Margaret Alice Murray (1863-1963)
These same people would not hesitate to wear a scarab-ring taken off a dead man’s hand… Their objections – their opinions even – are an offence to science.
hieroglyphs
Tomb offerings: a wish list for eternity
Ancient Egyptians believed that the foods and goods listed in their tombs would magically become available to them for eternity. Hilary Wilson reports.
Ancient Egypt Magazine 136 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.
Ancient Egypt April listings
PHARAOH: KING OF EGYPT An international touring exhibition of more than 120 objects from the British Museum, exploring the ideals, symbolism, and ideology of Egyptian kingship, and the realities of life in ancient Egypt. The exhibition is organised by the…
Signature style: the artists behind Maya masterpieces
Recent breakthroughs in the study of Maya hieroglyphs have revealed artist signatures on artefacts long considered to be the work of anonymous artisans. Joanne Pillsbury and Laura Filloy Nadal introduce us to the newly identified sculptors and painters who worked in the Maya royal courts.
Sylvanus Griswold Morley
In those days, Mesoamerican archaeology was not for the faint-hearted, and Sylvanus Griswold Morley – ‘physically frail, short of stature, squeaky-voiced and near-sighted’, according to Prudence Rice and Christopher Ward – wasn’t really cut out for it. He suffered stomach…
Exhibitions on ancient Egypt – February listings
Egyptian expeditions MUSÉE ART ET HISTOIRE, BRUSSELSParc du Cinquantenaire 10, 1000 Brussels, Belgiumwww.artandhistory.museum31 March-1 October 2023 Telling the story of 200 years of discoveries in Egypt and the formation of the museum’s Egyptian collection, the exhibition will include nearly 200…
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.
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 Exhibitions – Winter 2022 to Spring 2023
Exhibitions and events on ancient Egypt from around the world.
This week: the ‘Qurna Queen’
It is a curious coincidence that the 100th and 200th anniversaries respectively of perhaps the two most famous events in Egyptology should both fall in 2022. First up, in September, came the 200th anniversary of the decoding of the Rosetta…
The power of words: racing to read the lost secrets of Egypt
The beautiful and mysterious signs adorning ancient monuments across Egypt have excited speculation for centuries. The tale of how their meaning was finally rediscovered is just as long, and takes in many twists and turns. Success came 200 years ago, and with it a staggering insight into ancient Egyptian history, as Ilona Regulski told Matthew Symonds.
Exhibitions, events, and heritage from home across the UK
There are great opportunities to get involved in heritage, history, and archaeology over the coming months, ranging from new exhibitions to exciting conferences, lectures, and more. Or, if you prefer to get your cultural or historical fix from home, there are plenty of ways to do so, including virtual museums, radio and social media offerings, documentaries, and games. Amy Brunskill has put together a selection of some of the options available.
Hieroglyphs: the key to ancient Egypt
As the British Museum marks the 200th anniversary of the decoding of the Rosetta Stone in a new exhibition, Lindsay Fulcher talks to its curator, Ilona Regulski, about the two men who worked to decipher its text, what it revealed, and the powerful role of the scribes who created these petrified books.
Ancient newsreels
It portrays a ferocious Maya chief clad in a jaguar skin, with a jaguar’s head on his own, spearing an unfortunate captive. First seen by an outsider in 1946, the paintings are as close a reflection as you are likely to see of life in an elite Maya centre.
Museum news: Roman sculptures on display in Buckinghamshire, and hieroglyphs exhibition announced at the British Museum
The latest on exhibitions, acquisitions, and key decisions.
The Red Sea Scrolls: How Ancient Papyri Reveal the Secrets of the Pyramids
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…
The Writing of the Gods: The Race to decode the Rosetta Stone
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.…
Early evidence of Maya calendar found
This discovery demonstrates that this calendar system has been in operation for at least 2,200 years.
A Maya Universe in Stone
In 1951, Quest for the Lost City was published in the United States. Reviewed in The New York Times as ‘a sort of overland Kon-Tiki’ – in reference to Thor Heyerdahl’s recent Pacific Ocean adventure – the book was an…
A Maya Universe in Stone
A Maya Universe in Stone delves deeply into the imagery, inscriptions, and political and social contexts of several ancient Maya carved limestone lintels made in the late 8th century AD, likely in Guatemala’s Department of Peten. Eminent epigrapher and archaeologist…
The Hidden Language of Graphic Signs: Cryptic Writing and Meaningful Marks
Throughout history, scripts have become established by communicating language and meaning as transparently as possible to literate readers. But, of course, scripts have an aesthetic dimension, too, which both enhances their appeal and distracts readers from their meaning – as…
Pharaoh Djoser’s tomb reopens after restoration
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 History of World Egyptology
The Rosetta Stone that proved key to the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs, discovered by a French military engineer in 1799 (now in the British Museum), and the gold mask of Tutankhamun, discovered by British Egyptologist Howard Carter in 1922 (now…
Current World Archaeology Photo of the Year 2021: Results
Despite travel limitations over the last year, we’ve been transported to a wide variety of places...
Athanasius Kircher (c.1601-1680)
'In 1638, Kircher was lowered into an awakening Vesuvius to advance his geological knowledge.'
Rosetta Stone: paper, paste, and prepositions
The Rosetta Stone was the key to unlocking the secrets of Egyptian hieroglyphs. The results of Jean-François Champollion’s work on the Stone’s inscription may be well known, but other scholars – with different attitudes towards ancient Egypt – also took up the challenge. Jed Buchwald and Diane Greco Josefowicz examine what forgotten manuscripts can tell us about the decipherment of the ancient scripts. examines what forgotten manuscripts can tell us about the decipherment of the ancient scripts.
Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs: A Guide to Nahuatl Writing
A leading handbook of scripts and writing that runs to almost a thousand pages, The World’s Writing Systems (1996), edited by Peter Daniels and William Bright, contains scarcely any reference to the Aztec writing system of Mesoamerica. Wikipedia’s entry on…
Virtual visit to Wahtye’s tomb
A digital 3D model offers a new way to visit this remarkable ancient Egyptian site.
The Secret History of Writing
This intelligent, articulate, and visually imaginative three-part BBC documentary series about five millennia of writing – shortened into two parts for US transmission as A to Z in the PBS series NOVA – is particularly welcome, and will probably be watched for many years.
Statue of Ramesses VI
What is it? This granite statue depicts Pharaoh Ramesses VI, who reigned 1144-1137 BC. On the back is a hieroglyphic inscription that reads: ‘May [he] live, [the] good god, son of [the god] Amun, the protector, bull of Thebes, king…
Penn Museum: a museum for the coming decades
The symbol of the new Penn Museum is in the refurbished main entrance hall. On a prominent podium behind the ticket desks sits the Museum’s celebrated sphinx. Richard Hodges reports.
AI and ancient languages
Available in English and Arabic, Fabricius is an enjoyable introduction to hieroglyphs, but also presents new approaches for professional Egyptologists.
Lost languages: how to decipher undeciphered scripts
How were Egyptian hieroglyphs, Maya glyphs or Minoan Linear B deciphered? Drawing on his latest masterful book, Lost Languages, author Andrew Robinson hands us the keys to decoding the past.