Revista del Instituto de Historia Antigua Oriental 'Dr. Abraham Rosenvasser'
La Revista del Instituto de Historia Antigua Oriental "Dr. Abraham Rosenvasser" (RIHAO) es la publicación periódica del Instituto de Historia Antigua Oriental “Dr. Abraham Rosenvasser” (Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires). Su objetivo es publicar contribuciones académicas relacionadas con la historia de las sociedades del Cercano Oriente antiguo y el Mediterráneo oriental desde el período Paleolítico hasta la época romano-helenística inclusive. Otros trabajos con enfoques teóricos e interdisciplinarios que guarden relación con estas problemáticas también serán considerados.
Instituto de Historia Antigua Oriental, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, UBA
The yellow coffins from the tomb of Bab el-Gasus: problems associated with discovery documentation and material fragmentation
The richly decorated yellow coffins and their associated funerary materials are important sources of information about Theban society, including its politics and religious beliefs, from the end of the 20th Dynasty to the beginning of the 22nd Dynasty. This spans a period during which the practice of highly decorated private tombs containing minimally decorated coffins gave way to its opposite, that is, minimally decorated collective tombs containing highly decorated coffins. The corpus of yellow coffins was increased by 153 sets with the discovery of the intact tomb of Bab el-Gasus in Deir el-Bahari in 1891. However, the subsequent development of new understand-ings of these materials has been seriously hindered by insufficient documentation as well as the haphazard diffusion of the associated objects across the globe. This paper will analyse some of the problems associated with the study of the coffins originating from the tomb, highlighting the need to reconsider the circumstances and records associated with their modern rediscovery.
Dossier. Egiptología iberoamericana (segunda parte)
Copyright (c) 2024 Jaume Vilaró Fabregat
Marxist Archaeology Today. Historical Materialist Perspectives in Archaeology from America, Europe and the Near East in the 21st Century, de Ianir Milevski
marxismo; materialismo histórico; arqueología
The use of mudbrick in the construction of residential buildings in the Middle Kingdom
Since the studies carried out mainly by A. J. Spencer, publications on the analysis of ‘mudbrick construction’ have progressively multiplied. However, in most cases, the general tendency is to disdain this building material as a dating method. This paper emphasizes precisely the high degree of variability in the mudbrick construction in order to establish the anachronistic and synchronous evolution of a structural complex, structure type and plaster used. For this purpose, a comparative study of the modules utilized in the so-called ‘state foundations’ of the Middle Kingdom is presented.
The reign of Sety I from the absolute chronology. A chronological exercise from oDeM 21
The length and exact chronological position of the reign of Sety I continue to be a subject of discussion among specialists in Egyptian chronology. Fortunately, various astronomical ephemerides linked to the reign of Ramesses II and other monarchs help establish effectively an absolute chronology for the reign of Ramesses II. This is essential when addressing, with complementary astronomical documentation, a precise chronology of the reign of Sety I. In the following lines we will address this issue, emphasizing the importance that ostracon DeM 21 could have.
Copyright (c) 2024 José Lull, Diana Navarro-López
Origin and Materiality of Writing in Israel and Ancient Egypt. Philology and Archaeology in Dialogue
The material context in which we see the emergence of Egyptian hieroglyphics and the proto-Sinaitic alphabet which is inspired by them, both in the land of Egypt, is related to the organic phonetic materiality that editors and receptors of the text have in common, as a possible access route for an identity construction. The permanent contact with divinizing elements in the mines of Sinai, place of origin for the proto-Sinaitic script, coincides with the environment linked to resurrection and life in the Afterworld of the material tomb where we find the emergence of hieroglyphs in the Nile valley. Although being a linear alphabetic language, we see that the delimited and autonomous corpus of Biblical Hebrew maintains the same versatility and creative power of hieroglyphs. These convergences are illustrated with three examples to conclude by suggesting the possibility of studying the origins and identity of Israel considering the emergence of writing.
