CRE XIII Abstracts

Panel A1- Wednesday 28th March

The Sphinx: Evolution of a Concept Colin Reader, colin.reader@btinternet.com The current author has previously proposed an Early Dynastic date for the original construction of the Great Sphinx. Whatever date is attributed to the building of the Great Sphinx of Giza however, there is one issue that is seldom addressed that is the origins of the sphinx as a concept. On the basis that the sphinx represents a synthesis of various elements (the lion, the sun god and the institution of pharaoh) this paper explores the archaeology of the Early Dynastic Period to identify the means by which these originally distinct elements evolved to form the concept of the sphinx.

The Encircling Protection of Horus David Lightbody, University of Glasgow, davelightbody@hotmail.com This paper will outline my continuing research into protective architectural symbolism from tombs and temples involving the royal falcon Horus with the shen ring. Over the last year I have followed several research paths that opened up due to contacts I made at the CREXII conference in Durham. One of these contacts led to the translation of part of the Berlin Hieroglyph Dictionary of Erman and Grapow into English for the first time, and the subsequent tracing of a primary textual source quoted in the dictionary that included the word shen in its symbolic architectural context. The source of the relevant text turned out to be a spell/prayer of protection for the royal tombs and temples, and by understanding the context of the text we can better understand the words and meanings the symbols carried within it. The second line of enquiry led to the identification of a line of text high up on the encircling enclosure wall of the Temple of Horus at Edfu. The presentation will attempt to illustrate and explain the architectural context of these words and texts, and show what the symbolism meant to the ancient Egyptians.
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Khufu's second boat project , difficulties and wishes Afifi Rohim Afifi, Independent Scholar, Chief Inspector of Antiquities of the Giza Plateau, Project
Supervisor of Khufu second boat project, afifi_ghoname@yahoo.com

The precise history and function of the Giza solar boats has puzzled Egyptologists and Historian's since their initial discovery in 1954. Some have called the ship a solar barque - a ritual vessel designed to ferry the resurrected king with the sun god Ra across the heavens; while others assert that it was a funerary barge, to carry the body of the king to Giza for burial. In 1987, National Geographic recorded footage inside the closed boat pit at the Giza plateau which showed that the remaining disassembled boat was badly in need of urgent conservation treatment and repair. In 2009 The Supreme Council of Antiquities, together with Waseda University from Japan launched a joint mission to restore and reassemble the second Khufu boat. This paper will showcase the current work of Egyptian and Japanese archaeologists as they attempt to rediscover, restore and re-assemble the second Khufu solar boat. This remarkable vessel is the last remaining solar boat requiring reassembly within Egypt, making this project a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the team. What successes have been reported this season? What are the problems and difficulties facing the team in subsequent seasons? How do they plan to make the boat sail again?

Panel A2- Wednesday 28th March

Innovative Strength of the Middle Kingdom Tomb Decoration The MeKeTRE Project Lubica Zelenkova Hudakova, University of Vienna, lubica.zelenkova@univie.ac.at The interdisciplinary project MeKeTRE (Middle Kingdom Tomb Relief Evolution) is carried out by the Institute for Egyptology in cooperation with the Department of Distributed and Multimedia Systems of the Vienna University. The art-historical research is concentrating on Middle Kingdom reliefs and paintings from the tombs of the officials with the focus on the

change and innovation of their content in comparison to the Old Kingdom. The published twodimensional representations are being collected, classified into themes, scenes and motives, annotated and made public on the web in the MEKETREpository. The repository enables to describe the individual tombs or fragments as well as the particular themes and provide them with bibliographical references and media such as drawings or photographs. It seeks to become a reliable tool for researchers not only from the Egyptological community. The paper aims to demonstrate both aspects of the project. On the one hand, it should present the current state of the repository with its data and functionalities. On the other hand, the research should be exemplified on the scenes dealing with bread-baking and brewing. From the Old Kingdom, more than 60 illustrations of these scenes are known whereas from the First Intermediate Period and Middle Kingdom less than a third is attested. Nevertheless, by analysing the depicted activities and individual figures and objects (such as saddle querns, bread moulds, hearths etc.), innovations and alterations in the iconography can be traced.

Cataloguing the Images of Life Six Feet Under: a Comparison of Tomb Decoration Patterns between Old Kingdom Egyptian Tomb of Mereruka and Han Chinese Tomb No.1 of Dahuting Tzu-Hsuan Maxime Huang, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, egyptianpenguin@gmail.com The tomb of Mereruka and the tomb no.1 of Dahuting are the best preserved and most elaborate among their contemporaries to date. The delicacy and complexity of their visual patterns in wall decoration is also representative of their time. An investigation into the two sets of patterns helps to better comprehend their resemblances and divergences of the areas of the artistic layouts of cultural custom regarding funeral practice, visual composition and narrative, and socio-religious values. My current study on these two cases, as a launching phase for my PhD research, at first practices a formalistic and quantitative approach so as to acquire an overview in terms of spatial structure, human figures among compositions, gender, and patterns of thematic arrangement. Then the study would carry the observation and analysis into a comparison of spatial structure-functionality-theme relationship by examining the visual dynamic distribution of the two sets of tomb wall decorations. Last, the study would re-

examine the methodology of analyzing visual composition by emphasizing human figures as the essential factor when decoding and recognizing the narrative patterns on a thematic level.

The distribution and dating of Egyptian false doors and funerary stelae of the First Intermediate Period Melanie Pitkin, Macquarie University, Sydney, melanieP@PHM.GOV.AU The false door, later replaced by the stela, can be continuously seen in the archaeological record from the end of the Old Kingdom to the beginning of the Middle Kingdom. It can be traced across sites in Upper and Lower Egypt and across each of the major phases of rule from the Memphites to the Herakleopolitans and the Thebans. Yet, most studies to date have only considered the false door and stela within the parameters of individual sites or localised regions (for example, Dunham and Brovarskis studies at Naga ed Deir, Fischers study at Dendera and Dawoods study of the Memphite necropolis). There has been little attempt to try and date false doors and stelae across both time and place. But, what we can in fact find by doing this is the potential to determine a benchmark for dating other events and material culture of the First Intermediate Period, as well as clearer patterns in artistic, administrative and social developments. The purpose of this paper is therefore twofold. Firstly, it will present the preliminary findings from a site distribution survey conducted of approximately 500 Egyptian false doors and funerary stelae believed to date to the First Intermediate Period (reigns of Pepy II - Mentuhotep II) and secondly, it will explore the results of applying a set of dating criteria to a representative range of these.

Panel B1- Wednesday 28th March

The Garstang Project: An Integrative Collections Review Claire Ollett, University of Liverpool, C.L.Ollett@liverpool.ac.uk The Garstang Project is a collaborative project between the Garstang Museum of Archaeology at the University of Liverpool, Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery, Kendal Museum and

Towneley Hall Museum and Art Gallery in Burnley. The project was funded and supported by Renaissance North West as part of its Effective Collections Review Scheme. These museums collections were known to contain significant numbers of objects from the excavations of John Garstang in Egypt and therefore were identified as potential beneficiaries of an integrative collections review. The Garstang excavation records and photographic archive, which are housed at the University of Liverpool, were utilised and proved invaluable in identifying objects from Garstangs excavations which had been donated to the museums but which often had limited or no accompanying details regarding provenance and other contextual information. This paper will outline the initial aims of the project, the methodologies employed and the various outcomes which go beyond just developing an enhanced knowledge of the collections.

