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A Palaeographic Study of Early Writing in Egypt  by I. Regulski (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta: Peeters) In trying to reconstruct the early phases of our culture, we rely mostly on sources from the ancient Near East. This is perhaps more true of the history of writing than of any other great cultural accomplishment. It would be unthinkable even to try to sketch the history of writing without taking into consideration the written sources of ancient Egypt. The present contributes to the research of writing evolution in Egypt as an attempt to collect, describe, and evaluate the earliest attestations of writing from a palaeographic point of view. The book aims to present a thorough investigation of the development of sign forms, from its first appearance around 3250BC until the reign of Djoser (ca. 2700BC) at the beginning of Dynasty III. It features the first-ever palaeographic collection of all available signs and inscriptions. The survey permitted reconstruction of the complex process of codification and reform of the Egyptian script that finally resulted in the hieroglyphic writing of the Old Kingdom.

The Egyptian writing system was not initially designed or able to represent continuous spoken discourse.' Rather, writing was probably 'invented' in the first place for the purpose of administration and the economic organization of exchange of goods.2 Early Egyptian texts therefore commonly consist only of small entries, yielding information regarding the provenance of deliveries, economic investments, or the involvement of administrative departments.

However, the role of early writing in Egypt cannot be adequately characterised as only administrative. The Egyptian script may have been devised for recording administrative information, but since only a happy few were able to read and write, it indirectly also served as a means for cultural and elite display. Much early writing is incorporated into representational works, such as ceremonial palettes. From its first stages of use, writing fulfilled both kinds of role, ordering and directing the flow of material goods, while at the same time redefining the social context of the commodities to which it was attached. Utilitarian and ceremonial purposes are not necessarily opposed, and inscribed pottery and stone vessels, for examples, can both display state ownership of prestigious goods and record deliveries of goods in the administration. The creation of writing must therefore be seen as part of the social, cognitive, and economic changes that occur as society becomes more complex at the end of the fourth millennium BC.

In 1988 Gunter Dreyer and his team discovered in the tomb of a Predynastic ruler at Umm el-Qa`ab/Abydos (tomb U-j) ivory labels that yield evidence of writing from some two centuries before the First Dynasty (ca. 3250 BC). The discovery of tomb U-j was of exceptional importance with regard to understanding the origin of writing. Not only the number of textual sources before the First Dynasty more than doubled; the new inscriptions also showed that the beginning of hieroglyphic writing must be situated earlier than was previously thought. In addition, the findspot of the U-j inscriptions prompted the theory that the Abydene region can be regarded as the homeland for the origin of Egyptian writing.

Although it is uncertain whether tomb U-j contained the first attempts at writing that existed, the hieroglyphic script cannot have developed long before the construction of this tomb. The ivory labels found in it provide the earliest attested two-consonantal phonograms (the stork for b3 and the stool for ft in a reference to Bubastis), and prove the use of the rebus principle already in this early phase of Egyptian writing. The U-j texts follow a system which shows many characteristics of the later hieroglyphic writing structure but is more limited than the latter in that phonetic complements and uniconsonantal phonograms are still missing. The idea that hieroglyphic writing was standardized rapidly is therefore to be dismissed.

It has often been assumed that Egyptian writing was invented under the stimulus of the Mesopotamian writing system, developed in the late fourth millennium BC. A variety of artistic and architectural evidence for contact between Mesopotamia and late Predynastic Egypt has in fact been found, but none of it can be dated precisely in relation to tomb U-j. Two sets of radiocarbon dates have been obtained: one puts the Abydos material slightly later than the Uruk IV tablets (ca. 3200 BC), the other, slightly earlier.° The resemblance of the repertory of signs on earlier cylinder seals (Naqada II-IIIA1; ca. 3800-3300 BC)14 with early Sumerian/Elamite pictograms has been used to add weight to the Sumerian/Elamite influence argument. However, it cannot be proved that these Predynastic Egyptian seals already reflect a proper writing system such as can be detected among the U-j sources. The first certain evidence of Egyptian writing is different from the Mesopotamian and must have been developed independently!' Egyptian hieroglyphs are, moreover, much more clearly representational. The possibility of "stimulus diffusion" from Mesopotamia remains, but the influence cannot have gone beyond the transmission of an idea.

It can clearly be seen that early Egyptian writing witnessed a rapid growth, and that the main principles that were established during the Early Dynastic period, remained en vogue throughout the pharaonic and Greaco-Roman periods for over three thousand years. The present study would like to contribute to the research of writing evolution in Egypt as an attempt to collect, describe, and evaluate the earliest attestations of writing from a palaeographic point of view. It seems an opportune moment to undertake such an investigation. Not only have Early Dynastic texts tended to be neglected compared to larger and more formal historical inscriptions, but also many important sources have been found and made accessible to closer scrutiny only in recent years. New discoveries, such as tomb U-j, have immensely enriched our knowledge about the Early Dynastic period and opened entirely new avenues of research.

This palaeographic study aims at presenting a thorough investigation of the development of sign forms during the Early Dynastic period, presenting the full variety of available early hieroglyphs. The work is divided into three parts. The first, explanatory part, analyses the data from various perspectives. Before any sort of statistical analysis could be attempted, methods of gathering sources and compiling this palaeography had to be established. Following a survey of scholarly literature relevant to the subject, these methodological issues will be outlined in Chapter 1. The primary source material is presented in Chapter 2. Following a brief overview of the larger clusters of Early Dynastic inscriptions, the chapter proceeds with a discussion of the chronological and regional distribution of the different types of inscriptions. Chapter 3 focuses on chronology. Problems with regard to dating Early Dynastic inscriptions are discussed. Most of the chapter is taken up by a list of the sources used, in which the reliability of their chronological attributions is examined. Chapter 4 comments on the palaeographical tables. The last chapter 5 is devoted to interpretation and aims at investigating and illustrating palaeographic development within the successive phases of the known relative chronology of the Early Dynastic period. In addition, possible influences leading to changes in sign forms will be investigated. The second part visualizes the palaeographical evolution by means of sign tables showing the corpus of available outlines of each hieroglyph. The last section contains charts, tables, and figures.

As will become clear in the methodological chapter, the palaeography can be defined as representative rather than comprehensive. Nevertheless, the most common forms should be apparent; examples that can be added later should not alter the interpretation presented at the end of this work. Although we all too well realize that many more texts are awaiting publication, it is certain that with a collection of the presently available material in hand, one can survey the palaeographic evolution of early writing in Egypt in a clearer and more complete fashion than has previously been possible. The established chronology of stylistic development can be used as a basis on which to compare, re-evaluate, and re-date inscriptions without known provenance or certain date or other texts, which still await discovery. Furthermore, palaeography can help in the decipherment of a manuscript and it can give information on handwritings and the provenance of a document.

 

Pictograms or Pseudo-Script? Non-Textual Identity Marks in Practical Use in Ancient Egypt and Elsewhere edited by B.J.J. Haring and Olaf E. Kaper (Proceedings of a Conference in Leiden, 19-20 December 2006. UITGAVEN - EGYPTOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS: Peeters Publishers) Marking systems such as masons marks, property marks, pot marks, quarry marks and team marks confront us with the large variation in the use of graphic signs. They are often similar to writing, yet they are not script in the strictest sense of the word. The practical purposes of marks include claims to property and responsibilities, both individual and collective, for which regular scripts are also used. he marking systems are seen to operate in combination with writing, but frequently also in isolation. In societies that use writing, the marks appear to be strongly influenced by it: their shapes are often identical and they may be similarly arranged in lines or columns. In this sense the marking systems may be called a pseudo script, for in spite of their resemblance to writing, the signs remain mere pictograms. This volume brings together for the first time the results of research on practical marking systems in ancient Egypt and other cultures, making it possible to define the common characteristics of their appearance and their uses. It is the result of a conference hosted by the Egyptology Department at Leiden University in 2006. The great geographical and chronological range covered by the volume, the sign corpora added to many of the contributions, and the indices also make it the first important reference work on this intriguing topic.

