Ancient Egypt Letters 147
Your thoughts on issues raised by the magazine.
Africa
Luxor Illustrated with Aswan, Abu Simbel and the Nile
REVIEW BY SARAH GRIFFITHS Ever since Michael Haag’s Luxor Illustrated was published in 2009, it has been an indispensable guide for travellers visiting Luxor and other sites in Upper Egypt. This new edition has been completely revised by Aidan Dodson…
Recycling for Death: Coffin Reuse in Ancient Egypt and the Theban Royal Caches
REVIEW BY CAMPBELL PRICE Much-anticipated from the prolific pen of Kara Cooney, the undisputed queen of coffin (re)commodification, this enormous tome is not for the faint-hearted. Introductory chapters gather, reformulate, and re-emphasise arguments Cooney has put forward in a number…
Landscapes: Studies in Honour of Steven Snape
REVIEW BY ROGER FORSHAW This volume is a collection of papers published in recognition of the retirement of Professor Steven Snape from the University of Liverpool. Over his distinguished career, Steven has pursued a diverse range of research interests and…
Howard Carter: From Tracer to Tutankhamun
REVIEW BY SARAH GRIFFITHS This slim ‘Spotlight’ volume is the first in a new series of EES publications highlighting the society’s collections and projects, and it is only fitting that the first should focus on the work of Howard Carter.…
The Mysterious Fayum Portraits: Faces from Ancient Egypt
REVIEW BY J PETER PHILLIPS This seminal work was first published by Thames & Hudson in 1995. The reprint is described by the publishers as a ‘compact hardback edition’ and includes a new foreword by Ahdaf Soueif, an Egyptian novelist…
Ancient Egypt February listings
UNRAVELLING THE MYSTERIES OF ANCIENT EGYPT FROM BROOKLYN MUSEUM A selection of 150 masterpieces from the Brooklyn Museum’s ancient Egyptian collection, including sculpture, coffins, jewellery, pottery, papyri, and human and cat mummies. MORI ARTS CENTRE GALLERY, Roppongi Hills Mori Tower,…
Ancient Egypt in brief
• Twelve 5-metre-high subterranean cisterns, part of an extensive Ptolemaic water supply system, have been excavated at Darazya (ancient Derhis). • TT39, the Tomb of Puyemra (Second Priest of Amun in the reign of Thutmose III), has been reopened to…
Deir el-Bahri treasures
A joint Egyptian mission (from the Zahi Hawass Foundation for Heritage and Antiquities and the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities) has revealed a large number of finds made at Deir el-Bahri over the last three years. An intact part of…
King Pepy II’s doctor
The beautifully painted tomb of the Chief Palace Physician Tetinebfu from the Old Kingdom reign of Pepy II (c.2278-2184 BC) has been discovered at Saqqara by a joint French–Swiss mission. The mud-brick-lined mastaba was looted in antiquity, but the walls…
Old and New Kingdom tombs at Saqqara
In another area of Saqqara, a joint Egyptian–Japanese mission, led by Kanazawa University, has discovered a further four Old Kingdom tombs. The two mud-brick mastabas and two rock-cut tombs date to the late Second and early Third Dynasties. One of…
Golden tongues
Thirteen mummies with golden tongues in their mouths have been discovered at el-Bahansa (Minya) by the Oxyrhynchus Archaeological Mission, a joint Spanish–Egyptian team led by the Institute of Ancient Near East Studies of the University of Barcelona. The mummies were…
Taposiris Magna finds
A small white marble head of a Ptolemaic princess or queen has been discovered in a foundation deposit at the Taposiris Magna Temple by an Egyptian–Dominican mission. The team believes the queen, shown with a ‘melon’ hairstyle and wearing a…
The discovery of the Narmer Palette
The Narmer Palette may be regarded as the world’s first historical document, recording the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt in about 3000 BC.
Belt of Ramesses III
Dr Campbell Price describes an item of clothing that belonged to a New Kingdom pharaoh.
Ancient Egypt Magazine 146
• The Silver Pharaohs: intact tombs and royal treasures
• The papyrus of Ani: mummification and burial
• Watercraft in ancient Egypt: development and construction
• Antinoöpolis: why did Emperor Hadrian build a city in Egypt?