Pharaonic culture in the Arabic Middle Ages Joost Kramer, University of Leiden, j.h.w.kramer@gmail.com When we think about Egypts Middle Ages and its interaction with the pharaonic monuments our thoughts are inevitably drawn to the raiding of tombs to obtain objects for sale or building materials. But there is more to it. Ever since the ninth century AD Arabic scholars wrote increasingly on ancient Egyptian culture; in his Kitab al-Buldan [Book of the countries] the Iraqi litterateur al-Jahiz compiled a list of thirty world wonders, twenty of which to be found in Egypt. On the other hand, medieval Muslims knew ancient Egypt first and foremost through the Quran, from e.g. the story of Moses, a ruthless tyrant. Depictions in temples of deities and human beings were difficult to incorporate within Islam. In short, medieval Egyptians had a very ambiguous view of the pharaonic past. In this paper, which discusses a largely neglected area in Egyptology and Arabic studies, I will examine several Arabic scholars, both from Egypt and abroad, and focus on their accounts. I will show how a variety of themes was applied in those accounts and how the pharaonic past was incorporated and used in Islamic Egypt.

Too many bilbils in New Kingdom Egypt? Implications of documentation and publication of early excavations in Egypt Henning Franzmeier, Freie Universitt Berlin, hfranzmeier@web.de An abundance of foreign pottery seems to cover New Kingdom cemetery sites across Egypt; Cypriote base ring juglets or red lustrous wheelmade ware spindle bottles of 18th Dynasty date are virtually omnipresent and are found in any publication of a cemetery site. But is there really so much imported pottery in relation to domestic pottery? My reassessment of the 1920/21 excavations at Sedment in Middle Egypt has led to the conclusion that there is a strong imbalance between the number of published, documented and preserved examples of foreign pottery in comparison to Egyptian pottery. Of the pottery vessels that are either published or present in museum collections, almost 16% are of Cypriote origin; however, when all existing documentation is taken into consideration, such as unpublished notebooks and tomb cards, this frequency reduces to 9.7%. Moreover the accuracy of the available documentation is also often questionable, pointing to an even lower percentage. The same holds true for the percentage of imported pottery found in tombs, as tombs containing this particular object group were included in publications over tombs without. The inclusion of all available information can therefore lead to completely new sets of data and new paths of interpretation. Thus, through this paper, I want to encourage a widespread critical reassessment of old excavations in order to obtain a stable evidence base.

New Discoveries from the Middle Kingdom Mohammed Youssef Ali, Independent Scholar, Chief Inspector of Dashur and Lisht, nawara_a2000@yahoo.com As the Chief Inspector of Dashour and Lisht I have been presented with many challenges regarding the management of my site and its security ongoing in post revolutionary Egypt. Unfortunately many archaeological sites in Egypt were attacked by looters pre and post the January revolution. Looters targeted tombs and storage magazines in order to remove artefacts and used the period of unrest to commence a campaign of illegal digging and site encroachment on open sites such as Giza, Saqqara, Abusir, Dashour and surrounding areas. In

February 2011 one such example brought to my attention involved a pair of inscribed blocks illegally removed and being fought over by two groups of looters digging to the east side of the Amenemhat I pyramid. With the assistance of the Army we were able to secure the site, arrest the looters and recover two hitherto unknown inscribed blocks from the mortuary complex of Amenemhat I. This paper will present an overview of the issues we have faced at Dashour during this period, how we have addressed the challenges we have faced and present the discovery of these very important inscribed blocks which without our intervention may have lost their archaeological context and remained unknown to Egyptology.

Panel B2- Wednesday 28th March

The Problem with Neferusi: Its location and importance within the Oryx Nome Carl Graves, University of Birmingham, cxg653@bham.ac.uk The important town of Neferusi was certainly located within the region of Beni Hasan in the 16th Upper Egyptian Nome, however successive attempts to locate its modern position have proven unsuccessful. More recent methods of satellite imagery and ideas relating to Nile migration could help clarify this problem. Thereafter placing our knowledge of the Oryx Nome during the late First Intermediate Period and Middle Kingdom into its correct geographical context. Neferusi features in texts from the early Middle Kingdom through to the Third Intermediate Period and takes a prominent role within the region and its relationship with Hermopolis. Although it was never clarified as a Nome capital it was clearly an important town for the Nomarchs buried at Beni Hasan. A greater understanding of this town will help our perception of Middle Egyptian politics during the period mentioned above. This paper forms part of my PhD research about the society of the 16th Upper Egyptian Nome. While I do not aim here to realise a solution to the issue of Neferusis location I aim simply to introduce to the argument new methods of settlement location and attempt to narrow down the options available to us.

Rock Stelae and Sacred Landscapes in the Eastern Desert during the Ramesside Period Anna Garnett, University of Liverpool, A.E.Garnett@liverpool.ac.uk The stone and mineral reserves of Egypts Eastern Desert were extensively exploited by mining and quarrying expeditions during the New Kingdom. During this time, particular desert sites were identified as being especially sacred and as such were subsequently transformed by the construction of royal cult temples and shrines, which were often integrated into pre-existing sacred landscapes. The presence of constructed religious space in the Eastern Desert primarily demonstrates the interest of the king in the key desert routes, quarries and mines; however several such loci, including Wadi Hellal and Wadi Mia, also preserve rock-cut stelae authored by certain eminent Ramesside officials. This paper will address the nature of these stelae and the background and particular motivations of their authors, while also questioning the extent to which the stelae can be considered representative features of the transformation of the Eastern Desert landscape during the New Kingdom.

Agents of Construction: The Territoriality of Ancient Egyptian Graffiti and Modern Functional Parallels Marina Wilding Brown, Yale University, marina.brown@yale.edu The territorial nature of ancient graffiti, long assumed to be one of the key motivations for the creation of both rock-art and rock-inscriptions, remains poorly understood for the ancient Egyptian record. The considerable research into the rock-art of other communities, both ancient and historical, contextualizes the territoriality of a given rock-art tradition within the greater landscape of (cross-) cultural interactions. The ancient Egyptian graffiti record is unique in that it exhibits the concomitant persistence of inscriptional and figurative graffiti, originating from a single cultural group, spanning a common geographic territory. Nevertheless, a chasm exists between investigations into Predynastic rock-art and studies of Dynastic rockinscriptions. Huyges examination of the Predynastic rock-art record of Elkab includes a critical analysis of four key motivations governing the creation of rock-art and concludes that religion and ideology form the most likely motivating factors in ancient Egypt.

This paper contends that territoriality was another key motivating factor for both the Predynastic and Dynastic graffiti traditions in ancient Egypt. Recent research on functional parallels between ancient and modern graffiti traditions provides a new framework in which graffiti do not serve merely to mark territorial boundaries but work actively to create territory.

Late Period Regionalism in Ancient Egypt: a Comparative Analysis of 25th and 26th Dynasty Coffins from Thebes and Akhmim Allison Williams, University of Liverpool, amwilliams22@gmail.com Material culture provides the archaeologist with tools for investigating ancient human activity. Coffins, as funerary objects, held significance to the ancient Egyptian society. They were vessels of the afterlife and eternal houses to hold the preserved body, which contained a newly rejuvenated soul inside. During a time of political fragmentation, the Third Intermediate Period, this material culture began to exhibit changes. Regional areas began to feature stylistic changes that reflected their newly altered political and social relations. In this paper I investigate and conclude that there was regional variation on coffin iconography during the 25th and 26th Dynasties in ancient Egypt. I furthermore explore the idea that the presence of regional variation on coffins was primarily due to the lack of craftsman migration, which came about through the decentralization of a political authority. By using comparative analysis on each of my two sites, I identify the similarities and nuanced differences that occurred between Thebes and Akhmim. By setting the scene through contextualization and examination of coffins through history, one can start to piece together just how important these artefacts are. Through this I interpret political and social change in Late Period Egypt.

Panel C1- Wednesday 28th March

Royal festivals in cultural memory studies Gabrielle Heffernan, University of Birmingham, gxh830@bham.ac.uk How did cultural memory develop within Egyptian communities? And how could it be used to create bonds between the people and the state, thus forming a sense of national identity and

a community centred around state ideology? The talk will discuss this issue by analysing images of festivals within private tombs from the early Nineteenth Dynasty at Thebes, focussing on images of festivals in which statues of the king played a key role. It will look at the people depicted in these scenes (namely priests, musicians, boatmen and observers), analysing what their involvement in such events tells us about the place of the pharaoh in local tradition and in the wider society. These images will also enable a discussion about the importance of active remembering in sociological theory. Finally the discussion will consider whether there was a fundamental difference between the king as a person (whose direct interaction with the public is only occasionally alluded to) and the king as an image (such as statues which participated in festivals), and how this may have affected the cultural memory of the people who witnessed such events.

