New Kingdom

"Ramesses II - God among Gods at the Nile" - Essay for the sumptuous publication accompanying the exhibition "Ramses. Göttlicher Herrscher am Nil" (Ramesses. Devine Ruler on the Nile) at Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe / Germany (17 December 2016 – 18 June 2017). - Mainly analyzing how Ramesses II made himself a god in Nubia shown in reliefs to be venerated by Pharaoh Ramesses II. The mechanism at the beginning was that Pharaoh was considered to be the son of the divinities Amun and Mut and thus as an alter-ego of their son, the god Khonsu. Like Khonsu, Pharaoh therefore was a moon-god too. However, in later monuments, e.g. the Great Temple of Abu Simbel, Ramesses had himself shown in the position of the sun-god and - quite well hidden - in the position of even Amun. - With many previously unpublished photos (most of which tken by the author). - (in German)
Text at the back of the book:
Den Göttern erwählt, vom Volk verehrt - Ramses II. gilt als der mächtigste Pharao Ägyptens. 66 Jahre, so lange wie kein anderer, herrschte er über das Land am Nil. Während seiner Regierungszeit im 13. Jahrhundert v. Chr. führte Ramses II. Ägypten zu kultureller Blüte und wirtschaftlichem Reichtum. Kein anderer Pharao hinterließ so viele Bauwerke und Statuen wie Ramses, der mit dem Beinamen "der Große" in die Geschichte des alten Ägypten einging. Der reich bebilderte Begleitband zur Ausstellung umfasst neben Texten zu den ausgestellten Objekten vertiefende Beiträge internationaler Autorinnen und Autoren über die zentralen Themen der Geschichte Ägyptens im Zeitalter des großen Pharaos. Er bietet Einblicke in das damalige Gesellschaftssystem, die umfangreiche Baupolitik Ramses' II. und das Verhältnis Ägyptens zu seinen Nachbarstaaten. Dabei werden auch die Feldzüge gegen die Hethiter mit der berühmten Schlacht von Kadesch sowie der sich daran anschließende erste paritätische Friedensvertrag der Weltgeschichte eingehend thematisiert.

Sir Flinders Petrie’s excavations at Tell el‐Amarna in Egypt uncovered a large number of glass finds and vitreous debris from areas identified as palace trash heaps and industrial buildings, revealing that as early as the 14th century BC, glass was produced at the site. His findings, combined with those from recent archaeological investigations and chemical analyses, show the important role Amarna played in early glass technology and its significance as a location for glass production, both locally and abroad, during the Late Bronze Age (LBA).  

Though Petrie found evidence of different stages of glass production at the site, it is not clear whether these finds indicate glassmaking or working. Recent excavations at Amarna have shed some light on the types of activities that took place there. However, due to a lack of thorough recording by Petrie of the areas he excavated, and the fact that many of these early glasses have not been fully analyzed, questions still remain about glass production at the site and how these materials should be interpreted within the larger context of the Egyptian glass industry.  

The research conducted aims to provide further insight into the production of vitreous materials at Amarna through the instrumental analysis of glass debris excavated by Petrie housed in the Penn Museum. Using a multi‐analytical approach (pXRF, SEM‐EDS, EPMA, LA‐ICPMS), the glass was characterized to identify the raw materials utilized and determine whether the debris belongs to primary glass made at Amarna or was imported to the site to be worked into finished objects. The results of this study will be used as comparanda to aid in the interpretation of glass found at other LBA sites adding to the broader understanding of glassmaking during this time period and the long‐distance trade networks used to move this material across the eastern Mediterranean.

The traditional assessment of Hatshepsut’s relationship with Thutmose III, promulgated by early twentieth century writers such as Winlock and Hayes, was that the two were enemies. However, new evidence and a more modern perspective, suggests that this was not the case.

Thutmose III is likely to have supported his step-mother joining him on the throne, as it improved his own legitimacy and avoided dynastic strife. Furthermore, it is highly unlikely that Thutmose III destroyed Hathsepsut’s monuments in a resentful rage, given that the destruction was incomplete, and occurred long after her death. Finally, Hatshepsut included Thutmose III on many of her important monuments, most notable Djeser Djeseru and the Red Chapel. She depicts him as a strong Pharaoh, essentially her equal, which suggests she had some respect for him.

Evidence has led contemporary historians to assume a cooperation between the two kings. Such writers include Tyldesley, Callendar and Ray. It is likely the pharaohs shared the obligations of the office, with Thutmose III leading the army, while Hatshesput engaged in foreign affairs such as the Journey to Punt. Together they managed administration, building works and religious ceremonies, capably and cooperatively conducting the affairs of the empire in tandem.

