Old Kingdom (Egyptology)

During the late Old Kingdom to the end of the Middle Kingdom, there were two principal forms of representation in the elite tomb: wall scenes and funerary models. The two artistic media exhibit several similarities in design, with both depicting people and animals engaged in everyday life activities. This has caused scholars to label funerary models duplicates or substitutes of wall scenes, implying that they served the same purpose in the tomb. However, there are a number of notable differences that are yet to be acknowledged. My PhD research comprised a detailed comparative analysis of the two artistic media in order to more precisely understand the role of the funerary model in the tomb and its relationship to the wall scene. In today’s paper, I will outline the similarities and differences between funerary models and wall scenes in their representation of bread-making, offering-bearers, and cattle in procession. These three themes showcase some of the distinguishing characteristics of funerary models and will consequently demonstrate why the three-dimensional medium should not be understood as duplicates or substitutes of wall scenes, but rather a distinct type of representation that was specifically conceived for its role in provisioning the deceased for eternity.

The relations between Re, the Sun-god, and the gold seem to be a well-known topic of the Egyptian religion given the solar associations of that precious metal. Nevertheless, there are not detailed studies on those associations. This paper aims to analyse the spells of the Pyramid Texts where that deity and the gold are related, taking into account its precedents and the literary and intertextual elements of the concerned passages. As a result of this analysis it has been established that the richness of images, contexts and expressions that associate the god Re and the gold is significantly higher than the most evident metaphor that link them by means of the light and bright of both of them. They are thus related in contexts of protection against snakes, rising with an exalted joy, in descriptions of the sky before the sunrise as a space full of light as made in several minerals, in the image of Re as a calf of gold when he rises from the east, or the description of a rosette –a primeval form of Re– and of a boat of this god as made in gold.

INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH: Egypto-Levantine relations have varied from the Neolithic through Persian periods, ranging from overland and maritime commerce, diplomatic missions, emigrants, imperial expansion, and alliances, while at other times Asiatics have traded, raided, pastured their flocks, infiltrated, taken refuge in, served as mercenaries, and sometimes controlled parts of Egypt.  Although fluctuations occur in the intensity of contact, in general interactions have increased over time, with local adoptions and emulations of different aspects of each culture: language, literature, religion, art, and artifacts.

The case study deals with dating of the Old Kingdom tombs where stone vessels were found together with copper (model) tools. The production of stone vessels of the period is considered the main criterion for the chronological setting of particular tombs from the Memphite necropolis.

En este trabajo se abordará la figura de la diosa Isis desde diversas perspectivas. Primero, analizaremos su papel en Egipto, su lugar de procedencia, desde los tiempos Neolíticos hasta la conquista de Alejandro Magno, que da inicio al período helenístico. En esta época se producen cambios en la forma de entender a la diosa en Egipto, pero lo fundamental es que su culto se generaliza en Grecia, si bien ya había llegado allí siglos atrás. Esto da lugar a una asimilación sincrética de Isis a otras divinidades y también a la transformación de su culto en una religión mistérica. Isis acaba llegando al mundo romano, donde algunos emperadores intentarán erradicar su culto, mientras que otros, por el contrario, lo promoverán, hasta su definitiva desaparición en el siglo VI d.C. Una vez dado un repaso a su historia, analizaremos el mito más famoso de la diosa: el de Isis y Osiris, partiendo sobre todo de la versión que ofrece Plutarco. Por último trataremos de sintetizar las principales atribuciones de esta diosa: madre, trono y maga.

Palabras clave: Isis, diosa, Osiris, madre, culto

SUMMARY: Chapter 4, in Renfrew & Bahn's textbook (Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice), covers archaeological dating methods and their applicability and limitations, including stratigraphy (relative dating), typologies (e.g., seriation), linguistic dating, climatic clues (e.g., ice & deep=sea cores), absolute dating (e.g., pollen; ancient calendars; tree-ring/dendrochronology; radiocarbon dating; potassium-argon dating; uranium-series dating; thermoluminescence dating; optical dating; electron spin-resonance dating; global events; etc.).  In my view, this is one of the best college textbooks available, and is invaluable for students, archaeologists, and the public in general, to obtain a top notch overview of approaching and interpreting the archaeological record; also including a case study on the instructor's work at a late Old Kingdom fort at Ras Budran, in South Sinai (Egypt).  REVISED: Feb. 2023.