Beyond the grave: New Kingdom tombs at Saqqara, Egypt, as shrines of cultural memory Nico Staring, University of Leiden, nicostaring@hotmail.com The way people view their past affects how they treat its remains. Why did people preserve what they did and destroy other remains? How did the ancient Egyptians view their own past and what effect did their knowledge of the past have on their behaviour? This presentation concentrates on the New Kingdom necropolis in Saqqara, Egypt, and its elite tombs from the late 18th to 20th Dynasties, c. 1400-1100 B.C. The use, re-use and reception (history) of material remains from the past by later generations within this man-made mortuary landscape will be analysed. The added value for the use of memory studies, adapted from social sciences, will be demonstrated.

Access to the Divine in New Kingdom Egypt: Royal and public participation in the Opet Festival Kelly Accetta, University of Cambridge, ka355@cam.ac.uk This paper, which is based on my masters dissertation, assesses the ability of the public to gain direct physical and spiritual access to their divinities, viewing this as a reflection of power and society. It also considers the purpose of public performative festivals in the New Kingdom. I

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focus on the New Kingdoms Opet Festival, one of the most important processional festivals of the god Amun, and the opportunities for physical interaction with the god, such as oracular consultation, viewing of the divine barque, and ability for proximity to the pharaoh himself. Reliefs of the festival, produced by the state in Karnak and Luxor Temples, are analyzed with emphasis on figural design, events portrayed, and location in an attempt to understand the purpose of this extended access to the divine. I also consider the physical landscape in which the festival occurred to understand the potential for public interaction with the gods, by reconstructing potential ceremonial routes and viewing spaces as they evolve throughout the New Kingdom. I conclude that, in addition to their role in renewing the pharaohs unique connection with the gods, the festivals enhance the pharaohs standing with his people by allowing them greater access to the divine.

Panel C2- Wednesday 28th March

Reproducing human limbs: prosthesis, amulets and votive objects in Ancient Egypt Alessandra Colazilli, University of Sapienza, alecolazilli@yahoo.it Ancient Egyptians usually made use of amulets with apotropaic and propitious function. Part of these objects were used to simulate body limb with magical and medical purpose because they were considered as substitutes for a missing or diseased part of human body. They could be worn as pendants to have protection or buried with the deceased to supply the missing part and to be reanimated magically after death. Missing limbs could also be replaced by an artificial one to restore the mummy because only a well preserved body was a guarantee of eternity. Amulets in the form of human limbs and duplicates of such parts were also used to increase their function and ability. Exemplars of wooden penis, ears etc. from Egyptian temples show their importance within rituals. Their presence inside tombs is justified by Egyptian belief in afterlife as mirror of daily life. Finally, sculpted feet, hands and other limbs were donated as votive objects to thanks gods for recovery or ask for health.

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The purpose of the paper is to show meaning and function of such amulets and votive objects during life and afterlife, within Egyptian religion and rituals, without failing to scan sacred texts and literature.

Skeletal Health in Early Egypt: the Effects of Cultural Change and Social Status Sarah Musselwhite, University of Cambridge, sjm233@cam.ac.uk This study investigates the effects of state formation and social status on the health of several early Egyptian populations, using data collected from skeletal remains. Population health has frequently been shown to correlate with political, economic and social change in past societies. Here, the frequencies of three skeletal stress markers known to reflect healthcribra orbitalia, porotic hyperostosis and linear enamel hypoplasiawere measured in 179 individuals from six Predynastic and Early Dynastic populations. The social context of each population was reconstructed through examination of excavation reports. When viewed temporally, the results suggest that overall health improved after the initial introduction of agriculture into Egypt, probably due to dietary diversification. A subsequent decline in health is suggested in the later Predynastic, possibly due to the negative effects of increasing population density caused by urbanisation. Closer investigation of individuals buried in the elite Cemetery T at Nagada and around the First Dynasty royal funerary enclosures at Abydos suggests that high social status did not always confer good health in early Egypt. The integration of methods from both Egyptology and Biological Anthropology has allowed a deeper understanding of how the processes of state formation affected society on the level of local populations.

The applicability of modern forensic anthropological techniques to ancient Egyptian skeletal remains Emily Marlow, University of Manchester, emily.marlow@student.manchester.ac.uk Much of what is known about ancient Egyptian civilisation is derived from the study of mummified or skeletonised human remains. Age at death and sex are two of the most

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biologically basic and important characteristics about an individual, and are essential components of the palaeodemographical study of fertility, disease, diet, or mortality. These parameters are traditionally determined by morphological or metric assessment of the skeleton. However, techniques for estimating both sex and age at death are prone to error as a result of several different biases, notably population differences in body size, skeletal proportions, and rates of skeletal development, maturation and degeneration. In addition, most popularly-used techniques were formulated using modern population samples, and their accuracy in archaeological contexts may not have been tested. This paper will present preliminary results arising from data collected from skeletal remains curated at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University. The sample consists of adult individuals from Predynastic period Keneh, Old Kingdom period Giza, Middle Kingdom period Sheikh Fanag. Analyses will focus on the percent accuracy of modern sex determination techniques, temporal and geographic patterns of sexual dimorphism, and the development of population-specific sex determination methods using discriminant function analysis.

Panel A1- Thursday 29th March

The lion in Pre- and Early Dynastic Egypt power and glory? Lyn Stagg, Independent Scholar, l.stagg@ucl.ac.uk Several important studies have been undertaken in which the lion in Ancient Egypt (and elsewhere in the ancient world) has been placed within the elite and royal milieu mainly on iconographic and textual grounds (for example: Davis 1981; Schweitzer 1948; De Wit 1980). Some of these representations are monumental in scale. Additionally many of the much smaller objects have usually been interpreted as gaming pieces (Kendall 2007) rather than as amulets. Some of this material dates from the pre-and Early dynastic periods of Egyptian history, and was discovered in the very early period of excavation in Egypt or in very disturbed contexts, or both. A re-evaluation of this material endeavours to place a new interpretation on some of the early representations, in particular, concentrating on material discovered during the last 30 or so years of excavation in Egypt.

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Bushes, undergrowth: the word Sfnw in Egyptian texts Flavie Deglin, University of Lille III Charles-de-Gaulle, flavie.deglin@wanadoo.fr My research about wooded areas led me to study the word Sfnw. This term, which wasnt recorded in the Wrterbuch, was mentioned in several texts from the New Kingdom to Ptolemaic period. It covers an environmental reality and Egyptologists tend to translate it as bushes or undergrowth. Through the analysis of these documents, this paper aims at bringing more details about this kind of vegetation, its conception in the popular imagination and its use for a clearer understanding of the Egyptian landscape.

Control of the Wild as Elite Funerary Activity in the Predynastic Francis Lankester, University of Durham, lankester2@aol.com Hunting riverine and desert animals is seen on pottery in graves from as early as Naqada I. Hunting with dogs is prominent on C-Ware and in rock-art. It is probable that elite groups in centres such as Hierakonpolis and Mahasna hunted in the desert, and that the combination of human, hunting and boat petroglyphs is linked to funerary activity in the Nile Valley. I contend that it constituted a necessary means of continuing life after death. Although the hunting theme appears to decline on D-Ware, it is clear that this is more apparent than real. Control of the wild through hunting and capturing continues in to the Naqada III and dynastic period, remaining a key activity in tomb scenes.