Charioteers were very significant in the Ramesside Period, evidenced for example by the frequent mention of them in texts dated to the reign of king Ramesses II. Charioteers also played an important role in diplomacy as many Ramesside charioteers held the title ’’the royal envoy to every foreign country’’. This paper will focus on the diplomatic role of the charioteers in the Ramesside Period and their status in Egyptian society.

Tematem niniejszego opracowania są królewskie pałace Amenhotepa III, jednego z największych władców XVIII dynastii. Założenia te wzniesione zostały na jego polecenie w Tebach, na zachodnim brzegu Nilu. Stanowisko znane pod współczesną nazwą Malgata badane było na przestrzeni ponad stu lat przez wiele misji archeologicznych. Niniejsza praca zawiera zestawienie opublikowanych wyników badań i interpretacje poszczególnych założeń. W pracy opisana została historia wykopalisk, topografia stanowiska, architektura oraz dekoracje pałaców. Ponadto w celach porównawczych zaprezentowane zostały w zarysie także inne znane królewskie pałace z tego okresu. Na tej podstawie autor przedstawia własne interpretacje niektórych założeń znajdujących się w Malgacie.

In ancient Egypt, the ram was regarded as a symbol of protection, male virility, fertility, syncretism, rebirth, and resurrection, which is why ancient Egyptians associated some of their gods with the ram form. The most popular ram deities, each connected with his own temples and cult centers at different geographic locations, were Banebdjed of Mendes, Heryshef of Herakleopolis Magna, Amun-Ra of Thebes, and Khnum of Esna and Elephantine. Similarly, numbers were another important aspect of Egyptian religion and magic, and the symbolic language of numbers manifested itself in a variety of ways in the art of ancient Egypt; occasionally, ram gods, for example, were represented with multiple heads in order to indicate the syncretism of two or, more frequently, four different divinities. This thesis engages with New Kingdom representations of four-headed ram deities, appearing in separate entrance scenes preserved inside the individual tombs of Ramesses IX (KV 6), Ramesses X (KV 19), and Ramesses XI (KV 4), as an artistic response to theological and political change in the late Twentieth Dynasty. This examination of art applies iconographic and iconological analysis on selected images of tetracephalic ram deities in order to better understand the symbolic message articulated by four rams’ heads as an iconographic form. Ultimately, the four-headed ram as an iconographic type during the late New Kingdom was applied to both solar and netherworld divinities, constituting a demiurge par excellence. Four rams’ heads, as a composite motif, also show us that Egyptians of the late New Kingdom perceived many similarities between their individual ram gods, in particular, Banebdjed of Mendes and Amun-Ra of Thebes, who were each depicted in art by the Ramesside period occasionally as a tetracephalic ram deity.

For Queen Nodjmet two funeral papyri are known. In this article it is argued that both should be ascribed to the mother of Herihor (Nodjmet A) rather than to his wife (Nodjmet B). This would make Nodjmet A the wife of HPA Piankh, and her mother, Hrere, the wife of HPA Amenhotep. Hrere, who is attested with the title “king’s mother”, is here interpreted as the mother of king Khakheperre Pinuzem and as the grandmother of both Nodjmet B and HPA Masaharta. This model is discussed in the light of the Late Ramesside Letters, the Oracle of Herihor, the Banishment Stele, the Procession scene from the Temple of Khonsu and several other sources.

In modern towns with multi-ethnic population and congregations of different religions and variations of religion one can notice the tendency of people of the same background to flock together, forming districts within such communities. This seems to have been also the case in towns of Ancient Egypt, especially in settlements situated near the borders. This article presents data of different communities which lived in Avaris during the late Middle Kingdom, the Hyksos Period and the early New Kingdom. Besides the original Egyptians, immigrants from different parts of the Ancient Near East settled down in the eastern Delta from the late 12th Dynasty onwards. They left the Egyptian community intact within the oldest part of the town. It was a surprise to find also vestiges of Nubians of different cultural background and origin within Avaris. In the time of the 14th Dynasty there is evidence of Kerma people, in the Hyksos Period one encountered mainly other Nubians who seem to have been related to the Pan-Grave Culture and after the conquest of Avaris by the victorious 18th Dynasty, ceramics and arrow tips of the Kerma Culture appeared again. For the Nubians of the Hyksos Period, no specific quarter of the town could be found except that they seem to have lived in symbiosis with palaces where they may have served as mercenaries and in the New Kingdom perhaps as regular part of the army. Their pottery fragments could, however, also be found in the regular parts of the town and a special quarter could be expected for them, but it was not yet discovered. Besides Egyptians and people from Asia and Nubia, it seems that there was also a Cypriot community producing Cypriot ware with Cypriot technology but of Egyptian clay. In the Thutmoside Period, when the site became most likely the major naval base of Peru-nefer, it seems that for some time a Minoan community established itself near a palatial compound which was furnished with Minoan wall paintings. This was in a time when “Keftiu” delega- tions appear depicted in noble tombs in Thebes.