Copyright (c) 2024 Adriana Noemí Salvador
Towards a Theory of Pre-Canonical Egyptian Art
The two most important recent developments in the field of Egyptian art are the ideas of canon (developed by Whitney Davis) and decorum (coined by John Baines). Both Baines and Davis insist that the particular artstyle of the Egyptians is owing to conscious artists’ choices within a specific cultural framework. I propose that art from the Predynastic period (ca. 3900-3200 BCE) does not have a canon, but it does have a decorum that is specific to the period, i.e. a pre-canonical one. Due to the specificities of the Predynastic Period, before there were any written texts, a defined aesthetic canon and territorial political unity, it is necessary to develop a theory of pre-canonical Egyptian art that approaches it in its own right, and not in relation to later developments. That is, not as a “formative phase” but as a particular form of Egyptian art. Here I propose developing an appropriate theoretical and methodological toolkit that allows us to situate the figurations of the Predynastic within the history of this period. I am interested in constructing a theory of pre-canonical Egyptian art that serves as a platform for further studies, both my own and other researchers’.
The Stepmother in Ancient Egypt: A Literary and Sociological Approach
The archetype of the stepmother is a universal cultural construct. Her wickedness has reached us through several tales that describe her as a ruthless, manipulative, and capricious woman, capable of doing anything on her own benefit and in favor of her offspring. The stepmother also plays a role in Ancient Egypt. The pejorative view of her is rooted in the threat she posed. Her arrival and the auspices of new offspring could be seen by the children of the first marriage as dangerous, and could involve a “struggle of interests” over the question of inheritance. There was a dichotomy in which the normative social discourse, according to which the natural condition of Egyptian adults was to be married (and have children), clashed with the private interests of certain members of the family unit in the case of remarriages.
Horus Child in the Realm of the Dead: A Study of the Myth in Egyptian Funerary Literature from the Old Kingdom to the New Kingdom
In this paper, we will analyze the incorporation of the mythical narrative of the birth and early moments of life of the king-god Horus to funerary literature from the Old Kingdom to the New Kingdom. We will consider the ways it was narrated, the social groups that utilized it, and the general characteristics of the historical contexts in which it was reproduced. The analysis of the processes of edition, appropriation, and adaptation of the episode helps identify changes in symbolic conceptions and sociopolitical practices experienced by Egyptian society throughout its history. Furthermore, the use of the narrative must have been a fundamental element of the legitimizing discourse of the prevailing order in each of the periods considered.
Egypt in Argentina: the Odyssey of the Matthews-Beyens family Egyptian Collection
Since its formation in the 19th century, the Matthews-Beyens family Egyptian collection has been growing while passing from generation to generation. This sustained growth stopped in the last quarter of the 20th century when the sale of artifacts comprising the collection began, resulting in an increasing dispersion of the primitive heritage. Before the year 2000, some objects of the Egyptian collection were auctioned and sold in antique shops and auctioned in Buenos Aires (Argentina). In 2003, the first sale to a private individual was drawn up and verified by a notary; the purchase included 77 artifacts that were defined then as Ethnographic Art. Most of the objects from this collection are small and include shabtis, statuettes, reliefs, jewelry and ornaments, amulets, scarabs, vases and other cosmetic items, as well as several vessels and pot-tery lamps. Among all these small artifacts, we can find genuine and replica ancient Egyptian items. Considering that all items lack archeological context, their dating has been carried out based on known parallels from other collections, both public and private, and their analysis has been approached by contextualizing them within the collection itself.
Pastoralism and Circulation of Goods in the Sinai Peninsula during the Predynastic and Early Dynastic Periods
In this paper we will analyze the role of mobile herders in the extraction and circulation of goods in the Sinai Peninsula during the Predynastic and Early Dynastic periods, within the general context of the relations between the Nile Valley and the southern Levant. We consider that the pastoral and caravanning practices of the Sinai populations may have been relevant to the establishment of early circulation routes in the region and the development of inter-regional interactions. Subsequently, the Egyptians may have used these same routes, and perhaps their agents, to control the supply of certain sumptuary goods as part of the process of change asso-ciated with the emergence of the State. In order to address this topic, and based on an interno-dal approach, we will identify the archaeological evidence for the traffic of goods in the Sinai and try to establish the possible corridors through which these goods would have circulated. Some considerations on the implications of caravanserai for the development of inter-regional interactions will also be proposed.
From the First Section to the Zero Showcase: a museographic evolution of the Egyptian collections of the MAN
In its almost 160 years of history, the Museo Arqueológico Nacional (MAN) has evolved in several aspects, many of them related to the museography and museology of its rooms. This paper aims to summarize this evolution, from its initial location in the Casino de la Reina, where the Egyptian collections were originally included in the First Section, to the present day in its current premises in the central street of Serrano, premises that were previously known as the Palacio de Biblioteca y Museos Nacionales, where they are part of a department that also encompasses the Nubian and the Near Eastern collections, with objects exhibited permanently and others in the Showcase Zero. The importance we attach to the items should be matched by the way in which those items have been shown to the public, the renovation of the display areas they occupied, the furniture used, and the almost constant increase of new collections, which helped shape the current museum.