Panel A2- Thursday 29th March

Analysis of the Early Dynastic Naqada Royal Tomb Assemblage Hayley Meloy, University of Liverpool, H.L.Meloy@liverpool.ac.uk In 1904 Garstang undertook a one-day investigation of the Naqada Royal Tomb, which had previously been excavated by De Morgan in 1897 and Borchardt in 1898. Garstang uncovered hundreds of objects left in the rubbish piles of these previous excavations, 200 of which are

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now housed in the Garstang Museum, Liverpool. The tomb itself has been dated to the beginning of the First Dynasty, and for a time was considered to be the tomb of the legendary King Menes. It is now generally connected to a royal lady, Queen Neithhotep, who was associated with King Aha and may indeed have been co-regent with this earliest of kings. The tomb itself is now lost but the analysis of the surviving objects (which include clay sealings, flints, stone vessel fragments, ivory objects and objects of personal adornment) has the potential to shed light on the interred queen and the changes unification brought to ancient Egypt, specifically in the case of burial customs and domestic and foreign trade. This paper will serve as an introduction to this tomb assemblage and a discussion of some of the techniques currently being employed in the analysis of the Garstang Museums Naqada Royal Tomb collection.

Children of Sorrow: Infants and Juveniles in Ancient Egyptian Funeral Processions Emily Millward, University of Birmingham, EXM745@bham.ac.uk As part of a larger study into the gestures of mourning in ancient Egypt this paper aims to study the images of children within funeral processions. Research into adult mourners in ancient Egypt is incomplete and, as a result, the study of children in mourning has also been neglected. A series of decorative images from various tombs can help to understand the gestures of grief that Egyptian children portrayed. Were they similar to the gestures adopted by their adult counterparts? How did they interact with their fellow mourners and what does their presence within the procession tell us about mourning in ancient Egypt? In considering these points a picture of mourning in ancient Egyptian funeral processions can be established and the facets of emotion and performance within mourning can begin to be assessed.

The Stela of Nebet-Kebeny CG 34117 Maha Yehia, University of Menofiya, mmmyehia@web.de The stele of Nebet-Kebeny was found at Luxor but probably comes from Abydos and is kept now in Cairo Museum CG 34117. The stela is made of fine white limestone. It is finely carved, round-topped and measures 66.5 x 41 cm. The subject matter of the text inscribed on

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the stela under discussion is overwhelmingly dominated by the funerary offering formula addressed to the gods of the west and the high religious titles of the owners family members. The stela is to be considered funerary where Wepwawat and Anubis in the form of two jackals stretched on their plinth facing each other, both labeled Wepwawat lord of Abydos and Anubis lord of the west. The stela is divided into four sections: The first section is the protection symbol; the second is the first scene; the third is the second scene, and the fourth is the main text In this study I will discuss each section separately to shed light on the contents (scenes and texts) of the stela.

Panel B1- Thursday 29th March

Sex Object or Equal Partner? The Role of Women as portrayed in ancient Egyptian Love Poems Renate Fellinger, University of Cambridge, rf296@cam.ac.uk Ancient Egyptian love poems (dating to the New Kingdom) and women have been the focus of scholarly attention for more or less a century. However, most scholars investigating these areas have denied that the love poems reflect ancient society and practice. This paper challenges this point of view and examines what the love poems can contribute towards the study of the role of women in society via phenomenology. This comprises the idea that love poems represent literary landscapes which were created by the authors own perceptions and experiences of contemporary life. Besides a brief discussion of certain issues (such as authorship or audience of these poems), this paper predominantly focuses on three criteria. These are regarded by the presenter as comprising the underlying framework on which the poems were constructed by the poets: the freedom of speech, movement, and action of women as portrayed in the poems. These freedoms are deemed essential for the determination of the role and position of women in society.

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The results of this investigation show that women were fairly equal to men regarding these three criteria. The considerable amount of freedom as reflected in the poems may imply that women were prominent members of society.

The role and position of Old Kingdom royal women in times of power transition Reinert Skumsnes, Independent Scholar, reinert.skumsnes@gmail.com The aim of this paper is to highlight the role and position of Old Kingdom royal women in periods of power transition, and to suggest that certain royal women provided their spouse with the necessary legitimacy to rule, either as a result of several kings sons (sA-nswt) aspiring to the throne, or the lack of royal blood, and thus providing a strong link between dynasties. The reason for royal women to have married their brothers, or other close family members, was to keep the royal family small and exclusive, while at the same time following the example of the gods, marrying their siblings, creating precedence for kingship. My goal is not to bring back the heiress theory, a theory that in itself is made by modern Egyptologist, but rather to argue that the right to the throne of ancient Egypt could be passed on in many different ways. It could be patrilineal, matrilineal and fratrilineal, and they could overlap as well as function simultaneously. The point is that we have to acknowledge each case as individual; Some queens and princesses might have played an important role while others did not, and naturally (although perhaps to a lesser extent) the same was the case for their male counterparts.

Gender and Power Relations: A Revision of the role of Queenship during the coregency of Hatshepsut and Tuthmose III (c. 1479-1458 BC) Virginia Laporta, University of Buenos Aires, virglaporta@gmail.com The lack of male heirs to the throne of Egypt is closely related to the new role of Queenship during the very beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty (c. 1550-1292 BC). I shall examine this new role through the royal figure of Hatshepsut (c. 1479-1458 BC), a queen descendant of the

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Ahmoside as well as the Thutmoside royal lines, who altered her position of regent queen of the underage Thutmose III to become a co-ruler king. Nevertheless, she was usually represented as the only king. Thus, I consider the royal unique figure splits and the male Horus Thutmose III resulted to be shadowed by the presence of a female enthroned king, Hatshepsut. Traditionally considered as usurpation and taken of advantage from the queen/king and co-ruler over the underage male king, I consider the situation can be analyzed from another perspective. Thus, I propose to revise the co-regency of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III through gender analysis and a review of the established power relationships based upon two major research strategies: (1) a theoretical analysis of the cultural concept of gender and the construction of power relations, and (2) a re-examination of surviving evidence (textual, iconographic, and architectonic) related to Hatshepsut`s role of Queenship.

All Made Up? A re-examination of the function of 'cosmetic spoons' Kathryn Howley, Brown University, kathryn_howley@brown.edu Although prevalent in collections, Egyptian cosmetic spoons have received little attention in scholarly literature. Few spoons come from excavated contexts and none show evidence of having contained cosmetics, while their shape seems unsuitable for cosmetic application. Nonetheless, museums overwhelmingly label these spoons as cosmetic and exhibit them with other cosmetic equipment. A literature review was undertaken to ascertain the basis for the identification of these objects. No supporting archaeological evidence was found. Rather, early publications stress the feminine nature of the spoons decoration, and therefore associate them with the feminine activity of applying cosmetics. Moreover, plainer spoons are not identified in excavation reports as cosmetic spoons, as they are not identified as having feminine qualities. There is no clear reason to retain the original identification of these objects as cosmetic spoons. Temple offering scenes often depict incense being offered by spoon. Objects matching the appearance of these spoons exist in several museum collections, though classified as cosmetic spoons. I propose that the function of cosmetic spoons was more likely to be offering, and

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present the possibility that the functions of Egyptian minor arts have been identified on the basis of the cultural biases of archaeologists rather than archaeological evidence.

Panel B2- Thursday 29th March

Cultural Hybridity as a Model for Cultural Change in New Kingdom Nubia: a reassessment of Egypto-Nubian relations Paul van Pelt, University of Cambridge, paulvanpelt@hotmail.com
Egyptianization, understood in its simplest form as the spread of what was Egyptian at the expense of what was not, is the dominant concept for the analysis of cultural change in New Kingdom Nubia. This paper - building on recent critiques of the similar model of Romanization - attempts to demonstrate that Egyptianization is a simplistic and outmoded model of cultural change, especially when applied to the majority populations of Egypts foreign territories. It sets out by discussing the theoretical shortcomings of Egyptianization and the ideological presuppositions that have coloured its past reconstructions in ancient Nubia. A new theoretical approach is suggested that benefits from the sociological insights of cultural hybridity. Whilst theories of Egyptianization implicitly assume a unidirectional transfer of culture from Egypt to its foreign territories, an emphasis on hybridization processes acknowledges a more complex view in which cultural change can be multidirectional, atavistic and situational. The worth of the model is demonstrated through two detailed case studies, focusing on representations of Egyptianized Nubians in Egyptian art (e.g. Heqanefer) and burial customs in Lower Nubia respectively. These case studies highlight the emergence of new, highly differentiated social formations incorporating new cultural logic and new configurations of power, influencing Egyptians and Nubians alike.

