The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology

This report on the 2007–8 seasons at Tell el-Amarna summarises continued work on the Stone Village, South Tombs Cemetery, the desert GPS survey, and the study of the Christian remains around the tomb of Panehsy (no. 6). As an experiment to complement the surveys, a 3D laser scanner was used for landscape studies at several points. No building repair work was undertaken. Post-excavation work covered charcoal, human bones (involving a larger team from the University of Arkansas), small finds, carved block and statue fragments from the Great Palace, Kom el-Nana, and el-Mangara (many in the SCA magazine at el-Ashmunein), animal bones and pottery from grid 12 and from the cemetery. Experiments were continued into the manufacturing process of faience.

The 2007 season of the Minufiyeh Archaeological Survey commenced with a topographic survey at Quesna, and continued with the opening of two test trenches to evaluate the results of a magnetometry survey undertaken in 2006. These renewed investigations in 2007 were situated to the west of the mausoleum, and revealed burials of the Ptolemaic and Roman periods; these included simple pit burials, mud-brick burials, and ceramic coffins. The second trench was aimed at better understanding a rectangular structure adjoining the falcon necropolis in the west, and was successful in locating a multi-room mud-brick building with internal and external walls defined. The initial interpretation of this structure is that it served as an entrance building, originally with vaulted ceilings, which led beneath the ancient ground level and, it might be assumed, into the corridors of the falcon necropolis.

Tell Gabbara, a previously undocumented site in the Sharqiya province, has recently produced evidence of a Naqada III settlement in the latest phase of its occupation. The economic nature of the community is beginning to emerge as a highly productive agricultural one in which grain harvesting and bread production played important roles, perhaps within the context of a larger redistributive system. This is supported by an archaeological record containing a large corpus of bread moulds, sickle blades, and mud-brick architecture, the latter beginning to appear over a significant area. It is likely that the population at this site was part of a larger network of Naqada III settlement throughout the delta, and thus was part of a system characterised by social, cultural, and economic developments accelerated by the unification.

The publication of two coffins presently in the City Museum and Art Gallery in Plymouth, England. Dating to the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, they are interesting examples of inner coffins of their period, that of Tairy having an unusual arm arrangement. They also have an intriguing modern history, and an attempt is made to trace them from their first appearance at the Bristol Institution (ancestor of the modern City Museum & Art Gallery) in 1834, through the Bristolian private collection of mid-nineteenth century collector and traveller Thomas Pease (1816–1884), to their arrival in Plymouth in 1919.

A discussion of the use of various determinatives attached to foreign places has become an ongoing topic of research. The following study concentrates upon the city and foreign-land determinatives and their changing use from the Middle Kingdom onwards. Special attention is given to alterations at the close of the Eighteenth Dynasty, as well as the common use of the throw-stick determinative. Differing hieratic and hieroglyphic usages are also covered. This analysis focuses upon the concept of ‘foreignness’ as it pertains to towns and cities located at the periphery of Egypt in the north-east.

During the New Kingdom, Egypt began a military campaign to regain command over Nubia. Extremely successful, their control extended to the fourth cataract by the time of Thutmose III. The circumstances of this power, however, are not well known. It is unclear whether Egyptian colonists or locals administered Nubia during this time. Using a bioarchaeological approach via the study of human skeletal remains and archaeological data from the New Kingdom site of Tombos in Nubia and comparative Egyptian and Nubian skeletal samples, this paper addresses these long-standing questions. Analyses suggest that the Tombos individuals were an ethnically and biologically mixed group. The examination of health indicators suggests that the people of Tombos endured a relatively high degree of physiological stress, despite possible resources obtained through trade networks. Additionally, the Egyptianisation of Nubians at Tombos may have provided a peaceful environment in which few traumatic injuries were seen.

This paper deals with the demotic funerary stelae from the site of Tell Nebesheh, an area which was excavated by W. M. F. Petrie a century ago. At that time no demotic objects were found. The stelae published here are from later private finds or purchased on the antiquities market. They are translated and analysed anew, with special focus on the iconographic similarity between these stelae, which have hitherto not been commented on as a corpus. In addition a bibliography of all known Demotic epigraphic records from the Delta is given.

One of the topics of dispute concerning the animal world of Ancient Egypt is the presence (indigenous or introduced) of deer. Though depicted on several occasions in (pre)dynastic iconography, osseous remains of deer from archaeological contexts have been rare. Excavations at Qantir/Piramesse in the eastern Delta produced a comparatively large sample totalling 35 deer bones. Most finds date to the late Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties. Both cranial and post-cranial skeletal elements are present, implying the presence of living deer near Qantir. Based on the size of these bone specimens the taxonomic status of the animals recorded from the eastern Delta during the second millennium BC has been verified. The results summarised here permit a reconsideration of the issue of the presence of deer in Ancient Egypt.