Copyright (c) 2024 Isabel Olbés Ruiz de Alda
There is a recurring theme within the mythology of archaic civilisations that we could call ‘The primordial rebellion’. In Ancient Egypt, from the New Kingdom onwards, it is possible to find mythical accounts that develop the plot. We define this rebellion as ‘primordial’ because, accord-ing to the stories, in an earlier era, in all likelihood the first, there were rebels who challenged the rule of the creator and his successors. This threatened kingship could be the projection onto the mythical plane of a different kind of leadership than that which characterises state societies. However, the king of the beginning, once a benevolent creator, allows a violent and repressive power, characteristic of the state, to emerge. As an accompanying effect, the realm of the gods is split from that of men. The question then arises as to what generates such a disruption and why, after the rebellion is over, it is not possible to return to the pristine world. Here we will concentrate on reflecting on Egyptian responses to these questions by analysing three accounts from the New Kingdom and later periods that deal with the rebellion and the irrevocable dis-ruption of the primordial order.
The statue of Nakht’s tomb (TT52): Its finding, hymn, and Re’s forms
The statue of Nakht was located in a niche in the inner chamber of a tomb belonging to a scribe and astronomer of the god Amun, which was situated on western Thebes, current Luxor. This statue is one of the objects found in the tomb. It is 40cm high, and depicts a kneeling man hol-ding a stele. When categorizing this object, we see that it belongs to the stelophor type, which is based on a religious context that unites the concepts of statue, stele and false door. In this article we intend to analyze the statue of Nakht from the perspective of the Material Engagement Theory, proposed by Lambros Malafouris, elucidating its position in the tomb, its form and its text. Thus, we will develop an idea of what this object could symbolize within Egyptian belief.
Copyright (c) 2024 Pedro Hugo Canto Núñez
The Imhet region: Its Spatial Significance in the Interaction of the Fourth and Fifth Hours of the Book of Amduat
Spaces in the Egyptian funerary topography are generally translated as “Underworld”, “World of the Dead” or “Afterlife”. In the so-called Book of Amduat, a funerary composition represen-ted in royal tombs since the 18th Dynasty, the coexistence of different spaces in the immensity of the Duat is evident. Rosetau, Imhet, and the so-called land of Sokar, can sometimes appear as interchangeable or functionally assimilable terms. In the particular case of its fourth and fifth hours, the functional interrelation between the two shows the topography of the Afterlife in all its complexity; in the space of the Duat, one travels through the roads of Rosetau and descends to the land of Sokar to converge in the Imhet, the deepest cavern of the Duat. A detailed reading that compares the general and particular contexts becomes necessary to define exactly what each of them refers to. Our proposal is to analyze the concept of Imhet present in the Book of Amduat, placing it in relation to Rosetau, Duat and the land of Sokar, while continuing to review the previous funerary literature that mentions it, as well as its functionality.
The dance scenes in the private tombs at Amarna
To the east of the city of Akhetaten there are two necropolises with the tombs of some of the high dignitaries who lived during the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten. In them, as in the private Theban tombs of the New Kingdom, we can find different scenes of music and dance, thanks to which we can understand the importance of both activities during the Amarna period. This paper presents a brief study of the architecture and decoration of these tombs and will focus on the study of the different dance scenes found in them. These representations, performed by both men and women, can be divided into different groups according to their typology: female orchestras, pantomimic dances, and dance scenes within the royal harem. Each group has its own characteristics, related to iconography and meaning. In addition, they are clearly different from the dance scenes found in other necropolises used during the New Kingdom (such as Thebes or el-Kab), so a comparison between them is necessary to understand the religious and artistic changes that occurred during the reign of Akhenaten.
The Presence of Cats and Dogs in the Christian Tombs of Oxyrhynchus
Excavation works carried out inside the funerary Crypt 1 at Sector 29, dating from the Byzantine period at the Upper Necropolis at Oxyrhynchus (Minya, Egypt), have provided some animal deposits that differ significantly, both formally and conceptually, from the habitual food products from their own gardens and stockyard and that neither form part of the community regular diet. As a result, they can be considered ritual funerary offerings that are not related with Christian tradition but could be some reminiscence linked to rituals concerning mummified animals from pharaonic tradition.
