The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology

Three tombs are described, all excavated by the EES–Leiden mission at Saqqâra in 1986. The first was built for Khay, ‘goldwasher of the Lord of the Two Lands’, and his wife, ‘the chantress of Amun’ Tawerethetepti. Most of the scenes are extant. The second, somewhat weather-damaged, is that of his son Pabes, ‘chief of bowmen of the tradesmen’. Both tombs are new architectural types for the Memphite necropolis. The third tomb dates to the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty, and was erected for Ramose, ‘chief of bowmen of the army’. One of the two shafts in the tomb leads, by way of a robbers' breakthrough, into the subterranean part of the tomb of Maya, treasurer of Tutankhamun, and his wife Merit, where a fine decorated chamber was found. The report concludes with details of work carried out on the skeletal material found in the 1985-6 seasons.

The survey of Memphis continued its excavation at Kôm Rabî‘a in the south-west quadrant of the Memphite ruin field, finding evidence of terracing up to the north and west and a substantial rebuilding of the central property not earlier than the reign of Tutankhamun. The Epigraphic Section began its survey of the Ptah temple with a study of the colossal limestone statue of Ramesses II at the south gate. Work proceeded at Saqqâra on publication of the Mother of Apis stelae from the Sacred Animal Necropolis, and on the ceramic collection from the Anubieion.

The excavations of the Egypt Exploration Society at the Workmen's Village at el-Amarna began in 1979 and were completed in 1986. The eight seasons saw extensive investigation of the ground outside the walled village as well as limited excavation inside. A wide range of evidence has been gathered, relating to the life and economic basis of this community, with particular reference to animal-keeping. Although an annual report has made available a summary of each season's results, this article offers a general survey of the village in the light of the new work, and sets the latter within a broader framework of research on ancient Egyptian society.

Reconsideration of the Hierakonpolis Painted Tomb in the light of the author's recent study of the so-called ‘boats’ found on Gerzean pottery. It is argued that the similar representations in the tomb are also incomprehensible as boats but perfectly intelligible as temples. The diagnostic characteristic is an entrance between two huts, but the prototype of the sḥ-ntr naos hieroglyph is also identified. The main difference from the potteryȔthe absence of supporting ‘stilts’Ȕreflects the desert environment of Hierakonpolis. Comparative study suggests that the decorative repertoire of the pots is here enlarged and placed in a human context, in which warfare is a prime element. An association is also postulated between the triple-vaulted hut of the tomb and the wrmt tent used in the funerary rites of Old Kingdom pharaohs under the patronage of Horus and Seth. This and other motifs, such as ‘smiting’, confirm the status of the tomb owner and his links with the later pharaonic tradition.

From 1942 to 1954, Zaki Saad excavated an ancient Egyptian cemetery at Helwan. He claimed to have found a series of stone tombs spanning the Archaic period that enable us to study the development of stone construction. A re-examination of the material yields more accurate dating, largely by typological comparisons of the substructure plans with those of more important tombs at Abydos and Saqqâra. The rarity of the stone tombs at Helwan, not their construction or development, is remarkable, especially in view of the concern for security that resulted in deeper substructures and limestone portcullises. Although the evidence is meagre, it suggests that stone construction developed more rapidly in Archaic temples, perhaps because brick had symbolic value for tombs. In view of all the factors in favour of using limestone for tombs, religion was probably the only force powerful enough to retard development.

Eleven scenes are examined for information concerning the techniques and terminology of making rope. The definition of certain technical terms is refined from the earlier work of Junker and Vandier, and several scenes are added to Vandier's corpus of rope-making scenes.

Official religion is presented as centring on royal-divine relations; decorum excludes human non-funerary religious concerns. For want of evidence, pre-New Kingdom personal religion must therefore be approached through constructing hypotheses rather than accumulating evidence. A biographical model suggests that practical religionȔreligious action in an everyday contextȔmay focus on affliction, to which responses include communication with the deadȔletters to the dead among the literateȔand perhaps divination through oracles and consulting seers. These approaches may precede further, unknown actions. The use of intermediaries to deities and the deification of non-royal individuals does not certainly extend beyond the élite. PietyȔpersonal relations with deitiesȔis most clearly attested in personal names, while the élite display of personal religious involvement implies some general aspiration to divine contact. Later Egyptian society, in which practical religion and piety are more visible and integrated, had different rules of decorum and perhaps a different organization, in which values and religious action were less local in their focus.

Since Priese's well-argued article of 1974, it has been accepted by many scholars that the southern toponym Irem probably lay in Upper Nubia, although Kitchen (1977) and Vercoutter (1980) dissented from that view. After a critical review of Priese's argument and the relevant evidence, it is suggested here that Irem is rather to be located somewhere within a triangle defined by the Shendi reach, the northern Butana, and the Atbara. Historical reconstruction must, at the least, take both locational possibilities into account. The implications for New Kingdom campaigning in the Sudan are that an Upper Nubian locale for Irem indicates an insecure hold over that region, whereas a more southerly location indicates an aggressive Egyptian policy corresponding to those followed in Western Asia.