Egyptian imitations of Mycenaean stirrup jars Birgit Schiller, Humboldt University of Berlin, birgit.schiller@cms.hu-berlin.de

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Since the beginning of excavations in Egypt and Nubia, not only original Mycenaean pottery was found but also imitation vessels. The Mycenaean stirrup jar is a transport vessel that contained (perfumed) olive oil. At the same time Egyptian imitations appeared it is also documented that olive trees were cultivated in Egypt itself. Until now, I have been able to collect 20 faience stirrup jars (+ 2 forgeries), four of Egyptian Alabaster and 11 of clay. The faience stirrup jars bear not only traces of abrasion but it is also confirmed by scientific examination that they actually contained an oily substance. I have determined the capacity of some of these faience stirrup jars. Although scientific examination has not been done, it is likely that clay imitations stirrup jars contained oil as well. In Palestine one single vessel similar to Egyptian ones came to light. Possibly it is an import from Egypt. The aim of my paper is not only to present these vessels and their distribution in Egypt and Nubia in the New Kingdom but also to discuss the economic impact.

Greek or Egyptian, please make up your mind: Ptolemy II multi-cultural presentations

Heba Abd el- Gawad, University of Durham, h.h.abd-el-gawad@durham.ac.uk The first three Ptolemies have been usually praised for being propaganda machines, this is mainly attributed to how they perfectly accommodated to Egyptian traditions and managed to find common cultural and religious values to bind together the peoples of their kingdom. Ptolemy II, in particular, offers a distinctive case study for Ptolemaic media manipulation and image making. For during Philadelphus reign cultural specific ideologies were fused into dynastic symbols uniting the whole kingdom. Moreover, Ptolemy IIs visual display of power has even extended beyond the territories of his own kingdom to the various overseas dependencies and allies.

Yet, how did Ptolemy II use the various visual and literary presentation medium to create a multi-cultural Ptolemaic sphere? Do we find innovations in Philadelphus multi-faced presentations or did it simply follow traditional conventions? How systematic were such presentations and to what extent were they affected by the geographical location? How successful were Ptolemy IIs presentations among his intended audience and what impact did it have on the whole of the Ptolemaic dynasty? This paper will aim to resolve these issues through a multi-disciplinary examination of some visual and literary evidence of Ptolemy II, in an
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attempt to shed more light on what should be classified as a trademark of the Ptolemaic dynasty.

HALF AN ITERU ONWARD! The Mycenaean Brigade at Amarna: Egypt, the Aegean and Late Bronze Age warfare Alexandros Giannakoulas, University of Oxford, alexandros.giannakoulas@linacre.ox.ac.uk The diffusion of new military technology during the Late Bronze Age not only changed radically the way war was waged, but had also significant social and ideological implications in the whole Eastern Mediterranean, such as the ascent of a class of war specialists and the spread of a warrior ethos. Moreover, this period witnessed an unprecedented international circulation of technical skills, artistic motifs and ideas. The aim of this paper is to outline how one may study the interaction between Egypt and the Bronze Age civilizations of the Aegean in relation to warfare, as one example of a specific area of cultural activity. This requires a multi-disciplinary approach and use of material of very diverse types. A papyrus from Amarna (BM EA 74100), featuring individuals possibly equipped as Aegean warriors, is one among several proposed pieces of evidence for military interaction of some kind, such as an exchange of mercenaries. After briefly reviewing the available material, I assess whether instances such as the Amarna papyrus should be better understood as part of a broader circulation of subjects and motifs in the context of an at least partly shared military ethos, rather than as direct evidence for events.

Panel C1- Thursday 29th March

Cry

and

Silence:

Rethinking

the

Nature

of

man-god

communicative

Language

in Ancient Egypt Amr Omar, The American University in Cairo, amr@aucegypt.edu In ancient Egypt, Cry and Silence should be defined in relation to each other, as both terms are not represented in direct contrast in much Egyptological literature. Silence has been traditionally considered as one of the requirements in or near the realm of Dead, the access to

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temples, and the gate-of-giving-Justice, whereas the concept of Raising the Voice within these abodes is perceived as bwt. Nevertheless, Cry, in the sense of Raising the Voice is not wailing, as this paper intends to argue, which the ancient Egyptians perceived as forbidden behaviour. Contrarily, abundance of the textual evidence, from the New Kingdom, concerning the

meanings and uses of Cry in human interaction with the divine entities in scared places as a communicative power, through which the ancient Egyptian entreats his god to intercede and act on his behalf according to his needs, hopes and even fears. The deities in these sources not only hear the cry, but come from afar at the person who cried out. This presentation will demonstrate how far cry and silence formed an effective binary polar communication medium, and the ancient Egyptian was in a position to select from to approach the divine sphere.

Coping with Uncertainty: the Use of Faith in New Kingdom Egypt Daniel Potter, University of Liverpool, D.Potter@liverpool.ac.uk One problem inherent in the nature of life itself is the uncertainty of the future, as mere mortals we cannot know what tomorrow has in store for us and can only prepare for any amount of possibilities. As such, humans have applied different aspects of religious belief, philosophy and thought in order to reduce the impact of such uncertainty on daily life. This paper aims to assess the application of faith in the New Kingdom as a means of coping with such uncertainty. Specifically, examining textual sources in which the individual shows some application of faith in context, in order to deal with the uncertain nature of the future and the afterlife. These sources include a number of the Late Ramesside Letters in which the writer proclaims that Tomorrow is in the hands of the god, a number of New Kingdom funerary inscriptions which frame wishes for the afterlife within an epistemic conditional phrase and corroborating sources from other textual spheres. These sources will be analysed grammatically and through the utilization of elements of the pragmatic tradition within linguistics to see how these individuals encoded their beliefs in Ancient Egypt.

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The Ears Stelae Chronological Partition: for a New Understanding of the Personal Piety Development Nathalie Toye, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris, nathalie.toye@gmail.com Thanks to recent work on the iconography of ears in royal portraits, we have been able to date more precisely a number of uninscribed ears stelae. This reveals that the ears stelae date mostly to the eighteenth dynasty, before the expansion of the personal piety during the Ramesside period. We point out that most ears stelae do not appear during the nineteenth dynasty, and by contrast with the eighteenth dynasty there was a strong decrease in their presence -by more than half. If the corpus of ears stelae is extended to include all items that mention the god who listens, it is possible to clarify this surprising chronological partition. It appears that the epithets related to listening, sDm nH.t, sDm spr.wt were preferred in the nineteenth dynasty to the sketch of the ear. From that moment onwards, the ears stelae are progressively abandoned. We notice the use of new epithets related to the development of private oracular practices, jy n aS n=f, or jy nxrwnaSn=f, which mean that the God listened to a request, because he answered it.

Panel C2- Thursday 29th March

Technological Innovations in the 2nd Mill. B.C. in Egypt: a theoretical model for the use and distribution of new technologies and materials Heike Wilde, University of Heidelberg, wildeheike@hotmail.com I would like to present the main results of my investigations concerning technological innovations in the 2nd Mill. B.C. in Egypt. The introduction, development and expansion of three innovative technologies, glass manufacturing, metallurgical techniques used to produce tin-bronze and the introduction of the horse drawn chariot are typical examples for advances in the Bronze Age society, Egypt being part of it. Investigating this exciting period in two consecutive studies (MA thesis and doctoral

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thesis) led me to propose a "classification system" which can be applied to the introduction and development of new techniques or materials as mentioned above, consisting of three successive phases, beginning with the "Primrphase" (a "get-to-know-phase") in which the first contact with the new material is predominant. The second one "Sekundrphase" is an "experimental phase" in which the characteristics and advantages of the materials are fully recognized. Distinctive for the third one, "Expansivphase" is a kind of serial production in which a previous prestigious character of the goods might have been lost. In the second study, focusing on typical crafts connected with prestigious goods such as precious metalworking and faience, the social cultural conditions for adapting or refusing technological innovations were pointed out.

