scholarly journals Laughter, carnival and religion in ancient Egypt

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 26-35
Author(s):  
Andrei Murashko
Keyword(s):  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Mikhail Bakhtin ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
New Kingdom ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Different Order ◽  
Additional Explanation

The article highlights the problem of interaction of the ancient Egypt laughter culture with the category of sacred. A person is confronted with the fact that the examples in question can often be phenomena of a different order, and the use of terms such as “carnival” or even “religion”, “temple” or “priest” in relation to ancient Egypt requires an additional explanation. We find “funny” images on the walls of tombs and in the temples, where the Egyptians practiced their cult. In the Ramesside period (1292-1069 BC) a huge layer of the culture of laughter penetrated a written tradition in a way that Mikhail Bakhtin called the carnivalization of literature. Incredible events are described in stories and fairy tales in a burlesque, grotesque form, and great gods are exposed as fools. Applying of the Bakhtinian paradigm to the material of the Middle and New Kingdom allows to reveal the ambivalent character of the Ancient Egyptian laughter: the Egyptians could joke on the divine and remain deeply religious.

Identifying and Evaluating Atypical Traits in Ancient Egyptian Glass Vessels attributed to the New Kingdom using Raw Data Analysis and Expert Assessment

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Kemp ◽  
Rhiannon Rohan ◽  
Andrew Shortland
Keyword(s):  
Assessment Method ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Expert Assessment ◽  
New Kingdom ◽  
Provenance Information ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Archaeological Collections ◽  
Provenance Data ◽  
Current Location ◽  
Private Collections

The descriptive data pertaining to the remaining, largely intact, glass vessels produced in ancient Egypt between the reigns of Tuthmosis IV (1401–1391 BCE) and Pinudjem II (959–945 BCE) contained in Die Glasgefäße im Alten Ägypten [The Glass Vessels in Ancient Egypt], was extracted and standardized to create a dataset that could be analysed to determine the most typical and atypical features of vessels attributed to the New Kingdom in the corpus. Seven descriptive categories were assessed based on the percentage of incidence to determine if a vessel could be defined as statistically “atypical.” An expert’s evaluation was employed as a second assessment method. The two methods identified 76 vessels from a total number of 320 vessels and agreed on 16 vessels considered as atypical, all of which had little or no provenance information. The resulting 76 vessels identified as “atypical” by the combined methods were subsequently compared with the respective provenance information and current location to determine patterns of collection and distribution throughout the world. The data showed that the Americas held the largest number of vessels that had little or no provenance data, including those held in private collections. The combined atypical tests identified that the Americas hold the largest proportion of atypical vessels. It is not the intention of this research to undermine the authenticity of vessels but to determine if data methods can be used to identify atypical traits in archaeological collections and to encourage the application of archaeometric testing to provide supporting information on statistically rare objects.

scholarly journals Non-invasive wood identification on parts of King Horemheb's ritual couches (New kingdom)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Abdrabou ◽  
Gilan M. Sultan ◽  
Mohamed Abd Elkader ◽  
Hussein M. Kamal
Keyword(s):  
Light Microscopy ◽  
Wood Species ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Knowledge Gap ◽  
New Kingdom ◽  
Wood Identification ◽  
Non Invasive ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Reflected Light ◽  
External Sources

The inclusion of couches as basic artefacts of ritual use in ancient Egyptian royal tombs first emerged in the New Kingdom; these are very rare objects, and very little information is available concerning the timber used to make them. To address this knowledge gap the present paper deals with the identification of wood from parts of ancient Egyptian ritual couches from King Horemheb's tomb using reflected light microscopy as a non-invasive analytic technique. Although these couches are from a royal tomb, our results show that the four identified wood species (Cedar of Lebanon, Sycamore fig, Tamarisk and Christ's thorn) are among the most common timbers found in ancient Egypt. This confirms that the shortage of timber in ancient Egypt forced the use of the few available timbers for specific purposes, according to their properties, and led the Egyptian carpenters to use large logs from external sources, such as cedar of Lebanon, confirming trading of wood in ancient Egypt.

scholarly journals The significance of petroleum bitumen in ancient Egyptian mummies

2016 ◽  
Vol 374 (2079) ◽  
pp. 20160229 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. A. Clark ◽  
S. Ikram ◽  
R. P. Evershed
Keyword(s):  
Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry ◽  
New Kingdom ◽  
Selected Ion Monitoring ◽  
Religious Ideology ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Dark Colour ◽  
Petroleum Bitumen ◽  
And Shifts