In Interpreting Ancient Egyptian Narratives, Martin Pehal applies structural analysis to four New Kingdom narrative compositions. The study explains the strong configurational character of ancient Egyptian (mythological) thought which has the ability to connect various ontological levels of human experience with the surrounding world into complex synchronic structures. These symbolical systems are shown to be mediating between the various cultural paradoxes which were inherent to ancient Egyptian society. Axial role in this process is attributed to the institution of positional kingship represented by the Pharaoh. Its transformative function is also put into relation to the special status of female characters who are shown to play the part of the “powerful powerless ones” further personifying the aspects of the mediating function of myth. Gradually, the study outlines a genuinely Egyptian “structural net” of basic mythemes and explains in what way it was possible for such a system to change and incorporate foreign mythological motifs especially from the Near East.

ABSTRACT: Preface to the Guide:

Focus and limitations:
The compilation of this guide began in Spring 2007 as a series of check lists and book requests for the somewhat small collection of Egyptological and related works in M. H. Sterne library at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.  During the development of several courses on Ancient Egypt, the Ancient Near East, and other areas spanning Prehistory through to the Roman period (and later), the collection grew, and continues to expand, and began to require a research paper guide for students enrolled in courses dealing with these geographic areas and time periods. The nature of the prime cliental, namely undergraduate to MA students in a North American setting, in conjunction with limited funding, has steered  –of necessity– the building of both Sterne library’s collections and this guide towards mostly English-language sources, less expensive works, and more easily available and more recent publications.

Overall aims:
In order to maximize student and public research usage of the existing, albeit still limited, collections, I have since compiled and incorporated selected journal articles, book chapters, encyclopedia entries, and other book titles from Sterne Library’s physical holdings (i.e., non-electronic sources) into diverse categories of research topics/subjects.  In addition, every effort has been made to add a full listing of electronic sources (including links) available to researchers of the geographic and temporal areas covered by this guide (i.e., mainly Prehistoric to Roman period Egypt).  The guide also provides general assistance for more serious/professional scholars (i.e., a quick reference to key articles, chapters, and volumes), but remains a tool aimed at English-speaking undergraduate-MA students and the public, focusing on Sterne’s holdings (note: other emerging Egyptological libraries will also approximate Sterne’s holdings).

Design and usage:
An attempt has been made to obtain sources spanning all aspects of Ancient Egypt and related areas, which have in-turn influenced the subdivision of the guide into general works, time periods, and diverse subject areas. Some of these categories have grown sufficiently large to merit further subdivision, such as the New Kingdom section, which has a general list of sources, materials regarding individual rulers, and a few affiliated topics of interest (Exodus; Sea Peoples).  I have attempted to place each source (i.e., books; book chapters; encyclopedia entries; journal articles) under each pertinent topic category that it covers, but naturally I may have missed some categories, while there may be other complementary and broader works that cover such topics elsewhere.  A list of the pertinent call number ranges has been placed at the end of the guide (see table of contents) to assist in the merits of additional shelf-browsing.

Beyond the guide:
Naturally there are numerous significant Egyptological sources outside Sterne Library’s holdings (including electronic links: e.g., JSTOR) that might be retrieved via interlibrary loan.  Sterne Library’s current Egyptological resources, however, are sufficient to introduce most areas of Egyptological research, and enable the researcher to consult the endnotes/footnotes and bibliographic data listed in recent books, articles, and encyclopedia entries to compile a list of further resources that may either be accessed via interlibrary loan, or possibly by visiting directly a neighbouring professional Egyptological library: e.g., the instructor (UAB); Atlanta (Emory University); Memphis (Memphis State University).

The collections in other Birmingham and Alabama libraries have online links via Sterne Library’s website, and offer many duplicate and different Egyptological works that are often accessible to the public/students: e.g., Birmingham Public Library, Gorgas Library (UA).  Naturally, I encourage students, faculty, and public researchers to see me for further assistance with this guide and their research topics.