Excerpt: The development of the earliest writing systems in ancient societies has been explained as the rationalisation of visual information, as an ongoing process of organization and Entzauberung of graphic representations.' This development led to the combinations of ideographic and phonetic writing in Meso-America, China and — for the earliest evidence — the Ancient Near East. In the latter region, further developments resulted in the creation of the alphabet, the 'ultimate' rational writing system still current in the modern world. To the modern reader, alphabetic characters have practically no graphic function other than their distinctiveness as conveyors of phonetic information, together forming a visual encoding of language.

Yet writing did not supplant the systematic use of other graphic representations. The societies that used writing, to any degree of Entzauberung, have continued to use graphic signs which have no direct phonetic equivalence. Examples of such signs are the seal emblems and potmarks of antiquity, and also the pictograms used on modern traffic signs on roads and in public buildings, to name just a few of their practical applications. Recurrent signs in art, and in religious and ideological symbolism, are examples of the need for graphic, rather than textual representations for cultural purposes.

The aim of the colloquium 'Pictograms or Pseudo Script?' was to bring together specialists who were working, or had been working, on the uses of graphic signs for practical purposes (mainly to identify individuals or groups of individuals) which cannot be classified as 'writing' (i.e. phonetic or ideographic rendering of language). Mason's marks, pot marks, quarry marks, team marks, and seal impressions (to name just a few categories) convey information about producers, owners, duties and responsibilities in a non-textual or non-linguistic way. Yet the individual signs often appear to be related to, or even identical with, the characters of writing systems used by the same communities at the same time. There have been incidental publications on the different categories of this material, but the aim of the colloquium was to attempt for the first time to find the common ground. Questions addressed were, among others: what was the purpose of identity marks, and how did they serve that purpose? Who used them, and who were meant to see them? What relation, if any, do they have with writing?

Since the initiative towards the symposium had been taken by Egyptologists from Leiden and Berlin, who had been confronted with non-textual graphic signs in their research, the focus was on Ancient Egypt and its immediate neighbours: Canaanites, Nubians and Greeks.2 For comparative purposes, however, a paper on comparable systems in Europe was included; more precisely, on medieval mason's marks and house marks in the Netherlands.3 The period of Egyptian history covered runs from the Old Kingdom (Fourth Dynasty) to the early Roman Period, that is, from the twenty-sixth century BC to the second century AD. The discussion of Sudanese (i.e. Meroitic) marks further extends this period to the fifth century AD. This means that, even if we exclude the medieval mason's marks, the marking systems discussed still represent samples from a period of no less than three millennia. Bearing this in mind, the reader will be struck by the persistence of the use of marks for practical and other purposes. Indeed, the practice appears to be at least as persistent as the use of writing, from its first appearance to modern times. It was available to non-elite groups such as workmen and soldiers, who did not usually have an ability to write in societies characterised by restricted literacy. At the same time, however, we find these marks in the context of written records, for instance in the hieratic ostraca of New Kingdom Egypt and also in medieval contracts from the Netherlands.

These observations lead to the formulation of a first important common aspect of the marking systems discussed in this volume: marks of the same system were often used, in the same period, in different contexts and for different purposes; in other words, marks, like writing, usually represent multi-purpose systems. Thus, for instance, the same marks are found on ostraca, ceramic vessels and stone blocks of the New Kingdom in Western Thebes.4 All marks are the expressions of identity, but on stone blocks they seem to serve as benchmarks and control notes, on pots they refer to their owners, and on ostraca they are used to record the presence of workmen and their supplies. We even find the same marks on a temple pavement, along with names in hieroglyphic writing, probably as votive inscriptions. Another example of marks in a temple context is provided by the inscriptions in the Meroitic temple of Musawwarat es-Sufra.5 The marks encountered here are similar to those scratched on the rocks of the Fourth Nile Cataract and on Meroitic pottery.

Dwelling a little longer on the context and purpose of marks, we may note a second important common characteristic: their availability to non-literate and semi-literate parts of the population. Whereas writing was normally restricted to a tiny percentage of the population of ancient societies at the most, marks would have been used and understood by those who had not mastered writing. This becomes clear already from the fact that the marks usually appear alone, without any accompanying text. The marks, individually or in groups, therefore must have been autonomous carriers of information. Even combinations of marks with numbers or calendar dates (such as the journal ostraca of Twentieth Dynasty Thebes, or the assembly marks in medieval architecture) represent systems that could be mastered by those who could not read or write real texts. On occasion, however, marks could be incorporated in written documents. The adoption of marks by the Egyptian scribes is shown on ostraca where the marks are combined with hieratic text, as well as by the unmistakable hieratic ductus of marks on yet other ostraca.6 Some workmen signed contracts for building activity in sixteenth century Zwolle with their marks because they could not write.' For pre-firing marks on Middle Kingdom pottery, the suggestion can be made that they helped (literate) state administrators to keep track of pottery production and distribution. Whereas marks thus seem to have been understandable to scribes, and even acceptable and binding in written agreements, writing in its turn was not understood by many who used marks. It seems that these marks represent a more universal system than writing.

Turning to the nature of the marks themselves, we may note a third central feature. Most of the marking systems seem to include characters also used in writing, which without any doubt were borrowed from contemporary (or perhaps older) scripts. Marks in Ancient Egypt were often inspired by hieroglyphs. Sometimes a mark actually represents a group of hieroglyphs; it may even be a word or a phrase as it would be written in hieroglyphic orthography. The team marks of the Old and Middle Kingdoms are a case in point.' Here we see an intimate relationship between marking systems and writing, to such an extent that the 'marks' reflect some ability to read and write on the part of workmen or their immediate supervisors. But even in the case of individual marks, the signs often betray the influence of hieroglyphs. Here, literacy and texts may be entirely irrelevant in view of the pictoral and symbolic character of hieroglyphs. The clearest case is represented by signs representing human beings, animals or parts of animals, or objects:' But even popular signs of a more abstract nature occur. The meaning of the sign (for ankh "life" or "to live"), for instance, would have been understandable to many who were unable to write the word "life" or any correct verbal form of "to live" in hieroglyphs or in hieratic. As a symbol it even has significance nowadays to numerous people who never studied hieroglyphs. The meaning they attach to it may not always be the one that the ancient scribes had in mind, but that does not alter the fact that the ankh is still a distinct and meaningful sign, and even a very powerful one."

The same sets of marks, however, include signs that seem to have no connection with writing whatsoever. These signs, if not 'concrete' referents to persons, animals or objects in reality, are usually called 'abstract' or 'geometric', since their shapes are often simple or linear (strokes, curves, or combinations of these), and do not seem to represent anything concrete. The frequency of such signs (concrete or abstract) without connection with writing constitutes a fourth common characteristic of the systems discussed in this volume. A fifth and last common feature of this class of signs is the universality of abstract or geometric signs, even across cultural borders and throughout time. This is perhaps no surprise with very simple signs like a cross or a mere circle, but it also applies to slightly more complex shapes, like the 'hourglass', which features prominently in New Kingdom Thebes, and is still attested in Thirtieth Dynasty Deir el-Barsha. The swastika appears to have an even larger geographical distribution, as well as a longer history: it is attested in prehistoric Nubian graffiti at the Fourth Cataract, in Old Kingdom graffiti in the Dakhleh Oasis, and still in south Egyptian quarries of the early Roman Period. The reader need not be reminded that it survives to this day. For specific historical reasons, it has been an extremely terrifying symbol in the western world ever since the 1930s, but a totally different meaning is attached to it, for instance, in Buddhist religious iconography. The universal appearance of such signs says something about the human mind as confronted with the need for developing signs that are to be recognised by others, without having recourse to writing. It shows that marking systems are universal, not only in a functional sense, but also morphologically.

