Birthing on the bricks
W Benson Harer Jr proposes a new theory for the use of birthing bricks in ancient Egypt.
Ptolemaic Period
The Graeco-Roman museum in Alexandria
Geoffrey Lenox-Smith visits the archaeological museum in Alexandria, now reopened after a long period of renovation.
New Canopus Decree stela
A new and complete version of the Ptolemaic Canopus Decree has been found by an Egyptian team working at Tell Far’oun (Tell Nabasha) in Egypt’s Sharqia Governorate. Unlike other surviving versions of this decree, which are trilingual (written in hieroglyphic,…
Sunken treasures
The Egyptian Department of Underwater Antiquities has recovered three heavy ancient artefacts from the seabed off the coast at Abu Qir Bay in Alexandria. One of them is a large quartz sphinx bearing the cartouches of Ramesses II. The team…
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.
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…
Ancient Egypt: A Photographic History
REVIEW BY ROGER FORSHAW Nigel Fletcher-Jones’ Ancient Egypt: a photographic history offers a visual overview of more than 3,000 years of Egyptian civilisation. With 200 well-presented photographs, the book provides a chronological record that spans from Egypt’s earliest beginnings to…
The Fall of Egypt and the Rise of Rome
REVIEW BY SARAH GRIFFITHS Students of Egyptian history have been denied books on the Ptolemaic rulers as, according to Guy de la Bédoyère, ‘some Egyptologists visibly wince when pressed by publishers to include a section on Ptolemies’. This has been…
Ancient Egypt April listings
TIMELESS GAZES: FROM PHARAOHS TO THE PRESENT DAY Timeless Gazes is a new exhibition celebrating ancient Egypt and contemporary art in relation to the African continent, featuring 130 paintings, photographs, and sculptures from the prestigious collection assembled by Jean Claude…
Ptah-Sokar-Osiris figurine
Campbell Price describes a statuette in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and considers what it meant to its owner.
The exultation of discovery
‘The unknown town now had a name… All that day “Naukratis” rang in my mind, and I sprang over the mounds with that splendid exultation of a new discovery, long wished for and well found.’ The prospect of discovering ancient cities, lost for centuries in the depths of jungles or deserts, was part of the original lure (and original sin) of archaeology.
Illuminating Antiquity: The Pharos lighthouse in Alexandria
Andrew Michael Chugg explores and reconstructs this famous architectural wonder, the inspiration for spectacular feats of Alexandrian science.
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
Hilary Wilson on… Egypt and what to see in 1912
In our last issue, Hilary described what it was like to visit Egypt just before the First World War, based on a 1911-1912 tourist guide by A O Lamplough. Now she uses archive photos to illustrate how the monuments have changed since Lamplough’s book was published.
Through a glass darkly: Magic, dreams and prophecy in ancient Egypt
REVIEW BY ANNA GARNETT Following a publishing trend of making classic and out-of-print texts available to a wide general audience, this latest reprint was first published in 2006 but is now available in paperback for the first time. There are…
Graeco-Roman tombs
A joint Egyptian-Italian (University of Milan) archaeological mission at Aswan has discovered a further 33 tombs in the area near the Aga Khan Mausoleum. The new discoveries were made in a Graeco-Roman necropolis that is spread across ten levels on…
The Ptolemies: Apogee & Collapse – Ptolemaic Egypt 246-146 BC
REVIEW BY SARAH GRIFFITHS This is the second of the author’s planned trilogy on the last of Egypt’s dynasties (The Ptolemies: Rise of a Dynasty, the first of the series, was reviewed in AE 138). John D Grainger is a…
Disease in ancient Egypt
A new study from the University of Cambridge, published in the journal Advances in Parasitology, shows that ancient Egypt and Nubia had markedly different levels and types of parasitic disease compared to neighbouring ancient civilisations due to the geography of…
The Cleopatras: The Forgotten Queens of Egypt
REVIEW BY SARAH GRIFFITHS Finally! An in-depth biography of not just one, but seven Ptolemaic queens named Cleopatra – and a few more besides. There is a plethora of books focusing on the most famous of these queens, Cleopatra VII,…
A Mystery from the Mummy-Pits
REVIEW BY ROGER FORSHAW Frank Holt’s very readable account of Ankh-Hap, a Ptolemaic-era mummy appropriated in the 19th century from a tomb in Egypt, is a unique, informative, and fascinating contribution to the study of ancient Egyptian mummified remains. The…
The Cleopatras – Part 4: The last Cleopatras
Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones completes his series on the later Ptolemaic queens and assesses their legacy as women of power in the ancient world.
Ancient Egypt April listings
PHARAOH In association with the British Museum, this exhibition celebrates 3,000 years of ancient Egyptian art and culture through more than 500 individual pieces from the British Museum’s permanent collection, curated specially for Melbourne. Highlights include a carved green siltstone…
Win a copy of Dendera: Temple of Time by José María Barrera
Where was this photograph taken? If you know, email the Editor (peter@ancientegyptmagazine.com) before 30 June with your answer, giving your full name and address. One lucky reader will have their name selected at random from all the correct answers and…
Dendera: Temple of Time
REVIEW BY SARAH GRIFFITHS When José María Barrera visited the Temple of Dendera for the first time, he was left breathless by the spectacular celestial ceiling of the pronaos – so much so, he returned a few years later armed…
The celestial harmonies at Dendera
José María Barrera describes the beautifully restored ceiling of the pronaos of the Temple of Hathor at Dendera.
Athribis: The Temple of Ptolemy XII
Geoffrey Lenox-Smith explores the ruined Graeco-Roman temple at Athribis in Upper Egypt.
The Cleopatras – Part 3: Cleopatra III, the female king
Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones continues his series on the later Ptolemaic queens
with the ambitious Cleopatra III and her murderous family rivalries.
The Royal Road to Meroë
Karl Harris continues his journey through Sudan, retracing one of the overland routes taken by the Meroitic rulers of Kush.
Hypocephalus
What was the purpose of this small disc of cartonnage, now in the British Museum? Dr Campbell Price explains.
The bust of a Ptolemaic Pharaoh
For this issue, Dr Campbell Price examines a sculpture in the Brooklyn Museum whose original purpose is unclear.
The Cleopatras – Part 2: Cleopatra II, traditionally untraditional
Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones continues his new series on the later Ptolemaic queens, focusing on the tangled family relationships of the second Cleopatra.
Ancient Egypt news in brief
A round-up of some of the latest news from the world of ancient Egypt.