Copyright (c) 2024 Bibiana Agustí, Irene Riudavets
Tutankhamun and Carter. Assessing the Impact of a Major Archaeological Find, de Rogério Sousa, Gabriele Pieke y Tine Bagh
Temas y problemas de historia antiguo-oriental. Una introducción, de Federico Luciani y Leticia Rovira
Allá lejos y hace tiempo… Había una vez el patriarcado en la antigua Siria. Relaciones de poder y política estatal, de Leticia Rovira
Ibero-American Egyptology: Balance and Prospects
What are we talking about when we speak of an Ibero-American Egyptology? Such a question is composed of two cores: one refers to Egyptology as an academic discipline; the other to Ibero-America as a specific context. On one hand, the last quarter of a century has witnessed a firm and sustained trend towards the consolidation of Egyptology in Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries. This consolidation implies that Egyptological questions in these countries are approaching those that can be posed in countries with a stronger Egyptological tradition. In this context, two lines for a possible discussion are those that focus on the academic dimension (the capacity of Egyptology to interact with other disciplines) and the social dimension (its relevance beyond the academic field). On the other hand, however, there is an aspect that points directly to Ibero-America: is there anything that distinguishes an Ibero-American Egyptology from the ones practiced in other regions? Once again, two possible lines open up to think about the issue: one refers to the double-sidedness of the task of Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking Egyptologists with respect to their audiences; the other points to a question of identity, which is based on a certain awareness of belonging that may encourage perspectives different to those of academies in the central countries.
Dossier. Egiptología iberoamericana (primera parte)
Egyptology, Egyptologies, Ibero-America, academic disciplines
Narrative and Images in the Tomb of Amenmose (TT318)
This work brings together interpretations made from the analysis of different figurative compositions that are part of the wall decoration of the tomb of Amenmose, who bore the title of Worker of Amun in the Necropolis during the reigns of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III. The decorative programme introduces iconographic and stylistic aspects typical of the mid-18th Dynasty. What is more, the iconographic and textual motifs are linked to regeneration and offerings which reinforce the worldview related to the afterlife. Epigraphic studies of Theban tombs have limited the analysis to scene themes such as fishing and fowling, agriculture, banqueting, worship of divinities and burial rituals among others. This publication aims to show the links and interrelation of figurative compositions of the tomb of Amenmose in a narrative manner and takes into consideration the semantic dialogue between the figures. The information collected during the 2020 and 2022 work seasons of the Argentinean Mission in the Tomb of Amenmose (TT318), Luxor, Egypt constitutes our empirical support.
Yellow Coffins: New Workshop Practices in 21st Dynasty Thebes
Yellow coffins stand out for their profuse pictorial decoration. With roots in the Amarna period and in the innovations introduced during the Ramesside period, the full definition of the decorative scheme of the yellow coffins was defined at the turn of the 21st Dynasty. The complexity and variability that characterize these objects required a profound transformation of the work organization in Theban funerary workshops. Based on the research that the Gate of the Priest Project has developed over the last decade in the so-called “Foreign Lots” of Bab el-Gassus, the present study seeks to systematize some of the transformations that can be detected in the coffins of the priests of Amun, especially at the level of carpentry and decoration practices. Ultimately, these changes can help us clarify the role yellow coffins played in the Theban society during the 21st Dynasty.
Recent Discoveries at the Site of the Temple of Millions of Years of Thutmose III
Recent discoveries at the site of the Temple of Millions of Years of Thutmose III have provided new information on different periods of the history of Ancient Egypt. On the one hand, the interesting data found during the excavation of the administrative building located outside the southern enclosure wall, where ostraca have given clues about the function and the daily life of the temple. On the other hand, architectural studies have been carried out in the sanctuary area of the temple, located on the upper terrace. The great false-door stela of Thutmose III made of granite, that was moved in ancient times to the temple of Medinet Habu, has been returned to its original emplacement in the chapel dedicated to the king in the sanctuary area of the temple. Likewise, additional information has been found on the burials of the First Intermediate Period and the beginning of Middle Kingdom located outside the northern enclosure wall and over the recently discovered Middle Kingdom tombs under the temple and outside the western enclosure wall.