This article focuses on the collecting activities of the Reverend William Hodge Mill and Robert Curzon, which both occurred in 1838. Thanks to the decipherment of the Demotic ostraca acquired by both men, it has been possible to conclude that many of their antiquities were collected in Thebes at about the same time. While Robert Curzon is a well known manuscript collector, his contribution to Egyptian antiquities has tended to be understudied. Here his collection of antiquities is discussed in detail, including the location of some of the objects sold at auction after his death. The Reverend William Hodge Mill's collecting activities have not been identified until now. He collected far fewer objects than Robert Curzon, probably for financial reasons, but both men were interested in examples of ancient writing.

Although the period of the Thirtieth Dynasty is characterised by conflicts between the peoples of the Mediterranean world and the Persians, Nekhtnebef (I) and Nekhthorheb (II) were able to implement an extensive building programme, which is reflected in construction work throughout Egypt. Bubastis in the Eastern Delta benefited from this programme: Nekhthorheb II renewed the rear part of the Great Temple of Bastet and — in the course of these building activities — dedicated a couple of granite shrines. Recently discovered shrine fragments from Tell Basta allow a reconstruction of the architecture and decoration of the naos of ‘Bastet, lady of the shrine’ in its original context: the naos was provided with an additional inner niche, whose socle was decorated with the icon of the ‘unification of the Two Lands’ and seems to have housed a processional image of Bastet. The shrine offers promising insights into a sphere which has not yet been satisfactorily studied.

The fragmentary statue base of Senwosret I held at the Egyptian Museum of Florence (inv. 6328) is part of an almost human-size representation of the king walking on the Nine Bows. The name of a deity (most likely Amun) inscribed alongside the king's Horus name was defaced, probably during the reign of Amenhotep IV/Akhenaton. The different parallels collected from the royal statuary of Senwosret I, the study of the formula ‘nḫ, ḏd, w3s nb r rdwy nṯ nfr pn ‘all life, stability and dominion are at the feet of this perfect god’, and its occurrences show that the statue is linked to the Theban area. The fragment is probably the remnant of a larger statuary group of the king and a deity.

Two examples of reused granite columns are discussed, displaying a variety of techniques of reuse in the Ramessid Period. One column, found at Tell El Yahûdîyeh, has been misinterpreted since the end of the Nineteenth Century. The other shows a unique formulation of a monolithic column into a sculpture, in which the monolithic granite column was eventually turned upside down to produce a larger naophorus statue out of the ‘entasis’ of the six-stemmed papyrus shaft. The origin of both columns can be attributed to the royal buildings of the Fifth Dynasty, perhaps from Abusir.

In general it is difficult to base reliable estimates of the date of a petroglyph on its degree of patination because the rate at which the patina forms is unknown. In some cases, however, the conditions to which adjacent images have been subject, and therefore their rate of patination, can be assumed to be similar and the sequence in which they were drawn can be deduced. One such, in the Eastern Desert east of Kom Ombo, is reported here. Groups of images of different subjects, mainly animals and anthropoids, drawn in different styles, can be distinguished and conclusions about their ages can be drawn.

Against the background of KV 63's discovery, evidence for embalming caches of the New Kingdom, both inside and outside the Valley of the Kings, is summarily reviewed. Analysis of the location of those in KV 36, KV 46, and the chamber with the burial of Senenmut's parents below his tomb (TT 71) suggests that all three may represent reburials. A survey of earlier and later embalming caches leads to the rejection of arguments for proposing a connection between them and G 7000x, the so-called tomb of Queen Hetepheres I.

Three fourth century bc Demotic inscriptions on the ceiling of underground limestone quarries in Deir el-Bersha turn out to be written from left to right with reversed signs. The only parallel for these Demotic reversals is another inscription on a quarry ceiling not far from Ptolemaïs, where parts are also written in mirror script.

Many questions surround the identity of the Amarna Period royal figures who succeeded Akhenaten. The recent discovery of an uninscribed fragmentary relief of one of these shadowy figures at Tell el-Borg, north Sinai, is treated in detail. On stylistic grounds, the image appears not to be that of Akhenaten or Tutankhamun, thus opening the door to the possibility that it is Ankhkheperure. This possibility is enhanced by the fact that the name of this elusive king was discovered on two wine-jar seal impressions found at Tell el-Borg.

A study of the effect of a flash-flood on the ancient topography of the Valley of the Kings based on a visual survey undertaken in February 2006. Examination of the original excavator's reports of tombs cut into the floor of the Valley shows evidence of a flash-flood at the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty, the debris from which concealed a number of tombs intact.