The paper presents insight into the corpus of hieratic graffiti in the 2005 discovered tomb N13.1 in the Gebel Asyut al-gharbi in Middle Egypt. The owner of this rock tomb lived at the very end of the First Intermediate Period, while the first graffiti seem to be written at the very beginning of the 18th dynasty, and the latest at the end of the 20th dynasty. Beside many graffiti with visitors’ formulae, more than twenty texts are copying famous literary works. The context of literature fixed on tomb walls of the past, which is singular for Egypt until now, and the date of the earliest handwritings may be of some interest for the theme of the conference.

Middle Kingdom royal statues frequently exhibit physical evidence that attests to their renewed integration into later contexts within the two millennia of pharaonic culture that followed their creation. Reuse is a pervasive phenomenon in ancient Egypt, and the particular character of any reuse is certainly inflected by both period attitudes and locale— that is, by what is available for a given location. From a modern vantage point, the two are difficult to disentangle. The site of Tanis in the Nile Delta offers something of an exception: an opportunity to take an unusually clear sounding of many of the circumstances around reuse in its region through at least the Third Intermediate Period.

In this article authors will study and analyze the group of shabtis from the collection of the Museum of Oriental Civilizations in Zolochiv, Lviv region (Ukraine). The origin of these artifacts is uncertain. At least three of them came to the museum from the private collections (Lubomirski, Pininski). We cannot be sure if they were bought in Egypt or somewhere else.

This paper deals with the significance of provincial New Kingdom elite tomb location. It aims to describe a key element of the relationship between the elite and the spatial distribution of their archaeological evidence in terms of ‘territoriality’. It focuses especially on the tomb, the pivotal component of the elite’s monumental display. A unique perspective is adopted, derived from both the sociology of space and cultural anthropology. The theoretical background of ‘territoriality’ and its wide range of applications are outlined firstly with a short review of key definitions. The paper’s focus then shifts to the domain of funerary archaeology by examining the location of tombs and its significance. The factors affecting location are discussed from a prosopographical perspective and contrasted with statements from so-called (auto-)biographical self-presentations. Both inscriptional and prosopographical data is the key to understand the underlying considerations for tomb location.

This paper traces the transmigration of ritual spells from coffins of the Middle Kingdom to papyri of the New Kingdom, as determined by major changes in burial custom, the consequent evolution of textual transmission, the origin of illustrated vignettes, the central role of the Theban region in the creation of this new funerary tradition, and the somewhat surprising end product—namely, Books of the Dead that could be afforded only by the wealthy elite.

Few cities can claim as long and illustrious a history as Asyut, in Middle Egypt. Continuously inhabited for at least five thousand years, it ranks among the world’s oldest urban centres, yet only now has Asyut begun to receive the scholarly and public attention it deserves. The ‘guardian city’ straddled the border between Upper and Lower Egypt, defending the frontier, and was often the decisive battlefield in ancient power struggles. Despite the conflict, the Asyut region was a trade emporium and cultural hub, where countless works of art were conceived and replicated for millennia. Recent collaborative, multifaceted fieldwork projects underway in the Asyut necropolis, the neighbouring village of Shutb and nearby Manqabad have shed new light on this once neglected region. Presenting both fieldwork findings and insights gained from the study of Asyut’s material culture preserved in museums and institutions, this publication aims to share an appreciation of Asyut’s outstanding achievements with readers around the world.

The recent exploration by the Czech mission in Abusir South brought to light a family cemetery of high officials and solar priests from the late Fifth Dynasty. This cemetery included mastabas and rock-cut tombs with courtyards, and the majority of these tombs contained serdabs for the owners’ statues. More than twenty unique statues were discovered on this site, some of them almost complete, while others were in fragments. This articles aims to explore the discovered serdabs and statues in the context of the Fifth Dynasty evidence and place it within the context of the social and religious changes of the late Fifth Dynasty, especially during the time of King Nyuserra.

Look at the list of contents for more detailed description of what is inside the volume.