Gregory Mumford (UAB)
Update: 15 Jan., 2021

PLEASE NOTE: This resource has received substantial updates in pertinent sections within the guide.  Some additional sorting of various articles/entries is still required, but these articles can be found, unsorted, at the end of the guide (e.g., articles from KMT, JSSEA, EA, etc., listed chronologically and by issue). I anticipate another update in the following year ...

The latest Czech issue of Prague Egyptological Studies (XVIII/2017) is devoted to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Professor Zbyněk Žába (1917–1971), one of the founders of the Czech Institute of Egyptology, Faculty of Arts at the Charles University in Prague and its branch in Cairo. The issue is divided into two parts, namely studies dedicated to his life and work, and those that are devoted to the continuation of his research at the present times. Included are contributions describing the life and bibliography of Zbyněk Žába, his work in Egypt as part of the Czechoslovak Egyptology during the Cold War, his lecturing at Cairo and his connections to the Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures in Prague. The continuity of research is presented by different studies analysing diverse architectural, historical and social aspects of the mastaba of Vizier Ptahshepses at Abusir that was the focus of Žába’s field work in Egypt. All the peer-reviewed papers and studies have abstracts in English, as well as English captions for all the figures, charts and tables.


V letošním roce si připomínáme 100 let od narození profesora Zbyňka Žáby (1917–1971), jednoho ze zakladatelů Českého (tehdy Československého) egyptologického ústavu Filozofické fakulty Univerzity Karlovy. Ke zmíněnému výročí bylo připraveno předkládané číslo Pražských egyptologických studií, které je rozděleno do dvou hlavních tematických celků. První část je věnována Žábovu životu a dílu, zatímco do druhé byly zařazeny příspěvky, které přímo či nepřímo vycházejí ze Žábových prací. 
První oddíl tohoto vydání se zaměřuje na osobu profesora Žáby a jeho odborný odkaz. Příspěvky shrnují jeho život, bibliografii, kontakty s egyptskou bohemistikou nebo práci na staroegyptské krásné literatuře. Žába projevoval také zájem o egyptské starožitnosti a kolegové z Národního muzea – Náprstkova muzea asijských, afrických a amerických kultur připravili zajímavou studii o Žábových kontaktech s muzeem. Články zahrnuté do druhého tematického okruhu navazují na Žábovy práce, a to zejména ty, které se týkají mastaby vezíra Ptahšepsese z doby 5. dynastie (24. století př. n. l.), kde Žába po dlouhou dobu vedl archeologické výzkumy. Volněji s ní souvisí studie, jež se soustředí na události z 1. tisíciletí př. n. l. v Údolí králů v oblasti dnešního Luxoru v Horním Egyptě.
Profesor Zbyněk Žába stál v čele Československého egyptologického ústavu až do své smrti. Toto číslo je důkazem jeho odborného významu a odkazu, na něž navazuje dnes již pátá generace českých egyptologů. Stále také pokračují archeologické práce v Abúsíru, na nichž se Zbyněk Žába podílel od samého počátku. Lze jej tedy považovat za jednoho ze zakladatelů současné moderní české egyptologie.

The paper examines the names of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep, omission of kinship terms and some features of the iconography, especially representations of their mutual embrace. It is suggested that the two royal manicurists were identical twins, perceived at the time as each other’s ka. The predominant position of the mutual face-to-face embrace in the liminal zone of the tomb is related to the notion of protection and also of identification immanent in embrace, in the case of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep extending the role of the double into the Afterlife.

The mass ceramic material discovered by the Russian Archaeological Mission of the IOS RAS during 22 years of research in the eastern part of the ancient Egyptian Giza Necropolis belongs to a significant chronological interval from the reign of the Dynasty IV (26th–25th centuries B.C.) till the 19th century A.D. It is an indicator of the chronological multilayeredness of Giza, allowing to recreate a phased picture of the life of this archaeological site – from specific functional features of the ancient cemetery through periods of robberies and creation of secondary burials to the use of tombs as dwellings by Christian and Islamic population of Egypt. The full history of the formation and existence of the eastern part of Giza Necropolis is thus about 4.5 thousand years.

The tomb of Ṯntj was found in the upper cemetery of the tombs of the pyramid builders at Giza. The tomb contains all the architectural components of an Old Kingdom tomb and is dated to the Fifth Dynasty. An offering basin found in front of the second false door indicates that the tomb owner was the overseer of linen.