International expeditions extensively excavated Lower Nubia (between the First and Second Nile Cataracts) before it was submerged under the waters of Lake Nasser and Lake Nubia. The expeditions concentrated on monumental architecture and cemeteries, including sites at Qustul and Serra East, where the New Kingdom, and Napatan, Meroitic, Nobadian, and Makurian-period elites and common people were buried, ca. 1400 BC–AD 1400. Although the finds abound in adornments, including bead imports from Egypt and South India/Sri Lanka, only a few traces of local glass bead-making have been recorded in Nubia so far. Based on results of laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) analysis of 76 glass beads, pendants, and chunks from Qustul and Serra East contexts, dated between the New Kingdom and the Makuria Kingdom periods, this paper discusses the composition and provenance of two types of plant-ash soda-lime (v-Na-Ca) glass, two types of mineral soda-lime glass (m-Na-Ca), and two types of mineral-soda-high alumina (m-Na-Al) glass. It also presents the remains of a probable local glass bead-making workshop dated to the period of intensive long-distance bead trade in Northeast Africa, AD 400–600.

This paper focuses on the artists in the New Kingdom, especially on their role in the diffusion of motifs within the artistic repertoire. The analysis and discussion of a range of textual, artistic and archaeological sources dating to the New Kingdom will be the basis to explore the mobility of artists. The movement of craftsmen could be best exemplified in the transfer that took place before and after the Amarna Period, and the presence of certain details attested on paintings and reliefs of private tombs from different areas may let us track those ‘travelling artists’ in Egypt.

This analysis is addressing a form of divine advocacy by looking at the role of the goddess Hathor in the political/religious context of Egypt. Traditionally, pharaohs have used Hathor in Egyptian canonical imagery to convey messages of power- reiterating their own role as the incarnation of the God Horus. Here, we will focus on the role of the traditional role of Hathor juxtaposing Royal Women in power during the Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom. The two female pharaohs, Sobekneferu and Hatshepsut, used their traditional roles as incarnations of Hathor to establish a power base before becoming a “female Horus”. An iconographic analysis of the religious reveals the reasons why Hatshepsut and Sobekneferu were required to change their female imagery to a male-oriented image while maintaining their traditional roles of protectors of the divine kingship of incarnations of Hathor.

When the High Priest Amenhotep refers to the burial of his father “in year x of Pharaoh” this should normally refer to the living king, i.e. Ramses XI Menmare. However, in traditional chronology this causes problems, since the death of Ramessesnakht took place under Ramses IX Neferkere. In the short chronology for the end of the 20th Dynasty it becomes possible to solve this riddle, assuming that Amenhotep simply ‘translated’ his father’s date of burial in terms of the reign of Ramses XI.

2019 Community Scholars Lecture Series
This project is backed by the Office of the Provost of the University of Chicago.

Ancient Egyptian scribes produced a diverse selection of literature. Existing works include elements of drama, mystery, horror, adventure, and even romance. One group of texts that focused heavily on romance is the so-called Love Songs, which survive in almost 100 examples. This public lecture will feature a discussion of the history, composition, and significance of the Love Songs.

The primary objective of this article is to prove that during the Ramesside Period the Egyptians attained the excellency at the portrayal of some difficult areas of human experience like feelings and emotions either by images (iconographical) or words (textually). The main sample of the present article is the (silent) portrayal of enemy's defeat after overwhelming battle where the result of the battle is tentatively alluded by figurative expressions and symbolic imageries to express the (human) broken and defeated feelings of the enemy after the loss of the battle and the destruction of the fortress and its surrounding landscape to express, without words, the (silent) fate of its inhabitants who abandoned their city-fortress as a result of their defeat in front of the Egyptian king. Finally, the present article argues that the Ramesside Period artisans mastered their tools to describe, through images, the enemy's defeat and the broken nature of their feelings and emotions. Introduction:

The early Middle Kingdom mortuary complexes of Khety and Meru continued to be the main research target of the Polish Archaeological Mission to North Asasif in the two winter seasons of 2018/2019 and 2020. The rubble dump on the eastern side of Khety's forecourt, left over from the 1922/1923 excavation, was now explored, leading to the discovery of hundreds of objects-fragments of wooden statues and models, cartonnages and coffins, shabti figurines and pottery-shedding light on the Middle Kingdom burial assemblages as well as the later usurpation of the tomb, mainly in the Third Intermediate Period. Conservation objectives included treatment of the decorated burial crypt and sarcophagus in the tomb of Meru and stabilization and cleaning of the plaster decoration in the mortuary cult chapel of Khety. The season in 2018/2019 was also devoted to a reconnaissance of the underground structures and protection of tomb MMA 507. Specialists studies of finds from the excavations, both recent and earlier, were continued.

