Ägypten und Levante XXXII / Egypt and the Levant XXXII (2022)

Since 2018, archaeological excavations have been carried out at the junction of two main roads in the city of Berenike. Following a geophysical survey, fieldwork began to verify significant anomalies that indicated the presence of a monumental structure with a regular layout at the intersection of the cardo and decumanus. During the three excavation seasons, two of four pedestals were discovered, on which single columns forming a four-column monument, the tetrastylon, would have stood. This article summarises the archaeological work and architectural analyses, and attempts to place the structure within the broader urban context.

Schlagworte: Graeco-Roman Egypt, Berenike, crossroads, tetrastylon, four-column monument

In diesem Beitrag wird der Frauenname [ ] aus dem ägyptischen pBM EA 9964 thematisiert. In Übereinstimmung mit der gängigen communis opinio wird er für semitisch beeinflusst gehalten. Die bisherigen Erklärungen von Schneider mit ʾnk „ich“ oder ʾnk „Zinn/Blei“ werden als nicht sehr überzeugend empfunden. Die hier vorgeschlagene Lösung geht von einem möglichen Zusammenhang mit der nordwestsemitischen Wurzel inq „saugen/ säugen“ aus. Das Wort stellt demnach einen Satznamen mit konjugierter semitischer Verbalform dar, für den es genügend Parallelbeispiele gibt. Die Bedeutung „Möge sie säugen“ wird als Bittgebet der Eltern nach der Geburt ihrer Tochter um den Beistand einer Göttin verstanden.

Schlagworte: Ägyptische Philologie, Ägyptische Onomastik, neue Erklärung für den Frauennamen [ ] aus pBM EA 9964

The paper scrutinizes written sources on large-scale food donations in the Denderite nome during the First Intermediate Period, paying special attention to their contexts – the official statuses of the owners of these inscriptions, the peculiarities of their monuments, etc. Such data cast a new light on incentives for boasting about lavish food donations in Denderite autobiographies. While the owners of the inscriptions in question have relatively humble official positions, their funerary monuments appear to be very expensive by the Dendera cemetery standards of the time. The author argues that these Denderites emphasized their generous food donations primarily to justify their moral entitlement to their monuments, which would otherwise have appeared far too sumptuous for the persons not belonging to the administrative elite.

Schlagworte: Ancient Egypt, First Intermediate Period, Dendera, famine, food donations

This paper examines representations of battle in Late Bronze Age (LBA) Aegean iconography and their connection to depictions of lion hunters and figures of power and authority. Representations of battle scenes, lion hunters, and figures of power are examined because of their mutual symbolic correlation and importance in the expression of elite identities from the beginning to the end of the LBA in the Aegean. The paper defines the spatial and chronological distribution patterns of the three types of representations. The main focus of the paper is to determine the connection between the changes in these three groups of depictions and changes in the sociopolitical organization of Crete and the Greek Mainland during the LBA. In the context of Crete, the paper explores the changes in the transition between the Neopalatial and Final Palatial periods. As regards the Greek Mainland, the paper examines three main developments. First, it examines the active selection of originally Cretan iconography on the early LBA Greek Mainland. Second, it examines the disappearance of battle scenes and changes in the remaining two groups of representations during the transition between the early Mycenaean and Palatial periods. Third, it examines the re-emergence of battle scenes at the very end of the Palatial period. However, the paper does not treat Crete or the Greek Mainland as integral territorial entities, but acknowledges regionality in the way iconography correlates to socio-political changes.

Schlagworte: warriors, lion hunters, figures of power and authority, Late Bronze Age, Aegean

In 2021, the Polish-Slovak Archaeological Mission in Tell el-Retaba carried out excavations in the north-eastern part of the site in order to verify the results of a previous geophysical survey. A fragment of the 20th Dynasty defence wall was uncovered, along with settlement remains from the Third Intermediate period.