The Khopesh: A New Kingdom saga of trade, interconnectivity and adaption of technology. Sarah Shepherd, University of Exeter, grubbydigger@yahoo.co.uk Gods and Kings are frequently shown on the walls of tombs and temples armed with swords and various forms of weaponry. Temple reliefs at Karnak, Luxor, Abu Simbel and Medinet Habu attest to the might and power of the Egyptian armies. Soldiers are depicted being issued with arms and actively engaged in combat by slaying the enemies of Egypt either by stabbing or throat cutting with knives and swords. Actual examples of weaponry were occasionally included amongst the burial equipment of royalty or officials such as the two Khopesh examples known from the burial of Tutankhamun. The earliest depictions of the soldier and the sword are found at the temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el Bahri where duelling soldiers are also shown with a short form of the Khopesh. Khopesh (p) is the Egyptian name of the Canaanite "sickle sword and during the New Kingdom the sword was manufactured as a result of the technological innovations adopted during the rule of the Hyksos. This paper will demonstrate the authors efforts to understand the construction and subsequent development of the sword and its contribution towards the Bronze Age arms race.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back? Our Understanding of the Egyptian Verbal System Rob Persson, University of Oxford, rob.persson@stx.ox.ac.uk

24

This paper will explore a central issue in the study of the Egyptian language: The respective place of morphology and syntax in the verbal system. In Lingua Aegyptia 16 (2008) Sami Uljas argued that we should consider how a verb is formed and appears (morphology), and be wary of considering how and where it is used in a sentence (syntax). Uljass argument is essentially the following: -Some irregular verbs have variable morphological sDm=f forms (eg ir > irr), -These variable morphological sDm=f forms reflect different grammatical forms (eg plain form > imperfect), - Regular verbs generally have invariable morphological sDm=f forms (ie sDm), - We cannot generalise that the grammatical forms found in irregular verbs was also present in regular verbs. This paper will challenge the last point, both with regards to its validity and its ramifications. This is a critical issue for us because it not only affects our translations, but also how we understand a core part of Egyptian (the verb).

Panel D1- Thursday 29th March

Tomb Security in the Early Dynastic Period Reg Clark, University of Swansea, R.J.Clark.3611180@swansea.ac.uk Following the unification of Egypt, the emergence of an increasingly stratified society and a powerful elite during the Early Dynastic Period saw a progressive increase in the size of both their tombs and the wealth of their contents, in both royal and private contexts. Unfortunately, this attracted tomb robbers and as a consequence led to the development of ever more complex tomb security measures to thwart them. This paper traces some of the main developments from the reign of Iry-Hor up until the end of the Second Dynasty, and seeks to demonstrate that a great deal of early tomb architecture was driven by the need to protect the tomb rather than religious or monumental considerations.

Amarna erasures in Theban tombs and the question of monotheism

25

Paal Steiner, University of Bergen, Pal.Steiner@ahkr.uib.no Iconoclasm is defined as intentional desecration of art based on religious principles or faith. The term is historically closely linked to monotheism, which is associated not only with belief in one god, but also with an understanding of all other deities as false gods, and consequently with the persecution of polytheistic religion. King Akhenatens monotheistic experiment is one of the more well studied episodes of Egyptian history, yet the material remains of the periods destructive persecution of religious imagery has yet to be fully examined. This paper presents the results of an initial study of the persecution of names and images of the Egyptian pantheon in published Theban tombs, as a contribution to a more complete investigation of the iconoclastic movement. The study demonstrates the selective nature of the persecutions, in that primarily representations of deities and institutions of the Karnak temple are erased. Thus, iconoclasm as a means for monotheistic intolerance does not seem to imply a general persecution of all other gods. These findings indicate the importance of a reassessment of Amarna-religion as a monotheistic iconoclastic movement.

Panel D2- Thursday 29th March

Figured ostraca from Deir el-Medina and their relationship to material culture Joanne Backhouse, University of Liverpool, xgOu204@liverpool.ac.uk At CRE XII I discussed the iconography of a particular genre of image found on figured ostraca from Deir el-Medina, scnes de gynces, which include images of women on beds, both with and without children and in pavilions. This paper will consider the relationship between these pieces and contemporaneous material culture. I will consider the three-dimensional female figurines found at Deir el-Medina, and then assess the context, distribution, and iconography of women on beds figurines found throughout New Kingdom Egypt. I will also consider the broader question of when does an image become an object in its own right. In order to explore the dialectical relationship between image and object, and how each aids our understanding of the other, I will use the mirror as an example. It is depicted frequently on

26

the figured ostraca under consideration and on a limited number of figurines. Furthermore, during the New Kingdom the female form was incorporated into mirror handles, epitomising the association of the female form and the mirror. Again I will examine the context, distribution and iconography of these pieces, to further our understanding of the figured ostraca. Symbolising identity: identity marks in Deir el-Medina ostraca Daniel Soliman, University of Leiden, d.m.soliman@hum.leidenuniv.nl In early as well as in modern civilisation, a writing system may exist along a system that makes use of graphic signs without direct phonetic values. In ancient societies we find seal emblems, pot marks, and so on. Like writing, marking systems are important conveyors of identity, but they have not been systematically studied. In Ancient Egypt such signs are often identity marks. They convey ownership or production information. At Deir el-Medina, the workmen were represented by individual marks on ostraca, in graffiti, and on various objects from the workmens settlement and tombs. Several hundred ostraca inscribed with these marks constitute a separate category within the administrative documentation of the necropolis. A four-year research project at Leiden University will examine these marked ostraca. Part of the research is involved with how exactly the marks were used in the community of Deir el-Medina in addition to writing, and tries to place the marks in their historical and functional context. Moreover, an attempt will be made to date the corpus of marked ostraca as precise as possible. In this talk, the project will be introduced. Some of the difficulties of the research will be explained, and initial results will be presented. Panel A1- Friday 30th March

Mehet-ouret in the royal funerary texts Loriane Bussien, University of Geneva, Loriane.Bussien@unige.ch My PhD research field is on the goddess Mehet-ouret and her seven words (Tsw/DAisw).

27

We find attestations of her presence in sources from the Old Kingdom till the Greco-Roman period, mainly in funerary texts such as the Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts and Books of the Dead and other documents but I will focus only on those corpuses for my presentation. Mehet-Ouret is attested several times in the Pyramid Texts, mainly as a place: a place of trial between Horus and Seth ; a place where the creation of the world takes place or as a support of the first birth of the sun god. She also has the important function of the flood and by extension of a provider of offerings for the deceased. These prerogatives are known in the Coffin Texts as well, but another important field is added to her functions which is the power of creation by words (Tsw). She is also considered since that time as the eye of Ra what will link her to different important goddesses. The tradition of Books of the Dead carries further on those aspects of Mehet-ouret and we can also notice stronger bonds with Hathor and a newcomer of the New Kingdom, Ta-ouret.

Who or what is Werethekau? A problematic inscription (UC 16639) Ahmed M. Mekawy Ouda, University of Cairo, aea00@fayoum.edu.eg The main purpose of this paper is to investigate an unpublished limestone block of unknown provenance at the Petrie Museum (UC 16639) and to identify the identity of Werethekau mentioned in the inscription. Petrie did not record when or where he found this block; the context of this object, as a central and identifier feature for the archaeological discipline, is lost (Johnson 1999, 107). Petries archive does not refer to the date of acquisition. No one knows whether this artefact was bought by Petrie, whether he excavated it or obtained it by the division policy from 1884-1922. I will focus on the following questions: What does this object represent? To which period does it date? What does the name of Werethekau stand for? Is it an epithet for a goddess or does it stand for a material object (broad collar, red crown, white crown, double crown, vulture, and cobra)? A further point to clarify is whether this object represents the goddess Werethekau, who is frequently associated with the coronation of the king. The discussion also introduces the discipline on which I rely for the identification of the object and its chronology.