My study of NorthWest Semitic languages and linguistics has always been intertwined with my interest for the interactions between Egypt and the Levant. Professor Cathcart was aware of that, and at the end of my first year as his student he offered me a copy of W. Albright's The Vocalization of the Egyptian Syllabic Orthography. That gift was very welcome, as the syllabic orthography, also called group writing-a special hieroglyphic orthography used by the Egyptians to transcribe foreign words and toponyms, especially Semitic ones-had always been something I wanted to work on. I finally had the time to do so over the past two years, and my efforts resulted in a new interpretative model providing a new explanation of how the syllabic orthography notates vowels. In the present paper I use my system to offer new readings for a selection of words of NorthWest Semitic origins attested in Papyrus Anastasi I, which dates to the New Kingdom/Late Bronze Age. A few preliminary observations about these words and the sociolinguistic context of their use are provided in the conclusions.

One of the “commonplaces” of Balkan prehistoric archaeology are the supposed movements of large populations from the Balkans in several migration waves which eventually reached the Eastern Mediterranean. The carriers of these migratory waves were differently identified as proto-Illyrians, Bosnian Illyrians, Daco-Mysians, Phrygians, Mysians and Dardanians or bearers of the Urnfield culture. The migrants were traced archaeologically via objects supposedly produced in metallurgical workshops of Alpes and Carpathians or the presence of the Peschiera fibulae and handmade burnished pottery. They were then interpreted by Balkan archaeologists as being among the Sea Peoples attested in Egyptian sources and referred to as “invaders” who destroyed Late Bronze Age centers of culture in the Eastern Mediterranean. Some authors even re-traced the ethnic groups described in Greek and Roman sources to ethnonyms attested in New Kingdom Egyptian sources. Thus, for example Dardanians were re-traced to d3rdny and Mysians to ms attested in New Kingdom Egyptian texts from the reign of Ramesses II.
However, there are numerous problems with these interpretations aside from their clearly culture-historical “pots equals peoples” premise. In this paper we would like to address these problems from both Egyptological and archaeological standpoint. Firstly, even if we would agree with “pots equals peoples” premise for the sake of the argument, it is a fact that Peschiera fibulae, for example, are not depicted being worn by any of the Sea People warriors represented on New Kingdom Egyptian temple battle reliefs. Also, the argument on distribution of certain classes of objects thought to have foreign origin was based on formal typological features and not on archaeometry. Secondly, among many other problems with using New Kingdom Egyptian sources to re-trace ethnic identity and ancestral homelands of ethnic groups attested in Greek and Roman sources, is the orthography, vocalization and localization of ethnonyms attested in New Kingdom Egyptian sources. Thirdly, it also seems that the culture-historical archaeological background impeded Balkan archaeologists to be up to date with both Egyptological and archaeological literature. The consequence is that the “authorities” are referred to without criticism and blindly followed without consulting the original sources. Our forth and the last point is that Balkan prehistorians did not consult their colleagues in the field of Egyptology. We therefore propose a dialogue between disciplines as the first step in deconstructing Balkan Sea Peoples and the supposed migrations they originated from. In this paper we criticize balkanism in archaeological narratives on the Sea Peoples, both in Balkan and non-Balkan archaeology, as a pejorative discourse in which the destruction of centers of “high culture” can be blamed on the migrants from the Balkan hinterland, as rough as their pottery. Although Balkan archaeologists have largely been reluctant towards Egyptologists in this region, the irony is that no one else than G. Maspero, an Egyptologist, coined the term Sea Peoples in 1881 and traced the origin of their supposed migrations to the Balkans.