Full-text PDF available here:
http://www.etudesettravaux.iksiopan.pl/images/etudtrav/EtudTrav_otwarte/EtudTrav_26/EtudTrav_26_1/et_26-V-1-23-Hawass.pdf

ABSTRACT: This lecture, which forms part-1 of two parts, includes a discussion and illustration of the following topics: (1) How the Ancient Egyptians conceived of the tomb and its component parts; (2) How a typical middle-upper class family prepared their tomb; (3) What problems emerged regarding mortuary cults (e.g., continuity of offerings; security; etc.) and how they they resolved them (in part); (4) Ancient Egyptian beliefs about communicating with dead (including how they communicated); (5) Egyptian views upon reusing earlier tomb materials and actual practices (i.e., Did they still do it? Discourage it?); (6) Some of the Ancient Egyptian private (and royal) mortuary/funerary beliefs; (7) Some of the mummification practices during the Old Kingdom; (8) Old Kingdom (and later) Egyptians beliefs and approaches to death, mourning, and funerals; (9) Further discussion on private/elite afterlife beliefs (i.e., what happened after death?); (10) How the surviving family initiated and maintained a funerary cult for relatives; (11) Some of the ideal types of mortuary offerings (i.e., by the living …); (12) The various types of “back-up,” permanent offerings for the deceased; (13) Evidence for some historical autobiographical texts and other data (and their types); (14) Some doubts are sometimes implied (especially later) regarding the afterlife; and (15) The "typical" elite mastaba tomb layout/components (e.g., Burial; False door; Serdab). UPDATED: Extensive editing, formatting, and some additions on March 12, 2023.

The paper is an attempt to show the architectonic method of the ancient Egyptian designers
for encoding the horizontal-projections of the moon’s declinations during two
events of the minor lunar standstills, in the design of the site-plan of the horizon of the
Giza pyramids, using the methods of descriptive geometry. It shows that the distance of
the eastern side of the second Giza pyramid from the north-south axis of the great pyramid
encodes a projection of a lunar declination, when earth’s obliquity-angle was
~24.10°. Besides, it shows that the angle of inclination of the causeway of the second Giza
pyramid, of ~13.54° south of the cardinal east, encodes the projection of another lunar
declination when earth’s obliquity-angle reaches ~22.986°. In addition, it shows the encoded
coordinate system in the site-plan of the horizon of the Giza pyramids.

Bárta, M.
2016 "Dummy mummification" in the Old Kingdom: a new intact case from the 5th Dynasty , Abusir. In Rich and Great. Studies in honour of Anthony J. Spalinger on the ocassion of his 70th Feast of Thoth edited by R. Landgráfová and J. Mynářová, pp. 15-17. Czech Institute of Egyptology, Prague.

The study deals with the burial of priest Neferinpu from the 24th century B.C., reign of Nyuserra - Djedkara which was found in Abusir South. His burial demonstrates that at this period dummy mummification was not a rare case. The general characteristics of his burial arrangement shows valuable details pertaining to the symbolism and rituals of the Ancient Egyptians and their perception of the afterlife prerequisites.

Dans la vallée du Nil, émerge au terme d’un processus culturel complexe l’un des plus anciens États territoriaux du monde, dirigé par une royauté sacrée et une administration qui se développe et évolue durant les presque 3000 ans qui séparent la Ire dynastie de la conquête romaine.
Au-delà de l’image d’une Égypte des pyramides immobile dirigée par un despote tout puissant, les recherches les plus récentes, issues de l’analyse de la documentation écrite et iconographique autant que des dernières découvertes archéologiques, amènent au contraire à peindre un tableau beaucoup plus nuancé. Du rôle essentiel de l’échelle locale aux jeux de pouvoir entre grandes familles de la Cour, de l’économie vivrière aux échanges internationaux, de l’exploitation des déserts entourant l’Égypte aux expéditions au long cours vers le Sinaï, Pount, le Soudan ou le Proche-Orient, c’est un royaume en constante évolution qui est ici dépeint. Au-delà du résumé de la trame
chronologique essentielle à la compréhension de l’histoire égyptienne, l’ouvrage aborde les problématiques historiques propres à chacune de ses grandes périodes, touchant à l’histoire, mais aussi à la société et à la culture, en présentant également les débats historiographiques en cours.