• The first Egyptologists: studying ancient Egypt in antiquity
• Earrings: for women and men
• The Hurghada Museum: face to face with the ‘White Queen’
An ancient Egyptian ritual blend
New analysis of an ancient Egyptian ritual vessel is shedding light on the complex concoction it once held. Bes vases are a type of ceramic vessel decorated with the head of Bes, an ancient Egyptian guardian figure associated with protection,…
Antinoöpolis: Why did Emperor Hadrian build a city in Egypt?
Barbara Gai explores Hadrian’s obsession with a young Greek boy and the events that led to the founding of Antinoöpolis in Middle Egypt.
World news
New Neolithic society discovered in Morocco Investigations at Oued Beht, northern Morocco, have uncovered evidence of the oldest and largest Neolithic society yet found in Africa outside the Nile Valley. Large quantities of stone tools have been recovered from the…
The silver pharaohs: The treasures of Tanis
Roger Forshaw describes the discovery of the first intact royal tombs in Egypt and explains the importance of the treasures discovered there by French Egyptologist Pierre Montet.
The development and construction of watercraft
Gordon Longworth traces the evolution of ancient Egyptian watercraft over the millennia and uses his skills as a model-maker to illustrate how they were built.
The Hurghada Museum
Geoffrey Lenox-Smith visits the antiquities museum in Hurghada and comes face to face with the ‘White Queen’.
Win a copy of Riddle of the Sphinx: An Ancient Egyptian Puzzle Book by Trevor Naylor
Where is this? If you know, email the Editor peter@ancientegyptmagazine.com before 28 February 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…
Ancient Egypt Letters 146
Your thoughts on issues raised by the magazine.
Gertrude Caton-Thompson at Hemamieh
Celebrating the work of the British pioneer of Egyptian prehistory.
Ani’s life after death – 2: Mummification and Burial
Andrew Fulton continues his series exploring specific vignettes from Ani’s Book of the Dead.
The First Egyptologists
Alan Lloyd considers the motives of certain individuals from antiquity for studying ancient Egypt. Were they Egyptologists?
Hilary Wilson on… Earrings
For this issue, Hilary turns her attention to one form of jewellery worn by both women and men in ancient Egypt.
Ancestral bust of a woman
Dr Campbell Price describes an unusual statue bust from the Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Current Research in Egyptology 2022: Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Annual Symposium, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3, 26-30 September 2022
REVIEW BY ROGER FORSHAW The 22nd Current Research in Egyptology (CRE) conference in Montpellier hosted around 250 attendees in person and online from different institutions around the world, and covered a great variety of topics with a wide chronological and…
The Last Dynasty: Ancient Egypt from Alexander the Great to Cleopatra
REVIEW BY SARAH GRIFFITHS This latest narrative by Toby Wilkinson is written in his usual engaging style, drawing on the usual Greek and Roman sources, but also some 50 archives of papyri unearthed in Egypt. The three centuries between Alexander…
Tourism in Egypt through the ages: A historical guide
REVIEW BY CATHIE BRYAN Tourism in Egypt currently supports a profitable industry that was consolidated in the 19th century, when package tours were first introduced. The author’s objective is to trace the history of tourism from pharaonic times, arguing that…
Addressing Diversity: Inclusive Histories of Egyptology
REVIEW BY ANNA GARNETT Egyptology is constantly being redefined and reinterpreted to recognise more inclusive histories, helping to recentre traditional narratives. This fascinating volume brings together a range of international perspectives on these ‘supporting characters’ of Egyptology over the past…
Motherhood and Early Childhood in Ancient Egypt: Culture, Religion and Medicine
REVIEW BY HILARY WILSON Amandine Marshall’s book, originally published in French in 2015, is a companion to her Childhood in Ancient Egypt (AUC, 2022). In the foreword to this English-language edition, Salima Ikram suggests that, despite limited source material, Marshall’s…
Athribis pylon
A joint German–Egyptian team excavating the western side of the Great Temple of Athribis (Sohag) has uncovered the remains of a temple pylon. Measuring 51 metres in length, the pylon would have been about 18 metres tall – similar in…
Berenike discoveries
An Egyptian mission has discovered a military fort at Tell el-Abqain (Beheira Governorate), in the north-west Delta. The fort was a key military outpost on the western military road, an area prone to attack by Libyan tribes, and later the…