When ancient building projects are carefully surveyed, they sometimes reveal curious anomalies. Because we know so little of Egyptian building methods, it is often difficult to decide if the imperfections are deliberate or accidental. This article addresses the unexplained curvatures on the longitudinal and lateral faces of the Luxor obelisks, and argues that they are an accidental result of the ancient quarrying method.

In a recent publication (R. Ventura, Living in a City of the Dead), it was claimed that p, ḥtm n p, ḥr was the administrative outpost of the community of workmen at the Royal Theban Necropolis, and that its location should be sought near the Ramesseum. The following article provides additional evidence for the location of the ḥtm, which substantiates that conclusion. It is based upon P. Turin 1923 + fragments rt. 2–8 which mention p, ḥtm n p, ḥr in connection with the digging of a well. Combining the numerical data from altitude measurements given in the papyrus with other documentary and topographical pieces of evidence, the author concludes that: (a) the well being dug (under Ramesses VI) was Bruyère's ‘Grand Puits’, near the northern entrance of the wadi of Deir el-Medina; (b) the ḥtm was situated on the slope leading from the Ramesseum to Deir el-Medina, within 300 m of the south-western corner of the tetnenos of the Ramesseum.

The author attempts to demonstrate, on the basis of the hieratic forms of pȝ in the Late Ramesside Letters, that it is possible to distinguish the handwriting of various scribes. Although many similar forms occur, particularly very cursive ones, there appears to be a statistical difference between the forms used by Dhutmose, Butehamun, and the scribe of the General Kenkhnum. When extended to other groups of signs and other manuscripts, the method described may help to date otherwise undatable texts.

The stele discussed in this article was found by Reisner during the first survey of Nubia, but, apart from a small published photograph, has been neglected. The narrator, a soldier and priest of Isis at Philae named Petiesi, describes his role in the administration of Ptolemaic Nubia, and the rich donations he made to the temples of his native province. The text is partly in hieroglyphic (with unusual writings), partly in demotic, and the stele is iconographically of interest. It also sheds light on religious sentiment in Late Period Philae.

This is a list of corrections and additions to Petrie's Naqada Excavations: a Supplement, by E. Baumgartel, based principally on records of Petrie's 1895 excavations recently rediscovered in University College, London.

A substantial number of decorated Old Kingdom tomb-chapels are published as line drawings, with few, if any, plates included to illustrate aspects of sculpturing technique. In order to establish the identity of fragments that might originate from such tombs, it is therefore necessary to place greater emphasis on subject matter as a criterion for identification, and less on details of style. This point is demonstrated in the study of two reliefs which can be attributed to the chapel of R'-ḥtp at Meydum. Their identification increases the number of fragments known from this chapel, and raises hopes that small reliefs from the same source have found their way into museum storerooms or private collections.

Publication of a slab showing 'Int-kȝs and her daughters, which has been in Cambridge since 1909, although nothing is known of its origins. It is suggested that it was originally part of a tomb at Giza. Stylistically, it resembles pieces of both the early and late Old Kingdom. A date in the mid-Fifth or late Sixth Dynasty is likely.

In JEA 71 (1985), M. Lehner and P. Lacovara sought to explain the ‘enigmatic wooden object’ found on the south side of Cheops' pyramid in 1960 as a frame for the transport of a tomb statue. It is here suggested that the object is actually a cage for a prisoner, which was used in a ritual for the destruction of the enemy. In support of this are cited a relief block from Karnak depicting just such a cage, and the Ritual for the Destruction of the Enemy (P. BM 10081), as well as the so-called Execration Texts and captive statues of the Old Kingdom.

The beings called mrwty or mrwryt mentioned in the Coffin Texts, seem to represent a divine complex which includes both the double uraeus and the pair of zoomorphic goddesses Isis and Nephthys. In spite of similarity of name, the two songstress goddesses Mrty should not be included here.

Work of the Archaeological Survey of Egypt at Gebel es-Silsilah has confirmed Legrain's suggestion that the Amenhotep shown adoring the cartouches of Amenophis III in a shrine on the east bank was ‘the overseer of the City and vizier’ of that king. The same officer must be the ‘Imn-ḥtp also shown adoring Amenophis Ill's cartouches on Legrain's Stela B, where the man's name is legible but his titles are not. It is possible that he was also represented in two more shrines at Silsilah East. In all these monuments his figure and identity docket were hacked out in antiquity for unknown reasons.