The common aspects of the marking systems discussed in this volume can thus be summarized as follows:

1. They are multi-functional: marking systems are used for different purposes, even at the same time and in the same place.
2. They are universal; even more universal than writing in the sense that they are used by illiterate, as well as by literate persons.
3. The inventories include signs also known from writing systems that are used in the same periods, but do not necessarily convey the same information as in writing.
4. The same inventories include many marks unrelated to writing: 'concrete', and `abstract' or 'geometric' signs.
5. Abstract or geometric marks are often universal in time and place.

In order to make comparison between the different sets or systems of marks, or to trace the occurrence of specific signs through different periods and contexts, the editors have thought it useful to include sign corpora with the discussions. Their initial idea was even to combine these, so as to form one single corpus of marking systems that were used in Ancient Egypt and Sudan. Sign corpora were submitted accordingly by most of the authors, most of them without numbering of their own, but all following the same format, which includes the following data: 

	a = source of image
[image]	b = dating of samples
	c = number of samples
	d = technique

It soon became clear, however, that amalgamating these corpora would bring a number of problems, the most important of which was the necessity to develop a universal classification of all the marks. This, despite the universal character of the marks themselves, promised to be a very time consuming matter, and would have delayed the publication of this volume considerably. The attempt was therefore left for a future occasion, which will hopefully present itself in the ongoing research of marking systems. The subject continues to be part, in the near future, of the research programmes of the Egyptology departments of Leiden University and of the Humboldt University in Berlin. The latter university hosted a second conference on marking systems in December 2007,15 the acts of which are due to appear shortly.

Hawara in the Graeco-Roman Period: Life and Death in a Fayum Village by Inge Uytterhoeven  (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta: Peeters) In the 12th Dynasty, Pharaoh Amenemhat III (ca. 1842-1797 BC) built his pyramid at Hawara, a site near the entrance of the Egyptian Fayum oasis. From that time into the Graeco-Roman Period, the pyramid and funerary temple of Hawara, the so-called Labyrinth of the ancient sources, as well as its extended necropolis would attract numerous adherents of the cult for Pramarres, the deified Amenemhat III, and many other visitors. The source material available for the village and necropolis of Hawara covers a period of almost 3000 years, reaching from the 12th Dynasty (ca. 1800 BC) to the Arab Period (10th century AD). Thanks to the many archaeological data, literary texts, inscriptions and papyri, Hawara forms an ideal case study for the interdisciplinary research of an Egyptian site. Taking the sources related to the Graeco-Roman occupation phase of Hawara as a starting point, this monograph offers a picture of life and death in this Fayum village. The part dealing with the living pays attention to the topographical situation of the village, its population, administration, economy and religious life. The second part focuses on the dead who were buried on the site by reconstructing their socio-economic position and provenance.

Hawara at the entrance of the Fayum oasis is the burial place of the 12th Dynasty pharaoh Amenemhat III (ca. 1842-1797 BC). The builder of the Hawara pyramid was identified in 1889 by the English archaeologist W.M.F. Petrie, whose name is inextricably bound up with the site. Like his predecessor Sesostris II (ca. 1897-1878 BC), Amenemhat III contributed to the development of the Fayum by means of large irrigation and drainage works. Deified immediately after his death, the king was worshipped in the Graeco-Roman period under the name Pramarres (pr- 3 M3`.t-R` — pharaoh Marres). At the end of the 17th century C. Sicard identified Hawara as the site of the Egyptian Labyrinth', admired by Greek and Latin authors and according to Herodotus (Historiae 2, 148) even surpassing the Gizeh pyramids. Petrie's predecessors, for instance the French expedition in 1799/1800, K. Lepsius in 1843 and L. Vassali in 1862, were all looking for this mythical construction.

Hawara's greatest fame, however, both among scholars and the general public, is due to the numerous mummy portraits found in the late 19th and the early 20th century in the Roman cemetery north of the pyramid. Although the portrait mummies formed only one or two percent of the thousands of mummies excavated, they led to the assumption that Hawara functioned as the necropolis of the elite of the near-by metropolis Krokodilopolis-Arsinoe. Petrie's portrait finds in 1888 and 1889 resulted in excavations all over the Fayum and made mummy portraits valuable art objects, which were also much sought after by papyrus diggers.

Papyri were indeed also found during Petrie's large-scale excavations. The so-called `Hawara Papyri'2 consisting of 16 literary and 497 documentary texts were all discovered in 1888/1889. Fifteen papyrus fragments from Petrie's campaign in 1910/1911 are only briefly described in his excavation report'. Only for a small number of these texts the find context, mainly funerary, is known. Some of the literary papyri, such as the famous Hawara Iliad papyrus4, found in a tomb under the head of a woman, have received special attention.

Demotists connect Hawara with the `Hawara Undertakers Archives' consisting of 76 Demotic documents with or without Greek docket and 5 Greek texts, which were discovered in 1911 during illegal diggings near the Hawara pyramid. Although these archives have gradually become accessible in the last century through the publication of documents hidden in collections in Egypt, Europe and the United States, the exact relation between the individual texts, their place in the archives and the role of the protagonists and their families are here first submitted to a comprehensive study'.

Papyri and inscriptions are the backbone of our knowledge of the history and development of the Arsinoite nome in Graeco-Roman times. Historians concerned with Egypt must pay attention to Demotic, Greek and Coptic evidence6. During the last decades growing attention has moreover been paid to the systematic archaeological study of the Fayum, both by renewed excavations on individual sites and by regional and intrasite surface surveys'. Although more and more scholars aim at a confrontation between the different types of sources, most studies continue to put the accent on one particular discipline. A new impulse to an 'inter disciplinary' approach of the Fayum villages has been given by D. Rathbone around the mid-nineties.

In 1998 the research project 'Historical Topography of the Fayum in the Graeco-Roman Period', under the direction of W. Clarysse, focussed on an interdisciplinary study of the Fayum under Ptolemaic and Roman domination. It aimed at a better knowledge of the Graeco-Roman villages in the Fayum and their evolution until the Arab period by combining Greek and Demotic papyri with inscriptions, as well as literary and archaeological evidence. Beside information on the toponomy and the specific topographical situation of the villages, all aspects of human life, such as administration, economy, religion and population, were treated. The first results of this research are available online.

Within the framework of this interdisciplinary study of the settlement history of the Graeco-Roman Fayum the ancient village Hawara with its necropolis forms an interesting case study. The site and its famous Labyrinth not only took a prominent position in the history of the Fayum for over two millennia, but adequate source material is also available for the entire period of our interest. In the present study the rich data offered by Greek and Demotic papyrology and archaeology are studied as complementary sources alongside the inscriptions and literary texts in order to reach an all-embracing picture of the life and death in the village. Although the Middle Kingdom, the first 'Golden Age' of Hawara, and the later Pharaonic history are not part of our subject, they have been taken into account whenever they have some impact in the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. Similarly, Byzantine attestations, which fall outside our time limits, form a substantial part of the history of the site. The Byzantine time is characterised by fundamental changes, in particular in the burial customs. The occupation of Hawara can be followed until the Arab period.