“Minoans” have been recognised from the very
discovery of the palaces on Crete as an enclosed
ethnic group in the material assemblage known as
the “Minoan” culture. They were defined as a race
or an ethnic group and continued to be viewed so
in the tradition of the cultural-historical archaeology.
The Theban 18th Dynasty tomb representations
of the Aegean figures played a large role in defining
the “Minoans” as an ethnic group argued to be
represented in the Egyptian imagery. This is how a
cultural-historical construct of an ethnic group –
the “Minoans” was labelled with an Egyptian term
kftjw and both terms were taken to refer to an
Aegean Bronze Age ethnic group with no doubt.
This paper aims to disentangle kftjw from the
“Minoans” by analysing the history and the process
of this entanglement in the Aegean Bronze
Age archaeology and Egyptology. Therefore the
representations of the Aegean figures and the
terms related to them will be analysed on the basis
of the offered disentanglement. Egyptian tomb
imagery and the representations of foreigners are
formed with decorum, ideology and culturally
particular world view and topography. This paper
thus offers an entanglement based on the New
Kingdom Egyptian cultural topography beyond
ethnicity.

As part of the next Vatican Coffin Conference, I would like to present a paper focusing on the mummy and the coffin, from an art historical perspective, that is seen as images.
During my PhD thesis, I became interested in the ways the ancient Egyptians viewed the mummy and its counterpart, the coffin, through their representations in funerary scenes. My reflection started by studying the various supports (heap of sand, rectangular pedestal similar to a statue base, maat-shaped base, or reed mat.) shown under the feet of the standing mummy (or coffin), in the depictions of the funeral. It developed my curiosity about their signification and what they say about the couple mummy/coffin.
One cannot but underline the analogy in ancient Egypt between the statue and the body, particularly the tenuous borders between the statue, the mummy and the anthropoid mummiform coffin, at least during the New Kingdom and its aftermath (early Third Intermediate Period), each one functioning as a substitude body for the deceased. As pointed out by J. Assmann, « the mummy was treated like a statue, and the statue was treated like a mummy ; both served the deceased as bodies, that is, as instruments of his continued life ». Thus, both were the object of the ritual of the Opening of the Mouth, as well as the coffin, once it started being modelled on the mummified body (12th Dynasty). This kinship between the statue, the mummy and the anthropoid mummiform coffin can also be perceived in the writing of the words saH « mummy ; form »  and twt « statue, image », both using a standing mummiform figure as a determinative.
Following these reflections, I would like to address two issues during this conference:
- the mummy and the coffin seen as images of the deceased ;
- the depiction of the said mummy and coffin on a flat surface, with an interesting shift between the New Kingdom and the early Third Intermediate Period, as funerary practices underwent some radical changes: the preferred medium for imagery shifted from the tomb walls to the coffin and, to a lesser extent, to funerary papyri and stelae, as tombs were no longer decorated.

Death and destruction of peoples and lands are the reality of war. Since the Old Kingdom the destruction of enemy landscape is attested in Egyptian written sources and the number of attestations increases in the following periods, culminating in the New Kingdom. This is also the period when the first visual attestations of enemy landscape destruction appear. In this paper I will explore the actors, targets and acts concerning violence against enemy landscapes together with the use of landscape elements as metaphors for the violent treatments of enemies during the New Kingdom. The study shows that there are differences in representations of treatments of Syro-Palestinian and Nubian landscapes, which could be related to the reality of war itself, as monumental enemy fortresses did not exist in Upper Nubia, at least not on the same scale as in Syria-Palestine. This real difference went hand in hand with the ancient Egyptian construction of the Other as unsettled. Thus, urban landscapes of Syria-Palestine are objects of violence in the visual record where they are reduced to unsettled landscapes through destruction and desolation. It is also shown that this reality of war is additionally framed through Egyptian rules of decorum ascribing most of the destructions of landscape to the king and only some to the soldiers.

Keywords: violence, war, landscape, New Kingdom, Egypt, Syria-Palestine, Nubia

This paper analyzes New Kingdom archaeological, written and iconographic attestations for the use of music in the context of war, and the metaphors used to describe the battle cries of the army. Representations of military musicians and the musical instruments they used, such as trumpet (šnb), drum (kmkm) and clappers (c.wj) can be found on the temple reliefs at Abydos, Deir el-Bahari, Luxor, Medinet Habu and Gebel el-Silsila among others, and in scenes in private Theban tombs. Music played an important role in military parades and preparations of the army for the campaign. It boosted the moral and created powerful soundscapes. The battle cry of the king is compared to that of a griffon and a lion, and gods such as Seth, Baal and son of Nut (Horus). His roar is described as being like that of a lion or a storm-wind and the roar of his soldiers and horses is described like that of a lion. Everything indicates that war cries were an important part of the battle soundscape.

The aim of the author is to present a gazetteer of all known pyramids (those attested archaeologically as well as those attested only by texts) from the Old Kingdom to the beginning of the New Kingdom. Entries are sorted geographically from north to south, and basic information is given for each pyramid: location, builder, date, original and modern names, measurements, a brief description of the research history, and a bibliography. Several indices and a general bibliography are included at the end of the book.