The bullfight scenes are a well-known iconographical motif of the decoration of ancient Egyptian Tombs, from the Old Kingdom down to the 18th Dynasty.  It still can be found on figured ostraca from the Ramesside times.  Scenes of “daily life”? “Symbolical” feature?  The examination of documents and texts provide some answers.  Through this motif, as a matter of fact, a kind of ideological confrontation can be highlighted.

Songbook for ancient Egypt music video (http://music.ancientgebts.org). Includes exercises, plus sing a song in hieroglyphic lyrics! Learn the lyrics in Tigrigna, Amarigna, English and hieroglyphs and sing along!

To have Legesse Allyn speak at your next event, please visit http://keynotespeaker.ancientgebts.org

For the print version of this book and others in the book series for your library, you can order it from Amazon.com at the following link...
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/102-5565860-1204124?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=%27Legesse%20Allyn%27

Part I of this essay argues that an intricate system of succession strategies existed in ancient Egypt with the so-called "positional succession" at its centre. The text explains how these succession strategies (mix of bio-genealogically and culturally defined kinship relations) were valid simultaneously, resulting in paradoxes axial to the ancient Egyptian symbolic system. The text describes the impossibility of individuals, attempting to navigate these cultural dynamics with the intent of manipulating them to their advantage, of escaping such symbolic polyvalence. This essay therefore aims-among other things-to be a contribution to the discussion on the modalities of the individual-society interaction. The argument also illustrates that even though these succession strategies concern the pinnacle of ancient Egyptian society (office of the king), the underlying symbolic dynamics, conceptualised by the ka, are constitutive for ancient Egyptian society as a whole and can thus be readily applied to other areas as well (funerary concepts, kinship system, cosmology, etc.). The analysis is based primarily on New Kingdom material. Part II then tentatively extrapolates these principles to the Old Kingdom context with the intent of identifying possible similarities. If the supporting arguments of this article's thesis are found satisfactory, then the suggested workings of the "positional succession" strategy within the ancient Egyptian symbolic system would have major impact on our understanding of ancient Egyptian royal ideology, kinship system and cultural dynamics in general.

This text tries to describe the existence of a series of cultural mechanisms in the ancient Egyptian symbolic system which negotiated between internal tensions created by the existence of mutually divergent sociocultural realities. The axial premise of the Egyptian system was the definition of a unique, human–divine mediator in the person of the king. This was enabled by the cultural concept of the coexistence of the bodyphysical
and body-political within every king, mediated by the royal ka. At the same time, the system also preferred that sons succeed their fathers. To ascertain the uniqueness of the king’s position (“without his equal”), bio-genealogical filial relationships to the ruling pharaoh were severed through the mechanism of “cultural fratricide”, creating “sons” out of a large group of male kinsmen with various degrees of biogenealogical relationship to the king. This created a strong tension within the symbolic system by pitting the bio-genealogical order (sons succeed fathers) against the cultural order (“cultural fratricide”). At the moment of a pharaoh’s death, at least two equally legitimate “sons” arose. The deceased’s king’s oldest biological son and the oldest “cultural son” (brother/uncle, but theoretically any male relative). This tension is mirrored in the ambivalent term sn designating simultaneously a relationship of complementary duality and rivalry. To mitigate this tension, another cultural mechanism was introduced – positional succession. Once applied, the issue of which “eldest son” has the right to the throne becomes irrelevant, because the individual on the throne becomes identified with his own predecessor, i.e. his own (divine) father, redefining the kinship structure of those in relation to him. This ascertains the pharaoh’s unique position through his self-begetting ability, making him reproductively subsistent. Even though the positional succession mechanism is cultural par excellence, it is (paradoxically) framed in a biogenealogical
idiom of sonship. This means that even though we can, on the one hand, analytically
distinguish bio-genealogical succession strategies (focusing either directly on the father’s male line in case of lineal descendants, or—alternatively—through the female line in case of collateral descendants), and cultural strategies (“cultural fratricide”, positional succession), the emic Egyptian discourse fused both idioms by speaking about cultural strategies in bio-genealogical terms. Thus, the ka, being a cultural concept of filial relationship, is understood in terms of procreation. The title “Son of Re” founded a cultural identity of all royal office holders, yet the solar cycle of the pharaoh’s divine father was described as a biological process related to his daily birth as the sun from Nut. This Egyptian approach, in fact, creates a more fluid environment of various succession strategies, in which individuals could negotiate their individual needs by taking advantage of the paradoxes imbedded within the system and contextually switching in-between bio-genealogical and cultural codes, as their situation required, without the danger of uprooting the symbolic system itself. We may go even a step further and claim that precisely through the diverging needs of the individuals are symbolic systems, composed of series of unsolvable paradoxes, made firmer. Order has always been founded upon disorder; one cannot exist without the other.