In an introductory chapter the general topography of the Fayum and the `strategic' location of Hawara at the entrance of this semi-oasis are sketched. The ancient Egyptian village name Hw.t-wr.t was transcribed in Greek as Aunpis; and lives further in the modern Arabic place name Hawara el-Maqta.

On the basis of a complete collection of sources (Part 1), we have attempted to reconstruct life and death of the village over a millennium(Part 2).

In the first part all information on Hawara in the Ptolemaic and Roman period is gathered, the archaeological data as well as the written sources, literary, epigraphical and papyrological, both Demotic and Greek.

The history of the archaeological research presents the excavators, their working methodology and field results. In an excursion the mummy masks and portraits of Hawara, which form the best-known and most studied category of archaeological objects of the site, are touched upon. The main component of this section, however, is the archaeological survey carried out on the site of Hawara in March 2000. Our method and results are placed against the background of survey work in the Mediterranean in general and in Egypt and the Fayum in particular. An overview of the pottery of Hawara studied during the Hawara 2000 Survey is found in the 'Pottery Appendix' by Sylvie Marchand. On the basis of our survey results, earlier excavation reports, museum inventories consulted in London (Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology11), Berlin (Agyptisches Museum), Cairo (Egyptian Museum) and Cambridge (Fitzwilliam Museum) and modern publications dealing with Hawara material we reconstructed ninety grave contexts by relating individual tombs, mummies and grave gifts with each other and placing them in their original context. We also consulted Petrie's handwritten notebooks available on CD-Rom, but did not have access to his private letters to family and friends preserved at Oxford, which might have added information on the context of some finds.

Hawara occurs already in Egyptian texts of the Pharaonic Period, such as the 'Book of the Fayum', in which it is described as the 'Land of the Pyramid'. For Graeco-Roman Hawara papyri are, alongside the Greek and Latin authors and inscriptions, by far the most important written sources. For the more than eighty Demotic-Greek texts of the Hawara Undertakers Archives new readings and dating enhanced our under standing of the composition of the archives. Another, late Roman/ Byzantine archive consisted of three Greek contracts of the Melitian monk Eulogios, who converted to orthodoxy. Besides, Petrie found at least 507 stray documents on the site. Both the published and the unpublished P.Hawara were studied with the help of W. Clarysse during two visits to University College London in January and April 2002. Documents attesting Hawara and the Labyrinth were retraced with the help of the Duke Data Base of Greek Papyri.

The second part offers a comprehensive picture of life and death in Hawara. An introductory chapter discusses the problematic relationship between the written sources and their link with the archaeological site of Hawara. It is extremely difficult to identify mud brick structures on the field as tombs or houses, solely on the basis of the surface material.

In the chapter dedicated to the living, the displacements of the village with its mud brick houses are followed during the Graeco-Roman period. The Byzantine church, the surface ceramics and the 6th century Eulogios archive attest that Hawara remained occupied also after the Roman period. After a brief section on administration, we meet the inhabitants of Hawara. Thanks to the Demotic-Greek family archives three population groups are known for the Ptolemaic period: necropolis and temple personnel, notaries and witnesses. These archives can be subdivided in smaller units of texts centred on four families of undertakers. We have paid attention to the family relations and socio-economic status of these protagonists. It is not always clear whether the notaries and witnesses lived and worked at Hawara or in the metropolis. Only one monographos was certainly active at Hawara. The witnesses of the texts from his hand were probably Hawara villagers. The religious life at Hawara is illustrated by the cults of Pramarres and the crocodile god Souchos and by anthroponomy.

The second chapter, devoted to the Hawara dead, offers a typology of the tombs, mummies and grave gifts on the basis of — often insufficient — excavation reports, by linking all these aspects and comparing them with other Graeco-Roman cemeteries. Subsequently, the issue of the identity of the persons behind the mummies is at the centre. Hawara was a cemetery for both Greeks and Egyptians. But was the cemetery solely meant for the elite or for people of all walks of life? Did it function as a local cemetery or did it attract persons from all over the Fayum and even from other nomes? We end with the issue to what extent the portraits were faithful copies of the dead they represented, and with some case studies of well-preserved Hawara mummies, which have recently been the subject of anthropological research by means of X-ray and C.A.T-scanning.

The Fayum is a semi-oasis of about 1,800 square km, located west of the Nile valley, at some 90 kilometres SW of the Egyptian capital Cairo. Currently, the irrigable area of the Fayum consists of some 1.350 square km, whereas the Fayum Lake (Birket Qarun) in the north-west covers about 245 square km (Ill. 1). This lake is only a small remnant of an originally much larger one that covered most of the depression, and has via the Egyptian and Coptic Pa -join (`the sea', 'the lake') given its name to the entire Fayum basin21. Between Illahun (ancient Ptolemais Hormou) at the Fayum entrance and the Fayum Lake the absolute level gradually diminishes in three terraces22 from about 25m above sea level to about 45m under sea level'. The site of Hawara, 2km north of modern Hawara el-Maqta, is situated on the highest terrace at the entrance of the Fayum. This terrace of 10km (W-E) on 15 km (N-S) embraces the area between Hawara and the governate capital Medinet el-Fayum, which is located circa 12km further to the north-west. Moreover, Hawara is located at the end of the so-called Illahun-Hawara gap, which has a length of 8.5km and is maximum 4km wide. Through this gap the Bahr Yussuf, a natural branch of the Nile, which forms the only connection between the Fayum and the Nile Valley, enters the oasis24. Since Prehistoric times the variations in the water inflow through the Illahun-Hawara gap have defined the level of the Fayum Lake25 and, consequently, also the extent of land available for cultivation. Whereas in the Old Kingdom only the higher areas could be used for settlements26, artificial irrigation and drainage works in the Middle Kingdom, intending to control and diminish the inflow of the water coming from the Nile Valley, led to the extension of the inhabitable land. The choice of the 12th Dynasty pharaohs Sesostris II (ca. 1897-1878 BC) and Amenemhat III (ca. 1842-1797)28 to be buried respectively at the beginning (Illahun) and the end (Hawara — Ill. 1) of the crucial entrance gap obviously symbolised their prominent role in the fertilization process of the Fayum.

Later important irrigation works in the Fayum were carried out by the Ptolemies. In particular, Ptolemy II Philadelphos (285-246 BC) organized a large-scale irrigation and reclamation program in the oasis. The new lands claimed in this way were assigned to Greek veterans, who lived in already existing villages or in newly founded centres29. Alongside the archaeological remains of water works near the Fayum entrance, the papyri attest a multiple sluice at Ptolemais Hormou, while a triple water division system was located at the end of the Hawara-Illahun gap. As a result of these interventions, the Ptolemaic time marked a new flourishing period in the settlement history of the Fayum.

The Egyptian name Hw.t-wr.t was rendered in Greek as `Aunpis. Thanks to Demotic-Greek bilinguals the Demotic and Greek name of the village can with certainty be identified (e.g. Hawara Lüdd. III — 233 BC; P.Ashm. I 14 and 15 — 72/71 BC; P.Ashm. I 16 — 69/68 BC). The rendering of Demotic Hw.t into Greek Cc occurs also in other place names. Thus Hw.t-(t3)-hrj-ib corresponds with Athpobis. Although the un-aspirated form 'Aunpis is generally accepted, the name was pronounced with an aspiration in ancient times, as is shown by the (2nd half of the 1st century AD)'.

The Demotic Hw.t-wr.t, which means 'the large building', clearly indicated the Labyrinth, the funerary temple of Amenemhat south of the Hawara pyramid. This is proved by the correspondence of the Demotic place name with in the Greek dockets of some Demotic documents (P.Hawara Chic. 7a-c — 245 BC; P.Hawara Lüdd. II — 235 BC). The original name for the temple had thus developed into a village name.