Mummification was practised in ancient Egypt for more than 3000 years, emerging from initial observations of buried bodies preserved by natural desiccation. The use of organic balms (and other funerary practices) was a later introduction necessitated by more humid burial environments, especially tombs. The dark colour of many mummies led to the assumption that petroleum bitumen (or natural asphalt) was ubiquitous in mummification; however, this has been questioned for more than 100 years. We test this by investigating 91 materials comprising balms, tissues and textiles from 39 mummies dating from ca 3200 BC to AD 395. Targeted petroleum bitumen biomarker (steranes and hopanes) analyses by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry selected ion monitoring (GC-MS SIM, m/z 217 and 191) showed no detectable bitumen use before the New Kingdom ( ca 1550–1070 BC). However, bitumen was used in 50% of New Kingdom to Late Period mummies, rising to 87% of Ptolemaic/Roman Period mummies. Quantitative determinations using 14 C analyses reveal that even at peak use balms were never more than 45% w/w bitumen. Critically, the dark colour of balms can be simulated by heating/ageing mixtures of fats, resins and beeswax known to be used in balms. The application of black/dark brown balms to bodies was deliberate after the New Kingdom reflecting changing funerary beliefs and shifts in religious ideology. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Quantitative mass spectrometry’.

The Alluring Nature of Children's Culture: Fairy Tales, the Carnival and the World Wide Web

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-184
Author(s):  
Željka Flegar
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Mikhail Bakhtin ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Social Construct ◽  
Time Out ◽  
The Social ◽  
Children's Culture ◽  
Language And Ideology

This article discusses the implied ‘vulgarity’ and playfulness of children's literature within the broader concept of the carnivalesque as defined by Mikhail Bakhtin in Rabelais and His World (1965) and further contextualised by John Stephens in Language and Ideology in Children's Fiction (1992). Carnivalesque adaptations of fairy tales are examined by situating them within Cristina Bacchilega's contemporary construct of the ‘fairy-tale web’, focusing on the arenas of parody and intertextuality for the purpose of detecting crucial changes in children's culture in relation to the social construct and ideology of adulthood from the Golden Age of children's literature onward. The analysis is primarily concerned with Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes (1982) and J. K. Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard (2007/2008) as representative examples of the historically conditioned empowerment of the child consumer. Marked by ambivalent laughter, mockery and the degradation of ‘high culture’, the interrogative, subversive and ‘time out’ nature of the carnivalesque adaptations of fairy tales reveals the striking allure of contemporary children's culture, which not only accommodates children's needs and preferences, but also is evidently desirable to everybody.

When Ancient Egyptians Copied Egyptian Work

2020 ◽  
pp. 146-162
Author(s):  
Tamás A. Bács
Keyword(s):  
Visual Culture ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Artistic Activity ◽  
Ancient Egyptian

Repetition or the practice of copying preeminently structured artistic activity in ancient Egypt. Besides its role in training, as a technique of learning to practice an art, and also serving documentary purposes in creating record copies, it served as a conscious artistic strategy in the act of representation. Different modes of the practice coexisted, such as replication or the effort to reproduce perfect replicas, differential reproduction that encouraged variation as well as emulation and could result in transformation, and finally eclectic imitation that characterized “archaism.” What were deemed as appropriate to serve as models for imitation in ancient Egyptian visual culture at any moment depended not only on the particular aesthetic and historical contexts but also on their accessibility, be it physical or archival.

The royal mummies of ancient Egypt:An odyssey of discoveries and a fascinating source of data

1970 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Frédéric Bauduer
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Age At Death ◽  
Valuable Source ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Egyptian History ◽  
Source Of Information

Thanks to mummification, the physical remains of many rulers of ancient Egypt are still observable today and constitute a valuable source of information. By evaluating the age at death and sometimes elucidating the degree of kinship and circumstances of death, our knowledge of ancient Egyptian history becomes more precise. Different pathologic conditions have been found and the evolution of the mummification process can be seen through time.The most spectacular discovery was that of Tutankhamen’s mummy, the single totally undisturbed tomb, associated with a fabulous treasure.The mummy of Ramses II has been extensively studied, the only one that flew to Paris where an irradiation was delivered in order to eradicate a destructive fungal infection.The identification of Akhenaten’s mummy and the explanation for his peculiar appearance are still unsolved problems.Noticeably, many Royal mummies remain of uncertain identity or undiscovered hitherto.

Marl Clay Pottery Fabrics of the New Kingdom from Memphis, Saqqara and Amarna

1992 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. D. Bourriau ◽  
P. T. Nicholson
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Research Tool ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Nile Valley ◽  
New Kingdom ◽  
Commodity Exchange ◽  
Thin Sections ◽  
Vienna System ◽  
The Way

This paper attempts to introduce a research tool essential for the study of production and trade and the way they were organized in ancient Egypt by examining marl clay pottery fabrics from the New Kingdom. Marl clay was the preferred raw material for the containers used in the transport of food within the Nile Valley and beyond. Sample sherds from Memphis, Saqqara and Amarna are described and illustrated macroscopically (20 × magnification) and microscopically (from thin sections). The results are used to create a concordance between the fabric classifications used at these sites, and with that used at Qantir and with the Vienna System. The data given will allow other archaeologists to link their own material to that described and so have access to the evidence this pottery provides on chronology and commodity exchange.

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