scholarly journals Book Review: Artifacts from Ancient Egypt

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 125
Author(s):  
Amanda K. Sprochi

Artifacts from Ancient Egypt, a new title in the Greenwood Daily Life through Artifacts series, utilizes objects of daily life from ancient Egypt to illuminate the ways in which material culture reflects the lifeways of the people who produce it. In keeping with the general outline of the series, author Barbara Mendoza, a Berkeley-trained specialist in ancient Egyptian and eastern Mediterranean art and archaeology, has selected 45 pieces that reflect the customs, beliefs, and practices of ancient Egyptians from the earliest Predynastic era (ca. 5000 BCE) through the late Graeco-Roman period (ca. 300 CE). The material culture of ancient Egypt is particularly adapted to this kind of treatment, given its deeply ornamented and symbolic nature, and is an excellent beginner’s guide to understanding and interpreting how material culture reflects the society that created it.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Vinko Kerr-Harris

<p>The development of Minoan society has traditionally been considered by scholars to have been an insular phenomenon unique to the southern Aegean. Such assumptions, however, fail to acknowledge the wider context of the Bronze Age in the Eastern Mediterranean. Contact between the people of Crete and their contemporaries in Egypt and the Levant is well attested in the archaeological record, with a plethora of artefacts – imported and imitation – appearing on both sides of the Libyan Sea. Whilst investigations into the economic nature of these exchanges have been undertaken, little thought has been given to the cultural consequences of inter-regional contacts. This thesis examines the evolution of palatial society upon Crete and considers the extent to which interactions with comparatively more mature civilisations may have influenced the increasingly hierarchal trajectory of Minoan society, by re-evaluating the corpus of material culture and interconnectivity.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-170
Author(s):  
Tümel Sabancı

This book is a product of collective experience and solidarity based on the struggle of different groups in order to prevent sexual harassment and assault at universities. Gender inequality, which exists in many areas, also manifests itself in universities that have hierarchical relationships. It is believed that this book will also be a guide for Women’s Studies Centers about the topic of sexual harassment and assault.  Of the 187 universities in Turkey, there are 95 Women's Research Centres. It is very vital that these centers have a feminist perspective. Universities contributed with their own Sexual Harassment and Assault prevention experiences to the book are: Ankara University, Atılım University, Istanbul Bilgi University, Eastern Mediterranean University, Dokuz Eylül University, İstanbul Koç University, Mimar Sinan University, Middle East Technical University, Sabancı University and Van Yüzüncü Yıl University. By sharing their experiences with other stakeholders, they emphasized the importance of SHA Network and intercollegiate dialogue and cooperation. It started with the question “What can be done against sexual harassment and assault at universities?” and thirteen workshops were held in six years in different universities. This book is an attempt to record and investigate exactly this process. Another point of this book is to talk about   “the unspoken”. The problem of sexual harassment and assault occurs in almost every part of society but is "untouched" occurs on and off campus. Universities have the potential to transcend the people involved in achieving gender equality. In this book review, it is aimed to address the differences, similarities, gains and difficulties encountered in these experiences, each of which is very valuable.      


2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (7) ◽  
pp. 716-732
Author(s):  
Linda Evans ◽  
Philip Weinstein

AbstractDespite the ubiquitous presence and vital role of invertebrates in all known ecological systems, insects and arachnids are largely viewed as repugnant by people. Consequently, until nature intervenes in the form of infestations, swarms or plagues, we largely prefer to ignore them, lest our attention invite unwelcome interaction. In contrast, the people of ancient Egypt did not distance themselves from invertebrates but instead celebrated their myriad forms. Egyptian appreciation of insects and arachnids is reflected in a range of art, artefacts, and texts dating from the predynastic era until the Greco-Roman period, revealing many positive cultural roles, from practical to conceptual. By assigning them a useful function, they were rendered visible and relevant to Egyptian society. The Egyptians’ example suggests that as necessity forces us to acknowledge the value of invertebrates—from their function as pollinators to becoming future food sources—our respect for them may also grow.


Author(s):  
Florian Ebeling

The history of reception of ancient Egypt deals with the perceptions and images of ancient Egypt in the West that emerged without direct access to ancient Egyptian sources, especially without proper knowledge of the hieroglyphs. It deals with texts, images and art as part of the history of ideas and with material culture as well. It is not about the question of whether these images and concepts correspond to the historical realities in ancient Egypt, but about the question of the way in which ancient Egypt was referred to, and about the relevance of this concept in the history of the West.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 340-347
Author(s):  
H. V. Vertiienko