The ancient Demotic and Greek names live on in the Arabic place name Hawara. Since the beginning of the Arab period the name of the village has changed several times. In the Mamluk registers the village is mentioned as Hawara el-Bahriya37, whereas also the name Hawara el-Burg is known. The present name Hawara el-Maqta (`Hawara (of) the quarry') refers to the plundering of the stone construction of the Labyrinth near the modem village. In this way the ancient place name has continued up to present days in a meaningful Arabic name.

Haueris in the Arsinoite nome should not be confused with the homonymous village in the Herakleopolite nome, which can perhaps be identified with Hawara Adlan along the Bahr Yussuf, 9km south-east of Hawara el-Maqta. This place name probably also refers to the ancient Labyrinth.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt edited by Donald B. Redford (Oxford University Press) A comprehensive, authoritative reference source which brings together centuries of scholarship and the latest research on every aspect of Egyptian life. Featuring 600 original articles written by leading scholars The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt goes far beyond the records of archaeology to make available what we know about the full social, political, religious, cultural and artistic legacy of this 5,000 year civilization. Of special interest is the Encyclopedia's coverage of themes and issues that are particularly controversial--such as new theories of the origins of complex society in the Nile Valley, new findings from the Nile Delta, new discoveries about Greco-Roman Egypt, and new developments in literature, religion, linguistics and other fields, including the debates about Egypt's African legacy. Because of its scope, depth, authority, and its design for the widest possible access, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt serves a remarkable variety of readers--students, teachers, and scholars in fields ranging from Near East archeology and classics to ancient art, architecture, history, language and religion, as well as general readers fascinated by a world that remains-even today-incompletely mapped.

From Preface: provides students, scholars, and the merely curious with the latest information on the civilization that developed and flourished in the Nile Valley. It presents the prehistoric, predynastic, and dynastic phases of that civilization within the context of its contiguous and sometimes conquering neighbors, tracing its history through the Islamic conquest of 642 CE‑although the focus is on dynastic Egypt and its cultural complexity.

Although modern Egyptology originally grew out of the Enlightenment's em­phasis on rational and systematic methodologies, it was not until well into the twentieth century that the field developed into a mature multidisciplinary en­deavor that combined both a number of the humanities and social sciences with scientific archaeology. Before this maturation, any investigations termed "archae­ological" frequently turned out to be fiercely nationalistic, rough‑and‑ready trea­sure hunts on a grand scale. In fact, many early Egyptologists were judged by the number of objects they had discovered, and frequently the first and most impor­tant task of the researcher was assumed to be the sketching, listing, and describ­ing of sculpture, painting, and architecture, as well as the deciphering of inscrip­tions. Not a few early "Histories" of ancient Egypt are actually little more than catalogs of objets dart, coupled with paraphrases of textual sources, as, for ex­ample, A. Wiedemann's, Agyptische Geschichte (1884) or W M. Flinders Petrie's A History of Egypt (1898).

In the twentieth century, particularly after World War 11, students of ancient Egypt began to realize that the application of new testing techniques, such as neutron activation, thermoluminescence, and accelerated radiocarbon (C‑14) dating, could potentially resolve many perennial questions in the field; that tightly controlled stratigraphic archaeology and artifactual seriation were en­tirely possible and desirable; and that survey and remote‑sensing strategies brought valuable scholarly dividends. Archaeologists and anthropologists with science‑oriented experience in Europe or the Americas have since become deeply involved in Egyptological research. Although purists have sometimes sought to exclude these non‑Egyptologists from active research, their expert contributions are clearly of great value.

Yet archaeology has supplied only the most visible scientific tools that aid in the systematic recovery of ancient Egypt. An interdisciplinary approach that in­cludes historical, literary, and religious studies has increasingly engaged the field with provocative questions and possible answers, while many other scholarly en­deavors have emerged against a backdrop of political science, economic history, and sociology. For example, scholars have applied literary theory to ancient Egyptian texts, and the study of myth and cult is being used to place ancient Egyptian belief systems under close and valuable scrutiny. While the hieroglyphic script has been deciphered for nearly two centuries, studies in Egyptian language have labored under the handicaps of lack of vocalization, haphazard preservation, and traditional linguistic analysis. Since the 1960s, however, modern linguists have wrought a revolution in our knowledge and appreciation of the ancient Egyptian language.

Even as our scholarly tools have been honed and improved in the twentieth century, the pace of data recovery has accelerated. The 1980s and 1990s have produced significant discoveries at nearly every site in Egypt, and scholarly publications have found it hard to keep pace with this flood of new discoveries. Such reports in periodicals glossed by the terms "Notes and News," "News in Brief," "Prosopographica," and "Nuntii" help, to a limited degree, to convey discoveries quickly to scholar and layman alike, but they cannot present a detailed statement on Egyptology and where it stands at present.

Side-by-side with the advances of a more scientific Egyptology and the continuing flood of new discoveries, a plethora of various "Egyptomanias" in the second half of the twentieth century have both heightened and misled the general public's interest in ancient Egypt. While some of these popular expressions may be intriguing to some, the vast majority of enthusiasts display a wholesale ignorance of the academic disciplines involved in Egyptology, as well as a profound lack of familiarity with the vast array of evidence that scholars take for granted. The result is a widespread image of ancient Egypt in the popular imagination that is seriously flawed and at variance with the current understanding of the field.

With this gap in mind, Oxford University Press decided in 1994 to develop and publish an encyclopedic work on ancient Egypt that would describe in detail where Egyptology stands, as a whole, at the turn of the millennium. The encyclopedia would differ from others by the extent of its illustrations, including plans and maps, and by the extensive annotated bibliographies appended to each signed entry. A most important feature informing the whole would be the comprehensive treatment afforded to all branches of research subsumed under the rubric of Egyptology: archaeology, anthropology, architecture, linguistics, literary studies, epigraphy, papyrology history, art history, religion, economics, ecology, geomorphology and the life sciences. Experts in each field were recruited to contribute up‑to‑date and authoritative entries on the topics of their expertise. While word limits were assigned to all entries, contributors were left free to expand or reduce their pieces within reasonable parameters. In the case of particularly broad or important subjects, as, for example, "Administration," "New Kingdom," and "Sculpture," composite entries bring together several articles, treating the most important aspects of those topics.

In some periods of Egyptian history, debate continues to rage over such basic issues as order of kings, chronology, and the extent and nature of regimes. Nothing is more detrimental to the pedagogic mission of a work such as this than to have the reader deceived into thinking that one view is paramount, or that debate does not exist. Consequently, in such problem areas as the Second Intermediate Period and the Hyksos rule or the chronological and spatial distribution of political power in the Third Intermediate Period, the editors have welcomed the expression of all views, however discordant, while requesting that contributors observe a common chronology for the sake of editorial uniformity (see the king list which, along with a map of Egypt and its neighbors, is printed on the endpapers of each volume). Also, a certain degree of redundancy has been tolerated to provide readers with ease of access to information. This will be detected, for example, in the treatment of such linked themes as "Myths," "Tombs," and "Funerary Literature." A consistent and intended reduplication of information appears as well in entries on the dynasties, in which the regime is viewed as a whole, and in the entries for individual reigns within a dynasty, in which some of the same material may be treated again.

Although a comprehensive approach has been the primary aim of the project, it may appear to the specialist that gaps occur in the entry terms. The editorial staff has presented the most significant names and terms, reasoning that the inclusion of a greater number would transform the work into a dictionnaire geographique or a prosopographica. Most, if not all, of the seemingly "missing" content has been intentionally subsumed into larger articles and is listed, as appropriate, in a blind entry and/or in the topical index of the final volume. Also a synoptic outline of contents has been included there to help lead readers through related and pertinent concepts.