Report on an analysis of nine samples of masses of fibres excavated at Amarna in the 1920s, which were examined by optical and scanning electron microscopy. Wool, flax, and cotton fibres were present and also fibres from a fur-bearing animal, feathers, and small slivers of wood. These masses were previously identified as the remains of pillow-stuffings. The presence of cotton in some samples indicates that they date at the earliest to the Roman period and may even be relatively modern. Recent gerbil activity at Amarna has been noted and these specimens therefore seem very likely to be the remains of gerbil nesting material, rather than connected with any human occupation at the site.

The fragmentary stela of Meryre, presently in Vienna (no. 5814), is one of very few objects known from this Eighteenth Dynasty individual. This article presents two partial sketches of the stela found in a collection of the sketches and rubbings of the nineteenth-century traveller Paul Durand which is presently in Montreal. One allows us partially to reconstruct the missing fragment of the stela, and records of dates in the collection permit some educated guesses about the early modern history of the stela.

Publication of two walking-sticks of the New Kingdom, probably from Saqqâra, and belonging to the lector-priest Neferhotep and the overseer of oil-makers Meh respectively.

A preliminary publication is given of the stela Cat. 2442 of the National Museum at Rio de Janeiro, which features a couple, Raia and Maia, of about the Nineteenth Dynasty, worshipping Osiris with a short hymn. Raia's only title is q-d̲-n (in group-writing), otherwise unknown in Egyptian (and different from kd̲n/kt̲n, ‘charioteer’). This word is probably a loan from West Semitic qṣ, ‘commander/leader/boss’; perhaps Raia had been so termed by foreigners in his charge.

Publication of an incomplete, unprovenanced, quartzite standing statue of Prehirwenmef, third son of Ramesses II, in the Burrell Collection, which supplements the numerous reliefs in which the prince is depicted, on temple walls at Thebes and in Nubia. The texts include two titles not otherwise recorded for him: ḥȝt mš' n nsw (possibly an early version of ḥȝwty n mš') and tp(y) n qnyw.

This paper discusses the relationships of the royal ladies Takhat who appear on the monuments. It distinguishes two, A, wife of Sethos II and mother of Amenmesse, and B, wife of Prince Montjuhirkopshef B, son of Ramesses III, and mother of Ramesses IX, buried in KV 10, the old tomb of Amenmesse. The other lady depicted in that tomb is identified as the wife of Ramesses IX. In addition, Grist's identification of Tyti (QV 52) as a daughter and wife of Ramesses III (JEA 71 (1985), 71-81) is opposed and Amenmesse's paternity of Siptah supported.

The elimination of two non-existent members of Montemhat's family (Hetepamun ii and Titenese ii) follows a corrected reading of a text in the Vassalli MSS.

Publication of Naples 237, an Eighteenth Dynasty statuette reworked in about the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, when it was inscribed for the northern Vizier Horkheb.

This paper re-examines the evidence for the dating of the Chatby necropolis in Alexandria. The finds from the cemetery were originally dated by Breccia to the late fourth century bc, a dating which has long been maintained because of the similarity between the Chatby finds and the latest material from Olynthus. Re-examination of the evidence for Philip's 348 bc destruction of Olynthus now seems to indicate that the city was not finally abandoned until 316 bc, thus lowering the dates for the use of the necropolis. Re-examination of the hydriai and terracottas from the cemetery and comparison with the finds from Koroni further indicate that use of the cemetery extended at least until the middle of the third century bc.

This study offers alternative translations of several passages in a letter previously published in JEA 54 (1968), 239-42, based on their grammatical and lexical content. It is tentatively suggested that this document may have served as a Vorlage for someone wishing to recover a debt from one convinced that he is under no obligation to repay it.

A corrected reading of a Greek inscription on a stela in Nottingham, published by F. M. Heichelheim in JEA 30.

It is suggested, on the basis of close parallels in their roles, that the dog head with which St Christopher is depicted in Byzantine iconography derives from Anubis.

The evidence for deer (Cervidae) in ancient Egypt is reviewed briefly. The question of whether deer ever existed in the wild as an element of the Egyptian fauna, or were only known from rare exotic imports, cannot be conclusively answered yet. It is quite likely, however, based upon the records of the Egyptians themselves, that deer were native, whether naturally occurring or introduced. While the identification of the species depicted as the Persian Fallow Deer (Dama dama mesopotamica) is probably correct, the Barbary Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) remains a possibility.

Observations made in European zoos lead to the conclusion that the facial markings on the ‘bleating ibex’ and the ibexes on the alabaster boat from Tutankhamun's tomb are representative of the wild bezoar goat or Syrian ibex, Capra aegagrus. Previous arguments that the markings represented those of the dorcas gazelle or an artist's confusion between facial patterns of domestic goats and gazelles are abandoned.

This article provides a complete, analytical list, with provenance and date, of the plant-remains from ancient Egypt in the Manchester Museum.