Offerings for the Afterlife. A Proposal for the Analysis of the Doorway to the Chapel of the Tomb of Amenmose (TT 318)
This paper aims to provide an analysis of the doorway to the inner chapel or room in the Theban Tomb 318 (TT 318). This tomb, located in Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, belonged to a stonemason/worker of the necropolis of Amun called Amenmose who lived during the reigns of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, in the Eighteenth Dynasty. A passage or doorway consisting of a lintel and two jambs connected the transverse hall to the inner chapel. It contained offering formulas for the ka of the deceased and depicted Amenmose and his wife worshiping Anubis and the goddesses of the East and the West. The study of the lintel and its jambs as well as their texts enable us to define this passage as a liminal space where the texts on its jambs can be understood in line with a reading model based on a pattern of internal circulation inside the monument.
Ritual, Symbolism and Social Cohesion. Hunting in Predynastic Egypt
Hunting has been understood on many occasions from an evolutionary perspective, as a stage prior to social, economic and political complexity. It is true that its contribution to the food sustenance of the Egyptian population decreased in predynastic times and that the relationship with wild, exotic animals was ritualized with the materialization of an ideology or culture associated with the pharaoh, but hunting, like fishing, continued to provide products that were demanded by society. It is an activity that must be analyzed considering anthropological, archeological and artistic approaches to better understand its symbolism and presence in the cultural memory of Pharaonic Egypt.
Research Project at Heracleopolis Magna (Ehnasya el-Medina). Contributions to the History of Egypt
The Spanish Archaeological Mission carries out a Research Project at the Herakleopolis Magna site from 1966 to 2023, being the first Spanish team to have worked in Egypt after the rescue mission conducted in Nubia during the 1970s. It has been excavated in several places of the site: the necropolises of the First and Third Intermediate Periods and the Temple of Heryshef. The discoveries have provided exceptional findings, which have allowed us to present unprecedented contributions to the history of Egypt. The main results are presented in this article.
The Forgotten Valley. The Crisis of a Paradigm on the Valley of the Cache of Royal Mummies in Luxor
Following the discovery of the royal mummies in 1881 and the excavation campaign by Ambrose Lansing in 1920, the Royal Cachette Wadi has been considered a space archaeologically empty, specially due to its interpretation as secret and hiding place from the very moment of discovery. Starting in 2017, the C2 Project of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain) and the Center for the Study of Ancient Egypt (Egypt) has carried out four campaigns in this wadi. Its results let us put into question the validity of the mentioned conception of the valley. Outside of the tomb TT 320, some structures and a cultic area marked by the presence of a torn down monumental effigy, prayers, names of priests and leftovers of offerings have been identified. Common to these elements and others present in the wadi is a rocky step of geological formation but used by humans. The archaeoastronomical observations made in the wadi make it possible to start to understand the reasons for its usage and its relationship to all the identified elements.
Emeralds, Legions, and Nomads: Latest Results of the Sikait Project
The Sikait Project is an archaeological project centered in the analysis of the extraction and trade of emeralds in Antiquity. Since 2018 it has conducted five archaeological seasons in the Wadi el-Gemal National Park (Eastern Desert of Egypt), a region known in ancient times as the “Smaragdos”, for being the only area within the Roman Empire where emeralds could be found. The current paper introduces the results of the project during the 2020 to 2023 seasons, focusing on the archaeological excavations in Sikait and the documentation of the emerald mines.
Reception or Receptions of Ancient Egypt? Different Expressions of the Globalization of Knowledge of the Ancient World
A clear conceptual framework, correct knowledge and use of terminology, and an understanding of how notions and concepts are positioned and relate to each other are essential to any researcher’s work, whatever the field of study and the chronology to which he or she is engaged. On research in the field of ancient Egypt reception studies, one notices the existence of a plurality and diversity of concepts and terms whose meaning and scope are not always straightforward, where some overlap, and even some notions are products of prejudice and which still show a certain embarrassment and modesty. Some authors have recently identified and discussed the need to methodologically clarify the terminology used. However, certain inaccuracies, many uncertainties, and even incorrect interpretations continue to be detected, causing confusion about the correct (or at least, less misleading) concepts to apply in each case. As a contribution to a conceptual arrangement in this increasingly studied field, the main objective of this article is to identify and define the terminology of the reception of ancient Egypt, while also putting forward a proposal for categorization, hierarchization and application of concepts.