Transliteration and Chronology

Several of the conventions that inform the encyclopedia are deliberate choices for which no apology can or will be offered. The transcription and vocalization of Egyptian words follow a long‑established pattern that is neither dependent on contemporary vocalization (almost wholly of hypothetical reconstruction) or the classical forms in Greek. Transliteration adheres to Alan H. Gardiner's system as conveyed in his Egyptian Grammar (originally published in 1927; 3d ed., 1957), except where the vocalized form of a word has become common English (as with ba, ka, maat, and the names of people, places, or things).

In selecting an absolute chronology, the editors entered a world of uncertainty and acrimonious debate. At one time, the prospect appeared bright that a critical evaluation of king lists and offering lists, coupled with the results of accelerated radiocarbon testing, would solve the problem once and for all; such hopes are now apparently illusory. The late John Wilson, introducing a lecture on the Armana Age, once declared, "I have before me all the current chronologies suggested for this period, and I don't believe any of them." While the same could be said today with equal skepticism, it would ill serve the pedagogic and synthetic overview purposes of the present work to allow each contributor to decide on his or her own schema. An editorial decision has therefore been made to select one of the current chronological schemes circulating in the scholarly world, modifying it appropriately where new evidence has become available (e.g., the length of such reigns as those of Sneferu, Raneferef, Horemheb, Ramesses VII and VIII, and Shabtaqa, to name but a few). In terms of the "High," "Middle," and "Low" dating options confronting Egyptologists in the New Kingdom, the chronology presented would be classed as "High"; for earlier periods, it falls into line, for the most part, with the currently promoted chronologies of Nicolas Grimal and Rirgen von Beckerath.

From entry: Egyptology: Ancient Egypt has continued to figure prominently in the symbolism and teachings of secret societies and mystical orders of initiates such as the Masons, the Rosicrucians, the Golden Dawn, and the orders initiated by Aleister Crowley; it also looms large in the lore of groups devoted to esoteric studies, such as the Theosophical Society. On one level, this is a continuation of Renaissance Hermeticism and its further Enlightenment developments. The Rosicrucians consider Akhenaten a founder of their tradition and maintain an Egyptian Museum in California; the Egyptologist Max Guilmot is a member of the Order and has written a rather devotional pamphlet on initiation in ancient Egypt as well as purely academic Egyptological publications. The monuments at Giza, especially the Great Pyramid and Great Sphinx, have been the focus of much Egyptosophical attention. Of the many claims made for numerological and prophetic interpretations of the Great Pyramid, the most celebrated have been those of Charles Piazzi Smyth, Astronomer Royal of Scotland, whose claims Petrie first went to Egypt to test. The American trance clairvoyant Edgar Cayce gave a number of "readings" on the history of the Giza monuments and a "hall of records" under the Sphinx; the foundation administered by his descendants has lavishly subsidized archaeology at Giza. Peter Tompkins and Livio Stecchini have revived the numerological approach to Great Pyramid measurements with a focus on correspondences with the measurements of the planet Earth. The mathematician and modern‑day Hermetic philosopher R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz, along with his wife Isha, his stepdaughter Lucie Lamy, and the Egyptologist Alexandre Varille, propounded what became known as the "symbolist" approach to ancient Egypt. Schwaller spent years taking meticulous measurements of the Luxor Temple and its decoration; he interpreted it as an allegorical mapping of the human being as microcosm progressing

through different stages of development, in accordance with an intricate numerical system. He expounded this in Le temple de 1 homme (The Temple of Man 1957/1998) and many other works; the major advocate and popularizer of Schwaller's work today is John Anthony West, During the 1990s a major controversy has erupted over a geological examination of the Great Sphinx by Robert Schoch and Thomas Dobecki, who went to Egypt at West's invitation and published findings indicating that the Sphinx amphitheater and body are heavily eroded by precipitation and hence millennia older than generally recognized. Another geologist, David Coxhill, has recently concurred in this assessment, which has been dismissed by most Egyptologists. At least as controversial has been the related proposal by Egyptian‑born Belgian engineer Robert Bauval that the Giza pyramids map the stars in Orion's belt. As part of the "New Age" pursuit of global spirituality and self‑improvement, there are some who follow a highly personal vision of ancient Egyptian religion as a spiritual path. Indeed, the Egyptian religion has devoted adherents totally outside of the "New Age" community, Omm Sety having been one of them.

As John Baines has noted in a penetrating article on "restricted knowledge, hierarchy and decorum" in ancient Egypt and Egyptology, the scholarly understanding of ancient Egypt's religion has shifted to a strong consideration, and in some cases general acceptance, of features that several decades ago were the sole domain of the Egyptosophist. It can be debated how much of this is due to the Egyptosophists, but in any case it provides common ground for discussion.

Fieldwork (often with improved methodology and technology), new data, interdisciplinary cross‑fertilization, and shifting and deepening theoretical perspectives have been converging to focus on a number of themes and frontiers in current Egyptology. One important frontier is the emergence of the Egyptian state, illuminated especially by discoveries at Hierakonpolis and Abydos; in the same breath one can perhaps mention the Neolithic "megalithic" site at Nabta Playa. [See Astronomy.] The focus on the late periods has continued along with fieldwork in the Delta and Sinai, and the remarkable underwater discoveries in Ptolemaic Alexandria, which have sparked a media outpouring on Cleopatra. Foreign relations have been highlighted by discoveries in southern Israel and the Nile Delta, including the Aegean frescoes at Tell ed‑Dab'a, and by textual studies, and they have been the subject of scholarly syntheses such as Donald Redford's Egypt, Canaan and Israel in Ancient Times (1992). The understanding of Egypt under the Persians, Ptolemies, and Romans as a "multicultural society" has arisen in the context of the debate on "multiculturalism" in American education and society. In the realm of language and writing, grammarians have been engaged in a reassessment and sometimes attempted supersession of Polotsky's "Standard Theory," while scholars of writing systems have been focusing increasingly on the semiotic and esthetic aspects of the Egyptian scripts. Dynasty "0" discoveries at Abydos have raised the possibility that Egyptian writing may have been the earliest, after all. Thanks partly to the work of Foster and the inclusion of Egyptian selections in the Norton Anthology of World Literature and other standard educational resources, ancient Egyptian literature is more widely appreciated and has begun to enter the "canon." The interpretation of Egyptian literature and art have begun to reflect the poststructuralist school of criticism. In the study of Egyptian religion, "mysteries" (s9t3, §t3) and "initiation" (bsi) are now well accepted, and some scholars entertain the possibility that mortuary text materials had a this‑worldly application or ritual performance (a proposal first made by Walter Federn for the "Transformation Spells"). Recognition of the existence of ancient Egyptian mysticism has moved from the fringe to the mainstream, and comparisons with South and East Asian materials have been presented in scholarly literature. The word "philosophy" is now applied to Egyptian thought (J. P Allen, M. Bilolo). More fundamentally, the seriousness and sophistication of Egyptian spirituality, theology, and cosmology are widely discussed. The expansion of public interest and of amateur Egyptology is shown by the rise of organizations such as the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities, local chapters of ARCE (American Research Center in Egypt), and kindred groups in Britain, Australia, Spain, Japan, and elsewhere, and by the emergence of publications such as KMT.. A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt.