28

Did Min really need all those lettuces? Pauline Norris, University of Manchester, pauline.norris@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk

Min is one of the most ancient of the Egyptian gods and, since early in the Dynastic Period, he was associated with the lettuce plant: currently accepted to be Lactuca sativa L. The lettuce appears to have been offered to the god because the Egyptians perceived the plant to be an aphrodisiac. But did they and if so, why? The connotation of aphrodisiac appears to have been accepted into the literature without much question and may be a modern interpretation imposed on Egyptian thought. The properties and uses of L. sativa L. in Egyptian and other relevant cultures are compared and interpretations of aphrodisiac and fertility considered. The reputation of the lettuce as an aphrodisiac and Mins need for such stimulation is re-evaluated in the light of the findings which form part of on-going research.

Panel A2- Friday 30th March

What is the Tale of Woe? Luke McGarrity, University of Birmingham, LXM729@bham.ac.uk At the last CRE, I gave a paper discussing some of the issues I had encountered in my research concerning the translation and understanding of the Tale of Woe, also known as the Moscow Literary Letter or P.Pushkin 127. In this next paper I will discuss the results of the second stage of my research into this complex and unique text. I will present the results of applying a theoretical framework to determine the degree of fictionality of the text, including the study into its intertextuality with popular examples from the corpus of wisdom literature; finally enabling me to define the Tale of Woe in terms of genre and the aims of its composition.

Identifying and Recording the Book of the Dead in the Second Pillared Hall of the Tomb of Karakhamun Kenneth Griffin, University of Swansea, khnumhotepii@hotmail.com

29

Excavations by the South Asasif Conservation Project within the tomb of Karakhamun (TT 223), under the direction of Elena Pischikova, have shown that the tomb was extensively decorated with a variety of religious texts including the Book of the Dead. During the past excavation season, with the support of a Centenary Award from the Egypt Exploration Society, a project was undertaken to identify and record the various chapters from the Book of the Dead as found within the Second Pillared Hall of the tomb. In this paper I will examine a selection of these texts, including chapters 15, 50, 57, and 104. This includes detailing the methods employed in the identification of the texts, a process that is greatly accelerated by the use of a variety of online resources such as the Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae (http://aaew.bbaw.de/tla/), as well as the recording of the texts via digital epigraphy. A Tale of Two Suppressions: Reinterpreting Papyrus Mayer A and the So-called War of the High Priest during the Reign of Ramesses XI Kim Ridealgh, University of Swansea, k.m.ridealgh.294569@swansea.ac.uk The War of the High Priest is commonly used by scholars today to refer to a suppression of the High Priest of Amun Amenhotep by the Viceroy of Kush Panehsy during the reign of the last Ramesside king, Ramesses XI. The exact date of this event is debatable, but it likely occurred around Regnal Year 17 or 18 of Ramesses XI (c. 10891088 BCE). The sources that document the War of the High Priest are limited and may imply two separate suppression periods. Papyrus Mayer A has traditionally been interpreted to suggest that the suppression of Amenhotep behind the great temenos wall of Medinet Habu lasted nine months, whilst an inscription in the Tuthmoside chapel at Karnak may suggest an additional suppression lasting eight months. This study will add to the existing debate on the War of the High Priest in two different ways. Firstly, by re-examining the terminology surrounding the event, and secondly, by reassessing the length of the suppression period via a paeolographic study.

Panel B1- Friday 30th March

The recorded Solar Eclipse of Nectanebo I

Rosalind Park, Independent Scholar, rosalind.park@shaw.ca

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Prior to the Hellenistic Period, Egyptian priests were coyly mute in the matter of recording sky phenomena. Almost completely absent from surviving records is any reference, by way of myth, text or art-work to the observation of a solar eclipse. The universal ill omen cachet regarding eclipses, seems to have led to the belief and practice of not speaking of, much less memorializing, such events. This paper reveals that, in striking contrast to the usual rule, a solar eclipse which passed over the Western Nile Delta appears to have been commemorated in the royal inscriptions on twin stelae, located in Naukratis and Thonis-Herakleion, requiring Greeks to pay import duty. The (Julian) date of this eclipse, 5 November 380 BCE, falls within two days of the Egyptian date inscribed on both stelae, presumably near the accession of the occult-loving King Nectanebo I. He seemingly reinterpreted the bad omen tradition to foretell that his reign would be one of beneficence. The potential discovery of a previously unrecognized astronomical event should invite a re-examination of abnormal hieroglyphs on the Naukratis Stela, and may reconcile scholars to the apparent intermingling of ideologies of Egyptian scientific reticence, and the contrasting openness of Greek astronomical theories, in the 4th century BC.

Dates and Precursors of the Opet Festival Masashi Fukaya, University of Oxford, masashi.fukaya@queens.ox.ac.uk Textual records relating to the dates of the Opet Festival are better attested than those of other religious events. In this paper, it is presented how the dates of this feast were determined and subsequently fixed to the civil calendar by examining some lunar dates and the seasonal cycle, particularly of the Nile. It is evident by calculation that Thutmose III started this festival on a new moon day in year 23. From the Ramesside Period onwards, the initial day appears to have been fixed to II Akhet 19, probably in association with the high rise of the Nile. This day was regarded as the day of the Opet Festival in the Roman Period. The author further attempts to explore three pre-New Kingdom rites, which might have been the precursors of this feast, namely the Mentu Festival, Taking the River (Ssp itrw) and Pouring the Sand (xnp Sa).

Chronology of the Egyptian New Kingdom revisited

31

Rita Gautschy, University of Basel, Rita.Gautshy@unibas.ch Egyptian chronology of the 2nd millennium BC is essential not only for Egypt, but also for the Levantine, Syria, Mesopotamia and the Aegean. The local chronologies of the different regions are interwoven by documented synchronisms and archaeological finds. The standard chronology of the Egyptian New Kingdom nowadays is based on two lunar data from the times of Ramesses II. On the other hand Assyrian chronology is well known from 1400 BC onwards due to the Assyrian King List which is regarded as the most reliable available chronological source. However, the chain of arguments linking together the chronologies of different regions in Mesopotamia, the Levantine, Syria and Egypt via synchronisms seemingly all depend on the lunar data of Ramesses II. Since lunar data are liable to observational errors of one day which in succession lead to possible absolute chronologies differing by 11, 14 or 25 years, the standard chronology of New Kingdom Egypt and the evaluation of the synchronisms documented especially in the Amarna correspondence are worth a reinvestigation. Ill present the results of such a re-evaluation and their chronological implications.

Panel B2- Friday 30th March

The role of the Iwn-mwt.f in the New Kingdom monuments of Thebes Steven Gregory, University of Birmingham, stevengregory@blueyonder.co.uk It has become standard practice, in modern scholarship, to afford the epithet priest to those bearing such titles as wab, Xry-Hb(t), Hm-nTr , sm, and Iwn-mwt.f ; although no word in the original texts appears to justify the use of such an appellation. It seems likely that the context of surviving references to those officials most being in a funerary setting or in monumental architecture usually designated temple, chapel shrine, or having similar sacerdotal connotation has had some influence. However, the classification of the monuments is itself questionable as, in ancient Egypt, there was no clear distinction between matters sacerdotal and matters secular and themes decorating the buildings in question in fact reflect the political ideology of the Pharaonic state, particularly as it relates to the office of kingship, rather than a religious doctrine. It is this distinction which informs the present study which focuses on one of the

32

aforementioned classes of official, the Iwn-mwt.f; concluding that in this case the epithet priest may be particularly unfortunate in that the character portrayed is not a servant of the gods, but rather itself an aspect of deity fundamental to the ideology of ancient Egyptian kingship.

