Review: Study Day. Ancient Egypt – Myth and History with John Romer
John Romer delivered an ambitious set of lectures that looked at the history of Egyptology, with a view to understanding how ideas about the past first developed in the nineteenth century have influenced how Egyptology is researched and understood today. [more…]
sAb Corpus
The sAb Corpus is a 300+ page compendium of the instances of the various forms of the use of the title sAb or “Justice” [more…]
Review. Bill Manley, Egyptian Hieroglyphs for Complete Beginners. 2012
Bill Manley, well known for the surprising best seller How To Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs that he co-authored with Mark Collier, (generally known simply as “Collier and Manley”) has produced a new book for those who are planning to learn hieroglyphs for the first time. The Preface, as well as the book’s title, makes it clear that Dr Manley is aiming at the complete beginner with this book [more…]
Review: Memphis Under the Pharaohs (Dorothy L Thompson)
I was looking forward to reading the second edition of Memphis Under the Ptolemies by Dorothy Thompson. There is an allure, almost a mystique, to Memphis. I wanted to say I enjoyed the book. Sadly I cannot. It became something of a chore, but one rewarded by a great chapter later in the book. An unexpected treasure. Many other reviewers have considered the book in the context of its standing as an academic work. Most students and scholars are likely to have access to the book through their faculty library. In approaching my own review I have therefore considered it more from the viewpoint of enthusiastic amateurs or distance learning students who do not have access to a specialist library. [more…]
The new Ancient Egypt and Sudan galleries at the Ashmolean, Oxford
The Ashmolean Museum, a neoclassical edifice built by Sir Charles Cockerel in 1845, has invested both money and creativity in a refurbishment of the entire museum and art gallery. The effect, bright and open, a sympathetic blending of old architecture and new design, is inviting and attractive. The Ancient Egypt and Sudan galleries were the last to receive the modernization treatment. Costing over £5 million and designed by Richard Mather, they were re-opened in November 2011. [more…]
Ammit – Mother of the Sphinx?
In the 1st century BC, the pragmatic Roman orator, Cicero (De Natura Deorum 2, 2) felt that in his educated and informed age, “those inventions of the imagination” ought to be put aside. For he enquired: “Who believes that the Hippocentaurus or the Chimaera ever existed”? [more…]
Vernacular Voices: Phopis, A Romano-Egyptian
In the transition to Late Antiquity, an undercurrent of vernacular culture across the Roman Empire was beginning to reassert its voice, as people on the margins of society grew in confidence. Many people were illiterate, or at least were only able to write their own name. So how can we be sure when and how this happened? One way is to listen to the voices of local people and ordinary travellers, as they took their rest in the shade. [more…]
Review: Lost Nubia. A Centennial Exhibit of Photographs from the 1905-1907 Egyptian Expedition of the University of Cairo
This book, produced to complement the exhibition of the same name, is essentially a catalogue of the photographs. Preceded by a three and a half page Introduction and followed by a one and a half page Epilogue and a map of the Nile between the Sixth Cataract and the sea, the main body of the book presents some fabulous photos in black and white from the exhibition, accompanied with detailed explanations. [more…]
TV Review: The Pharaoh Who Conquered the Sea
The Pharaoh Who Conquered the Sea follows the activities of Cheryl Ward who decided that the only way to determine whether or not Hatshepsut’s expedition to Punt in the New Kingdom was a technically viable proposition was to recreate one of the ships shown on the walls at her funerary temple and test it on the Red Sea. [more…]
By Andrea Byrnes and Kate Gingell
Was Egypt the First Nation State?
By Kate Phizackerley and Michelle Low. Published on Egyptological, Magazine Articles, Edition 6, May 31st 2012 Editorial (Kate Phizackerley) Was Pharaonic Egypt a nation state? This is not a new question but it is hard to answer for a variety of reasons, including: the context of the question is rooted in a modern concept (nation-state); […] [more…]
By Kate Phizackerley and Michelle Low