The article analyzes the origins of the iconography of a woman’s face with a hairstyle that has characteristic curls, which have been deployed in different directions, on the objects of Scythian material culture. This feature of iconography is fixed twice. The first case are four silver and gilded pendants from the barrow 34 near the village Sofiyivka, Kherson region (Museum of Historical Treasures of Ukraine — a branch of the National Museum of History of Ukraine, inv. no. 2755/1—4). The second case, is the image on the working part of a bronze stamp from the Kamyanskoe settlement (Archaeology Museum of the Karazin National University of Kharkiv, inv. no. VN 2089). As for the female hairstyle on these images, it is not typical for classical Hellenic art, but finds parallels in the art of the Eastern Mediterranean and Ancient East. This style is similar to the so-called «Hathoric wig» in the art of ancient Egypt (on stelae, sculptures, amulets, painting on coffins, mirrors, musical instruments, etc.), which influenced the iconography of the hairstyles of female deities («Oriental Aphrodite») of the Mediterranean. The image of the goddess in the «Hathoric wig» could permeate to the Northern Pontic Sea Region through the Hellenic craftsmen, as a replica of the image of «Oriental Aphrodite» cult of whom may have existed in the region. At the same time, these images could be a «copy» (imitation) made by the Scythian craftsmen directly from the Egyptian original, most likely from some faience amulet, which usually has similar size and sometimes reproduces the head of Hathor. According to Herodotus, in the Scythian pantheon, the figure of Celestial Aphrodite (Aphrodite Urania) was corresponded by Argimpasa (Herod. IV, 59). Consequently, in such an iconographic form these images could depict this goddess. The image of the «Hathoric wig» on these objects can be considered the most northern examples of this iconographic element.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdul Khaliq ,Hafiz Salahudin, Shumaila Kamal Khan

Ancient Egyptians lived a civilized life. They patronized their own rules and norms for their daily and religious matters. The woman does not have equal rights as to man. The man was considered superior and the woman as servant of man. The marriage of brothers and sister was in vogue in Egyptian society and it was also practiced in royal families. There was divergence among the people in society like superior and inferior segments. The royal and elite people enjoyed many rights and preferences in the society. The common man was dealt as the servant of the royal families. This approach produced a big distance among the people in Egyptian society. They worshiped many gods. This paper took a review of their religious matters in detail. It was also discussed that how Egyptians made their new gods. The background of monotheistic and polytheisticapproaches with respect of ancient Egypt were also highlighted. Egyptians daily life was influenced by their religion.


2013 ◽  
Vol 89 ◽  
pp. 181-202
Author(s):  
Roger Forshaw

Hesyre was a high court official in ancient Egypt and lived about 2650 bc during the reign of King Djoser. He managed to combine religious as well as secular posts, and has the distinction of being the first recorded physician and firstknown dentist in history. Healthcare developed at an early period in ancient Egyptian history as is supported by the evidence from the skeletal and mummified remains, from the artistic record, as well as from inscriptional and textual sources. These textual sources, the medical papyri, provide details of medical procedures undertaken, drugs employed and treatments provided - some of which have influenced modern medical practice. What we know about Hesyre comes from his impressive tomb at Saqqara, the walls of which are brightly decorated with items of daily life. Additionally, the tomb contained six fine wooden panels listing Hesyres titles, among them those relating to his practice of medicine and dentistry.


Author(s):  
Friederike Schöpf

Chalkstone vessels, interpreted as objects for certain Jewish purity concerns, found on Tall Zira’a, near Gadara (Northern Jordan), bring up the question how purity obligations were practiced in the early Jewish Diaspora during the Roman Period. In Israel they are mostly known in the region of Galilee and Iudaea, in Jewish religiously observant environments.Growing numbers of those finds in Jordan – also in small scale settlements - in general show a larger distribution of these objects than originally thought. I would like to discuss if we see here a religious concern, a certain ‘aesthetical’ trend or a matter of identity.How have they been relevant to the community that lived outside the borders of ‘Biblical Israel’ and had no frequent access to the Temple or Jerusalem as a holy centre? Could the indication of the objects change in a more Gentile environment like Jordan?These material finds could be an opportunity to approach a wider understanding of the daily life of the early Diaspora.


Author(s):  
Oskar Kaelin

The ancient Egyptians were surrounded by various manifestations of their many gods. Though their gods usually lived in heaven or in the netherworlds, they were permanently represented on earth by monuments, statues, symbols, animals, and plants, as well as by social concepts. The Egyptians described their gods by various names and images, always aware that in the end their true personalities and characters remained elusive. The ancient Egyptian universe comprised heaven, earth, and netherworld, all part of creation and surrounded by eternal darkness. Though separate areas, they were permeable for the gods and the dead. The universe ran smoothly as long as there was respect and cooperation between them and the living. This formed an ideological, social, and economic cohesion. The gods were powerful but benevolent, and approachable in many ways. The divine king was the hub between the world of the gods and the human sphere. He was the main entity responsible for organizing the supply and welfare of the humans, and for keeping order. During official festivals, the living, the gods, and the dead celebrated together, but there were also a number of more personal ways to approach deities. The various sites of interaction between gods and men formed a vast network connecting all the players: the gods were responsible for creation and abundance, the kings and elites were primarily responsible for ensuring that the system ran according to Maat (“Order”), and the people were responsible for living and working throughout the country. The system of ancient Egyptian gods structured Egyptian ideas, policies, and everyday life from the end of the 4th millennium bce to the rise of Christianity and beyond. The ancient Egyptians’ beliefs were polytheistic, acknowledging the existence of thousands of gods and endless deceased humans. At times, the ancient Egyptians appeared to be henotheistic and would exalt a deity in his or her uniqueness. Moreover, with Akhenaten, they were the first to experiment with monotheism, though that did not last much longer than a decade. The ideas and images created for the Egyptian gods and religion had an impact on many contemporaneous cultures, as well as on later religions.


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