the Valley of the Kings) has been confirmed by a joint mission between the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and the New Kingdom Research Foundation led…
Who Was Thutmose II?
Aidan Dodson explores the family history of this short-lived king, and how the discovery of his tomb sheds light on the burials of the early New Kingdom pharaohs.
Thutmose III and Hatshepsut, Pharaohs of Egypt: Their lives and afterlives
REVIEW BY JPP This is a beautifully presented book, amply illustrated with full-colour photographs throughout. The author uses the ancient Egyptian dating system of regnal years, seasons, months, and days for events, which (although more accurate than BC dates) is…
Ancient Egypt news in brief
• The French mission at Taposiris Magna has uncovered a finely crafted marble head depicting an elderly man (below), dating to the Ptolemaic Period. • A suitcase with the monogram ‘HC’, believed to have been owned by Howard Carter, has…