Ancient Egyptian interconnections

In the Early Iron Age the Eastern Mediterranean gradually turned into a complex network of systematic contacts among the Aegean, Cyprus, Egypt, Syro-Palestine and areas of the Near East. From the tenth century BC onwards relations between the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean were intensified mainly due to the growing Cypriot, Euboean and Phoenician commercial activity. Moreover, from the eighth to the sixth century BC direct cultural contact between the Nile land and the Greek world gained ground and this was demonstrated in multiple and different ways. Greek traders were active in the Nile Delta from the middle of the seventh century BC or even earlier, but trade obtained a more profound character only after the foundation of Naukratis at the end of the seventh century BC. Furthermore, written testimonies about pharaonic gifts to Greek sanctuaries indicate diplomatic relations among the Saite Dynasty and Greek cities, particularly in the East Greece. Another significant aspect of cross cultural interaction was the recruitment of Ionian and Carian mercenaries by Psamtek I (664-610 BC). Some of them who rose to high offices were gradually assimilated in the Egyptian society by marrying Egyptian women, participated in religious ceremonies and even followed local burial customs. As a result of the aforementioned cultural contact, Egyptian ideas affected different aspects of life and art, as shown by the impact on monumental sculpture, architecture and pottery analyzed in many studies. Less visible, but still traceable, is the relation of Egyptian religious ideology with Greek philosophy.

Museum August Kestner (Hannover / Germany) owns a highly important Egyptian object made of blue, yellow and white glass: a fragment of a statuette representing the Egyptian goddess Taweret (Thoeris), inv. no. 2616, previously in the collection of August Kestner (1777-1853). Together with two monkey-figurines excavated in Greece (acropolis of Mycenae and lower citadel of Tiryns), all three fragments bear a cartouche with the name of Pharaoh Amenhotep II (Dynasty 18, 1425-1400 BC). This fact makes them the humankind's oldest dated sculptures from the material glass. Taweret is usually represented as a figure consisting of three animals: hippopotamus body standing upright on its rear legs, the paws are those of a lion, back and tail a crocodile. Allthough thousands of statuettes showing Taweret in the described feature have been preserved, the glass statuette in Hannover is absolutely unique, because it is the only known example which combines the three animals within the head: hippopotamus ears, lion nose and crocodile teeth. Samples of the glass were taken and analyzed (chapter by Rainer Werthmann, pp. 37-44). Further, other glass objects bearing royal names of early Dynasty 18, belonging to the earliest attestations for glass in Egypt, are presented and discussed in this contribution.

The Aegyptiaca Symposium is the second international colloquium in the Ex Oriente Lux series and it was born out of the interdisciplinary research project Aegyptiaca: Ecumene and Economy in the Horizon of Religion, which is coordinated by the University of the Aegean (Department of Mediterranean Studies), the University of Bonn (Institute of Egyptology) and the University οf Thessaly (Department of History, Archaeology and Social Anthropology) since 2007. The Project and the Symposium focuse on the Egyptian and egyptianised material from archaic Greece and on the re-evaluation of the Egyptian cross-cultural interactivity with the Aegean world and the Early Iron Age eastern Mediterranean in the sphere of economy and religion.
Aegyptiaca Project website: http://aegeanegyptology.gr/the-aegyptiaca-project-ecumene-…/