The ancient Egyptian tomb evolved rapidly over a period of about 2,500 years, from a simple backfilled pit to an enormous stone pyramid with complex security arrangements. Much of this development was arguably driven by the ever-present threat of tomb robbery, which compelled tomb builders to introduce special architectural measures to prevent it. However, until now most scholarly Egyptological discussions of tomb security have tended to be brief and usually included only as part of a larger work, the topic instead being the subject of lurid speculation and fantasy in novels, the popular press, and cinema. In Securing Eternity, Reg Clark traces in detail the development of the Egyptian royal and private tombs from the Predynastic Period to the early Fourth Dynasty. In doing so, he demonstrates that many of the familiar architectural elements of the Egyptian tomb that we take for granted today in fact originated from security features to protect the tomb, rather than from monumental or religious considerations.

This paper seeks to expose the Cannibal Hymn (Pyramid Texts, Utterances 273-274) as a research subject, presenting the first academic studies about it. Through a analytical approach of the historical context in which this part of Egyptian tradition was transferred from orality into  a corpus of Egyptian funerary literature, the so called Pyramid Texts, and the key elements of that civilization, this paper investigates how much the text is related to Egyptian day-by-day.

FR: Ce livre se concentre sur une particularité hiéroglyphique et hiératique traditionnellement appelée « dissimilation graphique » et désormais nommée « dissemblance graphémique ». Principalement attestée dans les textes de l’Ancien Empire, on rencontre cette particularité graphémique dans les duels et pluriels archaïques, offrant plusieurs classificateurs (ou déterminatifs) au lieu d’un seul agrémenté de traits diacritiques. Est dit « dissemblable » un lexème dont les classificateurs sont distincts, et non identiques comme il est d’usage la plupart du temps. Par exemple, mHy.t, «poissons», montrera une graphie standard si les trois poissons servant de classificateurs sont les mêmes ; sa graphie sera «dissemblable» si trois espèces – au lieu d’une seule – sont représentées. Le présent ouvrage se donne pour objectif d’étudier de façon systématique les occurrences de dissemblance graphémique dans les textes égyptiens de l’Ancien Empire. Lexèmes concernés, hiéroglyphes employés, catégories représentées… L’analyse grammatologique et linguistique jette ainsi un nouvel éclairage sur une particularité peu prise en compte dans la littérature égyptologique, offrant par là même une nouvelle approche de la catégorisation et de la pensée égyptiennes en général.

ENG: This book focuses on a hieroglyphic and hieratic peculiarity traditionally called “dissimilation graphique”, but now labelled “dissemblance graphémique” (graphemic dissimilarity). Mostly attested in Old Kingdom texts, we can see this graphemic peculiarity in archaic duals and plurals, thus showing several classifiers (or determinatives) instead of a single one with diacritic strokes. A lexeme is “dissimilar” if its classifiers are distinct, and not identical as is usually the case. For example, mHy.t, “fish(es)” is written in a standard way if the three fishes used as classifiers are the same; but its writing is “dissimilar” if three species are figured, instead of a sole one. So, the present book aims at studying in a systematic way the occurrences of graphemic dissimilarity in Old Kingdom texts. Involved lemmas, used hieroglyphs, relevant categories… The grammatological and linguistic analysis shed new lights on a little studied peculiarity, thus offering a new approach for Ancient Egyptian categorization and Weltanschauung in general.