Would that I accompany him, this excellent marshman!: an analysis of the Marshman (sxty) in Middle Egyptian literature Simon Hawkins, University of Swansea, S.HAWKINS.394555@swansea.ac.uk In the corpus of Middle Egyptian literature there is often reference to a class of person known as a sxty. This word has been variously translated as marshman, peasant, and marshdweller by different scholars, but the exact role and standing of this class of people in Egyptian society is often difficult to attribute. By far the most well known of the texts which makes reference to the marshman is The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant, the main character of which is a marshman. Even in this one text the exact role and standing of the character is complex and contradictory, with the character being simultaneously lowly and eloquent in a manner befitting the highest elites in that society. The situation is muddied further by references in other texts, such as The Pleasures of Fishing and Fowling, where being a marshman is a situation to be aspired to, and contrary to the image of the lowly marshman found in The Eloquent Peasant. This paper will seek to explore the nature of the marshman through their appearances in Middle Egyptian literature and try to better understand their complex relationship with Egyptian society.

The Medjay leaders of Ancient Egypt Rune Olsen, University of Copenhagen, runeolsen@hum.ku.dk Before the New Kingdom the Medjays were an ethnic group from Lower Nubia. By helping Kamose and Ahmose in the war against the Hyksos the Medjays settled in Egypt proper and were later given the responsibility of guarding the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings. They have often been regarded as a police force in the modern sense of the word. However, apart from no longer being ethnic Medjays, this paper seeks to re-evaluate that thinking by drawing attention to the leaders of the Medjay, the so-called Chiefs of Police, and their duties,

33

functions and daily life as they are preserved in the textual corpus and tomb decorations. The bulk of information comes from Deir el-Medina and the Theban West Bank, from the 19th and 20th Dynasties. For instance, the Medjay leaders played a crucial role in helping the workers of Deir el-Medina in their strike against Ramesses III, the first recorded strike in the world. In contrast they only play a small part in the investigation of the robberies of royal tombs under Ramesses IX. Why does a Chief of Police not play a more active part in such investigations?

Panel C1- Friday 30th March

Ancient Egyptian funerary figurines an alternative paradigm Sharyn Volk, University of Melbourne, svolk@bigpond.net.au The spell evident on many figurines, and the presence of agricultural implements and baskets, is generally accepted to support the assumption that the statuettes represented substitute workers for their owners in the afterlife. This interpretation may not sufficiently recognise the multiplicity of symbolic layers embedded in the figurines. One of the tasks referred to in the spell is that of moving sand ( y), explored by many scholars within a range of theoretical frameworks, but still without consensus as to its significance. Consideration of the symbolic relevance of the sand, and examination of the other attributes of the figurines, reveals potential alternative meanings worthy of further investigation. Prior to their evolution as ushebtis in the Late Period, the figurines fulfilled a role beyond simply acting as agricultural workers in the afterlife. This study proposes that an alternative meaning encoded in these figurines may indicate that they functioned as objects of ritual importance at a defining moment in the ancient Egyptian lifecycle, contributing to the transition from the earthly life to the afterlife, and the Osirification of the deceased.

Votive Shabtis of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty Meg Gundlach, University of Swansea, megly02@yahoo.com Shabtis were used as votive offerings from their inception in the Middle Kingdom. During the artistic renaissance of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, the Theban high elite resurrected not only the
34

old customs of shabti production, but also the commission of shabtis for extra-sepulchral locations. Such dignitaries as Pedamenope, Harwa, Montuemhat, and Wedjarenes are all known to have used votive shabtis throughout Egypt, and all are present near the burials of the contemporary Divine Adoratrice at Medinet Habu. This talk will discuss the use of votive shabtis in the Kushite dynasty, their owners, and the locations at which they were deposited.

The Late Period shabti group of Iufaa Jurgen Van Oostenrijk, Independent Scholar, jurgenvanoostenrijk@gmail.com The Late Period shabti group of Iufaa was found at Abusir in 1995 by the team of the Czech Institute of Egyptology of the Charles University in Prague, directed by Prof. dr. Ladislav Bare. It was transported to the Egyptian Museum where the 408 statuettes are still housed today. The shabti group is unique since it is the only group that is still complete. I will be fortunate enough to study this shabti group in January and February of 2012 on an iconographic and palaeographic level. The iconographic features of these shabtis will be classified according to the typology as created by Hans Schneider in 1977. The inscriptions on the statuettes will be investigated in order to reconstruct the number of artisans that worked on them. The preliminary results pertaining to the construction process of this group of funerary statuettes will be reviewed in this lecture.

Panel C2- Friday 30th March

A survey of some unpublished Roman demotic papyri in the collection of the Austrian National Library, Vienna Luigi Prada, University of Oxford, luigi.prada@queens.ox.ac.uk This paper will present the results of a survey of unpublished demotic texts in the papyrus collection of the Austrian National Library in Vienna, one of the largest of its kind. In particular, the papyri here discussed are fragments of literary and semi-literary texts that stem from the Fayum and date to the Roman Period. Special attention will be devoted to a group of divinatory texts, including manuals on oneiromancy, astrology, and other forms of

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omens. Most of them were written in the same scribal milieu (possibly by the same scribe), and could be the remains of what originally constituted a large collection on this subject.

Kerma Culture? Regional variation in the funerary practice of Bronze Age Nubia c.2500-1500 B.C.E. Ruth Humphreys, The University of Leicester/The British Museum, ruth_humphreys@hotmail.co.uk The Kerma Kingdom(modern Northern Sudan) represented the development of the first documented state-level society in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite its obvious significance, not least as an important neighbour, trading partner and rival of Pharonic Egypt, we are only just beginning to be able to appreciate many fundamental aspects of its development. Following the conclusion of Merowe Dam Archaeological Salvage Project (MDASP) in the fourth cataract region and with new work in the Kerma heartlands of the Dongola Reach it is now possible, for the first time, to assemble an archaeological profile representing the known extent of the Kerma culture which potentially stretched from the 1st to upstream of the 4th Nile Cataracts. In this paper I will present a chronological overview and comparison of Kerma funerary culture across a selection of large cemetery sites from Kermas cultural heartlands (2nd CataractNorthern Dongola Reach) and adjoining areas, including the 4th cataract periphery. I will discuss my ongoing PhD research which includes the use of ceramic data to compile regional chronologies of funerary deposits for the first time in Bronze Age Nubia. This research aims to improve our general understanding of the general chronological development of Kerma culture as well as providing the first in depth study regarding its local and regional variability.

The Vernacular of the Letters to the Dead Julia Hsieh, Yale University, julia.hsieh@yale.edu The Letters to the Dead are a small group of private epistles written to deceased individuals. As most of these letters are contemporaneous with the Coffin Texts (late Old Kingdom to Middle Kingdom), they provide an important alternative avenue of insight into the ancient Egyptian

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perceptions of the afterlife that is independent of the canonical religious (and possibly esoteric) literature of the Coffin Texts. Furthermore, these Letters to the Dead are sent by and addressed to (mostly) untitled individuals; therefore, they are essentially first-hand glimpses into the private mortuary beliefs of the average Egyptian. Previous scholarship discusses the similarities and differences between these letters and the Coffin Texts only in terms of the thematic, ritualistic, and general contextual framework, usually concluding that the Letters to the Dead appeared to exhibit similar concepts to certain Coffin Text spells. However, a comprehensive analysis of the vocabulary and grammatical constructs employed in these letters reveal that the senders actively employed vernacular congruent to the Coffin Texts. Thus, these seemingly curt and simple missives demonstrate that aspects of the religious ideology of the educated elite and literati embodied by the Coffin Texts also resonate in the beliefs of the private Egyptian individual.

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