Should this survey then end on a note of ebullient optimism, a vision of Egyptology advancing from strength to strength? Alas, that would be naive and Pollyana‑ish. What can euphemistically be termed retrenching or downsizing in institutions of higher learning has converged with the reassessment of priorities away from humanities and in favor of "professional" and commercially oriented programs. This syndrome has resulted in a shrinkage of the academic Egyptological establishment, a paucity of positions, a decrease in job security for the positions that exist, the merger and abolition of departments, and the failure to fill positions of retirees. The very restricted job market is a disincentive to enrollment in Egyptological and cognate degree programs, as is the decrease in the size and breadth of faculties. More and more Egyptologists are working in other fields. Are we looking at the prospect of Egyptology in the twenty‑first century making a full circle to the nineteenth century, once more becoming a largely amateur field, many of whose practitioners will need to pursue it as a hobby? Will this tend to restrict

substantive involvement in Egyptology to the wealthy? Will the critical mass of Egyptology, and some other fields as well, need to survive outside the university? If the universities had to preserve human knowledge in the face of some global threat, would they any longer be able to do so?

Can we affirm of Egyptology what Stephen Vincent Benet's Daniel Webster demands that visitors to his grave say of the Union‑that she "stands as she stood, rockbottomed and copper‑sheathed"? We would certainly like to think so. Time will tell.

SYNOPTIC OUTLINE OF CONTENTS provides a general view of the conceptual scheme of the encyclopedia. Entries are arranged in the conceptual categories listed below.

Egyptology

PERCEPTIONS AND LEGACIES OF ANCIENT EGYPT: Afrocentrism Allegory Biblical Tradition Egyptomania Islam and Ancient Egypt Wisdom Tradition

HISTORY OF THE FIELD: Archaeological and Research  Institutions Archaeology Educational Institutions

Egyptology Epigraphy Interpretation of Evidence Journals Museums Reference Works

BIOGRAPHIES: Carter, Howard Champollion, Jean‑Franqois Lepsius, Richard Petrie, William Matthew Flinders 

Land and Resources

OVERVIEWS: Desert Environments Fauna Flora Geography Lakes Land and Soil Minerals Natural Resources Nile People Quarries and Mines Race

HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY: Eastern Desert and Red Sea Lower Egypt Middle Egypt Sinai Upper Egypt Western Desert

RESOURCES: Minerals and Metals Bronze Calcite Copper Diorite and Related Rocks Gems Glass Gold Granite Iron Limestone Quartzite Sandstone Silver Flora and Fauna Amphibians and Reptiles Bees and Honey Birds Canines Cattle Crocodiles Elephants Equines Felines Fish Flowers Frogs Fruits Giraffes Hares Hedgehogs Hippopotami Ichneumon Insects Ivory Lotus Monkeys and Baboons Papyrus Pigs Poultry Rhinoceroses Scarabs Scorpions Sheep and Goats Snakes Vegetables Zoological Gardens

Archaeological Sites

OVERVIEWS: Archaeology Epigraphy

LOWER EGYPTIAN SITES: Abu Ghurob Abu Rowash Abusir Alexandria Behbeit el‑Hagar Bubastis Buto Dab'a, Tell ed‑Giza Heliopolis Memphis Mendes Piramesse Pithom Sais Saqqara Tanis Yahudiyya, Tell el

MIDDLE EGYPTIAN SITES: Amarna, Tell elAsyut Beni Hasan Bersheh Dahshur Faiyum Herakleopolis Hermopolis Illahun Lisht, elMeidum Meir Oxyrhynchus

UPPER EGYPTIAN SITES: Abu Simbel Abydos Akhmim Armant Asasif Aswan Deir el‑Bahri Deir el‑Medina Dendera Dra Abul Naga Edfu Elephantine Elkab Esna Gebelein Hierakonpolis Karnak Khokhah Kom Ombo Luxor Medamud Medinet Habu Mut Precinct Naga ed‑Deir Nag Hammadi Naqada Philae Qurna Theban Necropolis Thebes Tod Valley of the Kings Valley of the Queens

History

HISTORIOGRAPHY: Ancient Historians Annals Biographies Calendars Chronology and Periodization Herodotos Historical Sources Archaeological and Artistic  Evidence  Textual Evidence Historiography King Lists Manetho Time

HISTORICAL PERIODS: Copts Early Dynastic Period Exodus Fifteenth Dynasty First Intermediate Period Late Period  An Overview  Twenty‑sixth Dynasty  Thirtieth Dynasty Thirty‑first Dynasty Middle Kingdom New Kingdom  An Overview  Eighteenth Dynasty to the Amarna  Period Amarna Period and the End of the  Eighteenth Dynasty  Nineteenth Dynasty  Twentieth Dynasty Old Kingdom  An Overview  Third Dynasty  Fourth Dynasty  Fifth Dynasty  Sixth Dynasty Predynastic Period Ptolemaic Period Roman Occupation Second Intermediate Period Seventeenth Dynasty Third Intermediate Period Thirteenth Dynasty Twelfth Dynasty Twenty‑fifth Dynasty

HISTORICAL FIGURES: Ahmose Ahmose‑Nefertari Akhenaten Alexander Amasis Amenemhat of Beni Hasan Amenemhet I Amenemhet III Amenhotep, Son of Hapu Amenhotpe I Amenhotpe II Amenhotpe III Ankhtifi of Mo'alla Apries Ay Bakenrenef Cleopatra VII Harwa Hatshepsut Herihor Hordjedef Horemheb Horkhuf Ikhernofret Imhotep Joseph Kamose Khaemwaset Khafre Khasekhemwy Khnumhotep II of Beni Hasan Khufu

Kiya Menes Menkaure Merenptah Mereruka Merikare Merneith Montuemhet Montuhotep I, Nebhepetre Moses Narmer Necho I Necho II Nefertiti Neithhotep Nektanebo Osorkon Pepinakht Heqaib Pepy I Pepy 1I Petamenophis Petosiris Petuabastis Piya Plutarch Psamtik I Ramesses I Ramesses II Ramesses III Ramesses IV Ramesses VI Ramesses IX Ramesses XI Rekhmire Senenmut Sennedjem Senwosret I Senwosret III Sety I Sety II Shabaqa Shenoute SheshonqI Shuppiluliumas Sneferu Sobekneferu Somtutefnakht Taharqa Teti Thutmose I Thutmose III Thutmose IV Tiye Tutankhamun Wedjahorresne Weni

 The State and Its Institutions

MONARCHY: Coregency Crowns Harem Insignias Kingship Legitimation Queens Royal Family Royal Roles Titulary

STATE EVOLUTION AND ADMINISTRATION: Administration  State Administration  Provincial Administration  Temple Administration Crime and Punishment Law Military  An Overview  Materiel Officials State Taxation Foreign Relations

OVERVIEWS: Foreign Incursions Imperialism

SYRIA‑PALESTINE: Byblos Canaan Gaza Hyksos Israel Jerusalem Joppa Kadesh Lebanon Megiddo Syria‑Palestine Ugarit

MESOPOTAMIA: Mesopotamia Mitanni

PERSIA: Achaemenids Persia

MEDITERRANEAN AREA: Crete Cyprus Hittites Mediterranean Area Mycenae Nubia

NUBIA: A‑Group Aniba C‑Group Kawa Kenna Kush Meroe Napata Pan‑Grave People Punt X‑Group

OTHER: Libya Sea Peoples

Economy

GENERAL ESSAYS: Coinage Economy  An Overview  Royal Sector  Private Sector  Temple Economy Landholding Prices and Payment Storage Trade and Markets Transportation Wealth Weights and Measures Work Force