Данная монография — результат многолетнего исследования взаимодействия древнеегипетской цивилизации с окружающими областями и их населением в эпоху Древнего и Среднего царств. В основе работы лежит изучение процесса становления и развития древнеегипетских экспедиций за материалами на рудники и в каменоломни за пределы Нильской долины, их социально-экономического, культурного и политического значения для древнеегипетского общества времени строительства царских пирамид. При этом изучаемые предприятия рассматриваются в тесной связи с более широким процессом проникновения египтян за пределы Нильской долины, в котором экспедиции за материалами были лишь одним из важных инструментов взаимодействия египетского государства с окружающими областями. Работа базируется на исследовании многочисленных письменных источников, большинство этих текстов переведены на русский язык впервые.

Scenes from Old Kingdom tombs of ancient Egypt represent our main sources for the study of the lives of private individuals. Written by a number of specialists with years of research, this monograph is presented in an accessible manner to the scholar and lay-person alike. Topics examined include such themes as the Egyptian perception of the environment, familial relations, food and drink, animal husbandry and the desert hunt. Richly illustrated with an excellent selection of photographs and drawings, the book aims to bring the reader as close as possible to the Egyptian sources, allowing them to delve into the world behind the scenes.

توفر هذه الدراسة استكشافًا للمشاهد من مقابر المملكة المصرية القديمة، والتي تمثل مصادرنا الرئيسية لدراسة حياة الأفراد. تم تأليف هذه الدراسة من قبل عدد من المتخصصين الذين قاموا بسنوات من البحث، وهي مقدمة بطريقة سهلة الفهم سواء للعالم الباحث أو للشخص غير المتخصص. وتشمل المواضيع المدروسة تصور المصريين للبيئة، والعلاقات الأسرية، والطعام والشراب، وتربية الحيوانات، والصيد بالصحراء. ويهدف الكتاب، الغني بالرسومات التوضيحية ومجموعة ممتازة من الصور الفوتوغرافية والرسومات، إلى تقريب القارئ قدر الإمكان من المصادر المصرية، مما يسمح له بالتعمق في عالم ما وراء المشاهد.

This dissertation provides a preliminary report on the discovery of a Third Dynasty boat-burial from Abusir South (ca. 2544 BCE), and reevaluates a corpus of 70 Egyptian boats and boat-burials from the third millennium, demonstrating dramatic changes in both funerary practice and nautical technology. The Abusir Boat was excavated between 2015-2016 by the Czech Institute of Egyptology and the Institute of Nautical Archaeology. It is the only known boat-burial dated to Egypt’s Third Dynasty, and the only ancient Egyptian hull recorded with its lacing and wading intact. The 17-meter long funerary barque is a social and technological missing link that ties Khufu's Fourth Dynasty royal ship to the First Dynasty boat-burials from Abydos, Saqqara, Helwan and Abu Rawash.

The first part of this dissertation reevaluates the known corpus of Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom boat-graves. Prior scholarship has frequently assumed chronological continuity in the purpose and meaning of boat-burials and has focused on assigning interpretations based on later textual and iconographic sources. This dissertation challenges these assumptions. Focusing on the archaeological remains, it proposes a new typology for boat-graves, and identifies previously unrecognized patterns in the form, structure, associations, and distribution of boat-burials. These patterns can be linked to an ongoing status race between Egypt’s elites and royalty. Significantly, this dissertation demonstrates that changes in the form and distribution of boat-burials correspond to the wider social patterns proposed in the punctuated equilibrium theory of Egyptian history.

The second part of this dissertation analyzes the development of Egyptian nautical technology. The evidence from the Abusir Boat requires us to re-conceptualize how early Egyptian watercraft were built. This dissertation defines a tradition of “Early Nilotic Laced Construction” and disproves established hypotheses about the construction of Early Dynastic boats. Significantly, while the techniques used to construct the Abusir Boat link it to Early Dynastic boat-building traditions, its overall philosophy of construction is similar to Khufu's royal ship, bridging the immense technological gap between the First and Fourth Dynasty. While nautical technology underwent dramatic technological and philosophical changes following the Old Kingdom, this dissertation reveals how boatwrights innovated through the adaptation and repurposing of older techniques.