Edition - December, 2012
Discussion: King Apophis and Hippos?
I’ve been tearing through every book I have, pouring over websites, and I can’t seem to find a satisfactory explaination as to the meaning of King Apophis’ message to Pharaoh Seqenenre, wherein Apophis complains about the noise of the hippos in a canal in east Thebes. It has been suggested that the hippos are metaphorical, […] [more…]
Egyptians – The Inventors of Modern Mathematics?
Published in Egyptological In Brief, November 2012. By Kate Phizackerley Those who know me will be unsurprised that when I reveal I have been intending to write something about Egyptian mathematics for some time. Barbara O’Neill kindly sent me a link to an open learning section on the Open University website, drawing on material prepared […] [more…]
Edition - November, 2012
TV Review of “Find My Past: Tutankhamun”
The two main themes of the show Find My Past: Tutankhamun are the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62), and the curiosity of descendents of three of the individuals who attended the opening of the tomb about their ancestors. [more…]
Site news: Recent Comments Fixed & General Update
There was a problem with the Recent Comments page which is now fixed and once again it should show you the most recent comments left anywhere on Egyptological. We are also working on the next edition of the Magazine but in the meantime we though we would share some traffic figures to show how Egyptological […] [more…]
Review of Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharoahs: A Souvenir Book
Published in Egyptological, In Brief, November 14th 2012. By Kate Phizackerley There is an official companion book to the exhibition and this souvenir book, a small format volume of 64 pages. At 15.5cm by 15.2cm (about 6”) it is oddly not quite square. It is easily available for one penny (or one cent) second hand […] [more…]
Editorial – Journal Edition 6
We prefer to publish both together but Journal articles tend to take a lot of editorial time. When you read the acknowledgements for David Smith’s article you will realise that many, many people beyond Andrea and I have contributed time to help finalise the research. We are very grateful for their assistance. Our first article […] [more…]
Solar Eclipse Events in the New Kingdom Part 2 – Astronomical Analysis
The sun played a central role in the religion and culture of Ancient Egypt. It is therefore surprising that there seems to be no unambiguous mention of solar eclipses in Ancient Egyptian texts. Eclipses would certainly have been experienced by the Ancient Egyptians and records of them would be expected to occur in the religious corpus. [more…]
Part 1 of this paper looked at the source texts and reliefs. Part 2 now sets out the astronomical background and predicts the solar eclipse events that would have occurred during the New Kingdom. These are then correlated with the New Kingdom texts and funerary material to test the hypothesis that these might record actual eclipse events. [more…]
Public Health in Ancient Egypt by Anthony J. Cagle
Abstract. Most studies of health and illness in ancient Egypt concentrate on disease and other maladies affecting individuals and the medical treatments administered to individuals. However, the concept of public health has received comparatively little attention, largely because the practice of public health has been seen as a fairly modern phenomenon tied to purely scientific notions of the sources and causes of illness and disease and their prevention. Nevertheless, even in the absence of a true germ theory of disease, the ancient Egyptians did possess an understanding of the social context in which many disease conditions occurred and took steps to prevent and alleviate certain conditions at a group level. From fairly basic public health practices, such as the removal of trash to peripheral locations, to reasonably sophisticated theories on the origin of disease and the widespread promulgation of preventive practices, ancient Egypt shows that even in pre-scientific complex societies an awareness of the social context of health and disease existed. Egypt and other ancient societies developed strategies to deal with health and wellness on a community and national level and thus are amenable to study using modern public health theory. [more…]
Edition - September, 2012
Publication Date for Edition 6 of Egyptological Journal
We are in the process of finalising Edition 6 of the Egyptological Journal. This time there will be three articles: the second part of Dave Smith’s eclipses article, and papers from two new authors on very different topics. It’s a very high quality edition. There will be some additional material in other sections as well. […] [more…]