scholarly journals Ancient Egyptian Autobiographies, Chiefly of the Middle Kingdom: A Study and an Anthology

1992 ◽  
Vol 78 ◽  
pp. 330
Author(s):  
Stephen Quirke ◽  
Miriam Lichtheim
Keyword(s):  
Middle Kingdom ◽  
Ancient Egyptian

The Social Network(s) of the Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period Treasurers: Rehuerdjersen, Siese, Ikhernefret and Senebsumai

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-287
Author(s):  
Danijela Stefanović
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Social Setting ◽  
Middle Kingdom ◽  
Intermediate Period ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Social Settings ◽  
Or Groups ◽  
The Social

Abstract Studies on the ancient Egyptian administrative system(s) are usually based on analysis of the institutions and officials attached to them. The present paper focuses on the social settings of the four Middle Kingdom / Second Intermediate Period highest ranking officials, i.e., treasurers. Starting with the traditional methodological approach, which focuses on collecting the prosopographic data, this paper further addresses the implementation of Social Network Analysis (SNA) tools for analyzing the obtained material. SNA is used to study people, or groups of people (nodes), linked together through social interaction, and relations or links between them (edges). SNA exemplifies various types of interaction through networks and analyzes them. By applying SNA methodology for studying the networks of the selected treasurers, it is possible to reconstruct more precisely their social setting (both private and institutional) and interrelations, which complement the traditional approach, but also provide new possibilities for research into ancient Egyptian administration.

Cursive Hieroglyphs in the Book of the Dead

2020 ◽  
pp. 577-589
Author(s):  
Rita Lucarelli
Keyword(s):  
Middle Kingdom ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Book Of The Dead

The script characterizing most scrolls of the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead is called by scholars Totenbuch-Kursive or “Book of the Dead cursive” and it is characterized by an accentuated level of cursiveness in comparison to monumental hieroglyphs. This script also presents similarities with hieratic, as the latter can be seen as a cursive variant of monumental hieroglyphs. The Book of the Dead cursive occurs on a number of sources, the most popular of which are papyri and linen; however, when tomb walls and coffins are decorated with spells of funerary magic, the latter are written in cursive forms as well. In general, it seems that the Totenbuch-Kursive was employed also for non-Book of the Dead sources, mainly for texts of religious, magical, medico-magical, and ritual texts from the Middle Kingdom on; in that sense, we are dealing with a linear script that is not specific of the Book of the Dead genre of texts only.

Ancient Egyptian Urbanism in a Comparative, Global Context

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 77-100
Author(s):  
Michael E. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Urban Society ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Middle Kingdom ◽  
Global History ◽  
Flexible Approach ◽  
Global Context ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Urban Patterns ◽  
Competing Ideas

Abstract For more than 50 years, archaeologists have debated whether or not Egypt was a “civilization without cities.” The publication of Nadine Moeller’s book, The Archaeology of Urbanism in Ancient Egypt: From the Predynastic Period to the End of the Middle Kingdom, provides the opportunity to reconsider this issue, using a more complete record of the relevant archaeological finds. I present a new, flexible approach to urban definition, and then I examine the ways in which ancient Egyptian urbanism resembled and differed from other early urban traditions. I conclude that Egypt was indeed an urban society, and that Egyptian urban patterns were highly distinctive within the canon of ancient urban systems. I place these points within the context of competing ideas about the nature of global history.

By donkey train to Kufra?—How Mr Meri went west

Antiquity ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 75 (290) ◽  
pp. 801-802 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rudolph Kuper
Keyword(s):  
Western Desert ◽  
Middle Kingdom ◽  
Short Text ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Dakhla Oasis

In 1990, about 30 km southwest of Dakhla oasis, the most remote settlement in Egypt’s Western Desert, a hieroglyphic rock inscription was discovered that turned out to be the first clear evidence of an Ancient Egyptian presence so far into the Sahara (Burkard 1997). The short text states that a higher official named Meri went out to meet (?) oasis dwellers. Details of translation, interpretation and palaeographic dating of the text are a matter of discussion among Egyptologists, but it clearly seems to be of Old or Early Middle Kingdom origin. The home of the ‘oasis dwellers’ can reasonably be inferred as lying further west or southwest. However, the nearest places with permanent water in these directions are the Kufra Oasis in Libya and the wells of Djebel Uweinat, which lie, respectively, some 600 km and 500 lan away. How was it possible to master such distances under the then already prevailing hyperarid conditions by the only available means of transportation, a train of donkeys that have to drink at least every three days?

Classifying the Duat

2018 ◽  
Vol 145 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-218
Author(s):  
Silvia Zago
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Middle Kingdom ◽  
Old Kingdom ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Pyramid Texts ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Elusive Concept

Summary The notion of Duat plays a major role in ancient Egyptian funerary beliefs. Yet, a single definition of this notion is impossible to achieve, as it underwent a process of evolution over thousands of years without ever designating just one unambiguous place at a time. In this context, an approach based on cognitive linguistics and on the significance of the determinatives accompanying the word Duat can be exploited to shed more light on this elusive concept. The focus will be here on the Pyramid Texts and the Coffin Texts as well as the intermediary phase of transmission of the funerary literature during the period between the end of the Old Kingdom and the beginning of the Middle Kingdom.

FROM RIVER WEEDS TO REGAL FABULOUS: ICONOGRAPHY AND SYMBOLISM OF A 12TH DYNASTY EGYPTIAN DIADEM

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 253-283
Author(s):  
Stephanie J. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Belief System ◽  
Gold Wire ◽  
Nile River ◽  
Middle Kingdom ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
And Function ◽  
River Plants ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

Ancient Egyptian women’s headdresses in the form of circlets, fillets and diadems are intriguing in their complexity. In response to the increased need to indicate social status in a poorly literate dynastic society, these items of personal adornment became a powerful form of non-verbal communication. Garlands, originally made from handfuls of river plants, gradually developed into innovative and imaginatively powerful visual symbols when fashioned from metal and a variety of semi-precious stones. Botanical motifs symbolic of the Nile River and the duality of a unified Sema Tawy (Two Lands) were incorporated into magical and superstitious symbolism that encompassed social, political, religious, mythological and amuletic contexts. The headdresses that were worn were not purely ornamental but, it was believed, also provided apotropaic protection for the head. Flower motifs, material and colour played an important role in their belief system. The iconography and symbolism incorporated into a delicately crafted gold wire diadem excavated from Princess Khnumet’s 12th Dynasty (Middle Kingdom) tomb at Dashur (and currently housed in the Cairo Museum) will be systematically interpreted at primary and secondary levels in order to provide some insight into its owner. Given the relationship between form and function, a novel connection has been proposed between the iconography and symbolism, and the diadem’s use during an annual Nile inundation cultic festival.

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