Schlagworte: Third Intermediate Period, silos, settlement

Urk. IV 733:4–7 is a brief but very intriguing passage from the Annals of Thutmose III. The passage describes a delivery of items from the land of tj-nꜢ-y, and provides the earliest known attestation of this (probably) Aegean toponym, while also providing the only surviving attestation of kft(j)w in the Annals, in reference to one of the items being delivered. Not surprisingly, this passage has often been mentioned in works and studies focusing on Egypt-Aegean interactions. However, the actual Egyptian wording of the passage has never been analysed or discussed in a detailed and systematic way, and as a result, the available translations usually reflect a rather superficial and somewhat approximate understanding of the text itself. The present article seeks to address this gap by providing a thorough reassessment of the text from both a linguistic and a sociocultural perspective. A framework for disambiguating translations and presenting multiple parallel interpretations will also be briefly introduced at the end.

Schlagworte: Urk. IV 733:4-7, Annals of Thutmose III, Tanaya, Keftiu

A Red Lustrous Wheel-made Ware, a ceramic product from the second half of the second millennium BC, has turned up in Late Bronze Age settlements and cemeteries in Anatolia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and Cyprus, with occasional specimens also found in the Aegean. Its places of origin and manufacture have not yet been conclusively determined, though they were almost certainly located around the north-eastern corner of the Mediterranean, with Cilicia being the most favoured candidate. The commonest type is the spindle bottle, of which a specimen in the Egypt Centre of Swansea University in Wales, exceptionally, has an Egyptian hieroglyphic inscription down one side of the body. The bottle has no provenance, but circumstantial evidence favours a findspot in Egypt, probably a tomb. Disappointingly, the inscription tells us nothing about the place the vessel was made at or its contents but indicates that the text was added much later than the bottle’s production.

Schlagworte: Red Lustrous Wheel-made Ware, Levant, Egypt, New Kingdom, hieroglyphic inscription, Egypt Centre, Swansea University

This paper discusses windows in New Kingdom Egypt, the Iron Age Levant and Rhodes, and Persian-era Magnesia-on-the-Meander and Ephesus. One side of the window represents royal or divine powers, while the other side represents courtiers or humble believers. There is a clear hierarchy in these situations, and the window serves as the mediator between mighty powers and daily life. Thus, the window became a cultic entity unto itself, sometimes depicted without the anthropomorphic figure.

Schlagworte: windows, Windows of Appearance, woman at the window, Phoenician ivories, Magnesia-on-the-Meander, Ephesus

While excavating the site of Tell Nabasha (ancient Imet) in 1886, a large Ramesside block statue belonging to the Royal Scribe and Charioteer Merenptah was uncovered. Eventually transferred to the Chautauqua Archaeological Museum, the statue vanished in 1930 and was rediscovered over 50 years later and subsequently sold into a private collection. This paper contextualises the object, provides a full translation of the inscriptions found on the statue, and links Merenptah’s family to several other pieces of Ramesside private sculpture. It also suggests a potential administrative and religious link between the site of Imet and the nearby capital of Piramesses.

Schlagworte: Tell Nabasha, Imet, Ramesside block statue, Merenptah, Chautauqua Archaeological Museum, Piramesses

This research focuses on the presence of an ancient canal or canals that directly linked the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea by connecting the lakes on the Isthmus of Suez. The Canal region received great attention in the Ptolemaic period. Cities and fortresses were established here, and a series of canals were dug for development and defense. The term “The Great Eastern Canal” appears on the Pithom stele from Ptolemy II’s reign (285–246 BCE), together with information on the re-digging of the Nile–Red Sea Canal. The research is important because it complements the previous studies on the Nile–Red Sea Canal and provides new data and evidence for the existence of a series of canals linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea. The author carried out archaeological surveys to determine the courses of these canals.

Schlagworte: Canal, Eastern Delta, Wadi Tumilat, Ptolemaic Period, Nabateans, Red Sea, Egypt

The petrographic investigations of imported vessels from Abydos, published a few years ago in “Egypt and the Levant,” 4 confirmed their origin from different regions of the Levant. In addition to vessels from Early Dynastic royal tombs and from Cemetery B, the samples also included five jars from Predynastic Cemetery U, especially from Tomb U-j. For the latter, such an origin had already become apparent from the archaeological point of view, as well as from NAA and XRF analyses when the material was first published 20 years ago. However, the interpretation of the results of petrographic investigations at the time neglected this option. The new series of samples from Abydos has since been supplemented by 13 additional vessels from U-j and other Cemetery U tombs. The analysis presented below leaves no doubt as to the Levantine origin of the jars and shows that an evaluation of analytical results based on a limited database can easily lead to misinterpretation, which has long hindered the archaeological discussion concerning the significance of these finds. In the case of the U-j jars, this is regrettable as this thus far unique finding is not only important for the understanding of the connections to the Levant from an Egyptian point of view, but also sheds light on the socio-economic developments in different regions of the Levant in the late 4th millennium BCE.