SUBSISTENCE TECHNOLOGIES AND OCCUPATIONS: Agriculture Animal Husbandry Basketry, Matting, and Cordage Irrigation Leather Seafaring Ships and Shipbuilding Stoneworking Technology and Engineering Tools Weaving, Looms, and Textiles Woodworking
Society and the Individual: Banquets Beauty Beer Birth Bread Childhood Clothing and Personal Adornment Dance Deformity Dental Care Diet Disease Education Epithets Erotica Ethics and Morality Family Fertility Foreigners Games Gender Roles Hairstyles Humor and Satire Hunting Hygiene Inheritance Intoxication Kinship Marriage and Divorce Milk Music Names Oils and Fats Sexuality Slaves Social Stratification Sports Toiletries and Cosmetics Wine Women

Religion

EVOLUTION, LEVELS, AND STRUCTURES OF BELIEF: Akh Ba Cults  An Overview  Royal Cults  Private Cults  Divine Cults  Animal Cults Deities Demons Divinity Fantastic Animals Fate Hell Ka Magic  An Overview  Magic in Medicine  Magic in Daily Life  Magic in the Afterlife Monotheism Mvths  An Overview  Creation Myths  Osiris Cycle  Solar Cycle  Lunar Cycle Oracles Paradise Piety Priesthood Religion Shadow

SPECIFIC DEITIES: Amun and Amun‑Re Anubis Aten Atum Bes Bull Gods Feline Deities Four Sons of Horus Geb Hathor Horus Isis Kamutef Khnum Khonsu Maat Min Montu Mut Nefertum Neith Nephthys Nun Nut Osiris Ptah Re and ReHorakhty Seth Shu Sobek Sokar Taweret Tefnut Thoth Wepwawet

BURIAL AND AFTERLIFE: Afterlife Burial Practices Canopic Jars and Chests Coffins, Sarcophagi, and Cartonnages Curses Funerary Cones Funerary Figurines Judgment of the Dead Ka‑Chapel Masks Models Mummification Necropolis Offerings  An Overview  Offering Formulas and Lists  Offering Tables Taboo Tombs  An Overview  Royal Tombs  Private Tombs

RITUALS AND FESTIVALS: Drama Festival Calendars Festivals Funerary Ritual Opening of the Mouth Sacred Barks

SYMBOLS AND AMULETS: Amulets Color Symbolism Symbols Arts and Sciences

ARTS AND ARTIFACTS: Archaism Art Artists and Artisans Bronze Statuettes Canopic Jars and Chests Ceramics Ceremonial Mace Heads Coffins, Sarcophagi, and Cartonnages Faience Funerary Figurines Furniture Gesture Grid Systems Jewelry Masks Mirrors Ostraka Painting Palettes Portraiture Relief Sculpture Reserve Heads Royal Tomb Painting Sculpture  An Overview  Royal Sculpture  Private Sculpture  Divine Sculpture  Wood Sculpture Seals and Sealings Sistrum Stelae Vessels

ARCHITECTURE: Architecture Bricks and Brick Architecture Cenotaphs Cities False Door Forts and Garrisons Foundation Deposits Gardens Houses Ka‑Chapel Necropolis Obelisk Palaces Pylon Pyramid Sphinx Temples Tombs  An Overview Royal Tombs  Private Tombs

LANGUAGE AND SCRIPTS: Decipherment Epigraphy Grammar  An Overview  Old Egyptian  Middle Egyptian  Late Egyptian  Demotic  Coptic Language Literacy Oral Tradition Rosetta Stone Scribes Scripts  An Overview  Hieroglyphs  Cryptography  Hieratic  Demotic  Coptic Vocabulary

LITERATURE: Administrative Texts Amarna Letters Ankhsheshonqy Battle of Kadesh Book of Going Forth by Day Book of That Which Is in the  Underworld Captions Coffin Texts Contendings of Horus and Seth Coptic Literature Correspondence Demotic Literature Destruction of Mankind Doomed Prince Dream Books Eloquent Peasant Encomia Execration Texts Funerary Literature Graffiti Horoscopes Hymns  Nile Hymns Osiris Hymns Solar Hymns Insinger Papyrus Instruction of Ptahhotep Instructions for Merikare Instructions of a Man for His Son Instructions of Amenemhet Instructions of Amenemope Instructions of Anii Instructions of Hordjedef Instructions of Kagemni Instructions of Khety Ipuwer Kemit Literature Lyric Manichaean Texts Man Who Was Weary of Life Mythological Texts Nag Hammadi Codices and Related Texts Narratives Neferti Onomastica Papyrus Rylands IX Papyrus Westcar Pyramid Texts Ramesses‑Hattusilis Correspondence Setna Khaemwase Cycle Shipwrecked Sailor Sinuhe Taking of Joppa Tomb Robbery Papyri Two Brothers Wenamun Wilbour Papyrus Wisdom Texts

SCIENCE: Astrology Astronomy Cartography Mathematics Medicine Science

Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt by John H. Taylor (University of Chicago Press) Originally commissioned for a collection of funerary material in the British Museum, Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt covers in some detail the Ancient Egyptian mythology and practices of death and the afterlife. The work has numerous pictures of mummies, pyramids, texts and statues that add to the ideas discussed. The book is not meant to be an exhaustive resource on each of the eight topics it discusses, but offers a lot of information for the novice to intermediate Egyptologist. Chapters:

1) Death and Resurrection in Ancient Egyptian Society 2) The Eternal Body: Mummification 3) Provisioning the Dead 4) Funerary Figurines: Servants for the Afterlife 5) The Threshold of Eternity: Tombs, Cemeteries and Mortuary Cults 6) Magic and Ritual for the Dead 7) The Chest of Life: Coffins and Sarcophagi 8) The Burial and Mummification of Animals

Excellent book for one interested in any of the above topics, great information, great pictures and easy to read, but still scholarly in the amount and quality of the information presented.

Hieroglyphics: The Writings of Ancient Egypt by Maria Carmelo Bertro (Abrams) "A hieroglyphic inscription appears chaotic; nothing is in its place; everything is out of proportion; things opposed in nature are in immediate contact and produce monstrous alliances: nevertheless changeable rules, meditated combinations, a calculated and systematic method have undoubtedly guided the hand that drew this picture which seems so disorderly. These characters, so very diversified in their forms are, however, signs that record a regular series of ideas, express a fixed and continuous sense, and thus constitute real writing." (J. F. Champollion, Precis du système hieroglyphique des anciens Egyptiens, II ed. 1828)

Jean François Champollion, the man who deciphered hieroglyphic writing, finally restored its true character with this statement, freeing it of allegory and symbolic apparatus. But he also accurately expressed the discomfort hieroglyphic texts may cause in those who are not accustomed to them.

This illustrated volume contains a global repertory of the culture of the Pharaohs in its notes on the hieroglyphs. The realistic signs of hieroglyphic writing are accompanied by the elegant calligraphy of hieratic and the hard-to-recognize stylizations of demotic, as well as by images drawn from paintings and bas-reliefs. Together, these provide an iconographic inventory of the world of the Nile Valley's ancient inhabitants.

Through the author's rich observations, the signs of "the sacred writing"--phonetic and ideogrammatic, phonograms and determinatives--have gained an undeniable attractiveness. In an ingenious and pleasant new manner, this book re-introduces that arid list which appears at the end of A. H. Gardiner's Egyptian Grammar, well-known to generations of Egyptology students. This new list can now serve as a useful tool for students, as well as for others interested in the culture and life of ancient Egypt.

The attractive anatomy of the hieroglyphic writing will also encourage appreciation of how the ancient Egyptians communicated through their complicated and conservative writing. Not only did they record every aspect of their political, legal, administrative, and religious culture, but also a literature vibrant with every sort of thought, sentiment, meditation, and eternal human aspiration. While this literature is distanced from us by centuries, it is accessible to the modern reader, if only in translation