Schlagworte: Predynastic Egypt, Abydos, Levant, Early Bronze Age, Trade, ceramics

A review of new evidence allows us to date the Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions at Serabit el- Khadim firmly to a brief period of intensive expeditions under Senwosret III, Amenemhat III, and Amenemhat IV, with considerable evidence for the presence of Semitic speakers. The recent attribution of the bilingual statue Sinai 345 to Senwosret III is confirmed by a survey of Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions that can be associated with datable Egyptian inscriptions or objects. In the second part, other proposed dates are surveyed and found to be inadequately documented.

Schlagworte: Proto-Sinaitic Inscriptions, Serabit el-Kahdim, Senwosret III, Hathor temple

Three small items belonging to different grave goods found in the Roman necropolis of Iulia Traducta (Algeciras, southern Spain) are analysed in this paper. Their clear provenance from Eastern Mediterranean contexts, as well as their characteristics, allow us to make some observations on the influence and continuity of Punic cultural, economic, and social traditions in this city at the start of the Roman Early Imperial period. The survival of certain Punic features in the face of Roman cultural currents has already been observed and reported by other researchers in various locations in the Strait of Gibraltar.

Schlagworte: Early Roman Empire, Western Mediterranean, Hispania, Baetica, eastern imports, Bes

This paper deals with the analysis of the shaping of ears in representations of pharaohs and anthropomorphic deities found on the walls of selected royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings and discusses the directions of change in the style of this organ’s depiction in the decoration of tombs of New Kingdom rulers.

Schlagworte: Ear iconography, style analysis, Royal Tombs, Valley of the Kings, New Kingdom

This paper addresses a major methodological issue faced by archaeologists when seeking to apply clear definitions to architectural units. Temples and palaces dominate the Bronze Age landscape of the southern Levant. But what are the parameters for distinguishing between these two types of spaces? Architectural analysis on its own can lead to misguided conclusions. A structure must be further contextualized on the local and regional levels, and the use of its interior space must be understood. This paper focuses specifically on the classification of Hazor’s Building 7050, a monumental Late Bronze Age building that sits atop the site’s acropolis. A detailed study of Building 7050’s architecture, space syntax, activity types, metrology, and the site’s urban planning demonstrates that the complex was modeled on cultic, not palatial, space.

Schlagworte: Hazor, Building 7050, Temple, Palace

The aim of this article is to re-analyse an inscription about a royal elephant hunt in the land of Niyi, carved on the west wall of the Punt Portico in the temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el- Bahari. A re-examination and new collation of the original text led to the conclusion that the inscription was a later addition, whose insertion required a modification of the original decoration of this section of the wall. The author observed that, contrary to the generally accepted view of scholars, the cartouche in the first column of the inscription does not include Thutmose I’s throne name but rather that of Hatshepsut, which was subsequently changed to Thutmose II’s. This article also discusses the historical ramifications of the abovedescribed reconstruction of the creation process and the subsequent modification of the inscription in question.

Schlagworte: Niyi, elephant hunt, Hatshepsut, Thutmose I, temple of Hatshepsut, Punt Portico

This paper proposes a new approach to examining the relationship between Egypt and the southern Levant. While the political, economic, and military interests of Egypt in the southern Levant are well established, we ask whether the southern Levant was ever ideologically considered to be part of Egypt proper. In doing so, we examine the evidence, or lack thereof, for the existence of the important political and religious concept of Maat in the Late Bronze Age southern Levant, and how this evidence informs the Egyptian viewpoint toward the southern Levant.

Schlagworte: Maat, New Kingdom Egypt, southern Levant, Lachish, Imperialism