Mummies have been considered as 'biologic museums' as they display vital evidence and clues about the life and death of the ancient Egyptian population who lived thousands of years ago. They also hold the secrets of the evolution of disease. The Third Intermediate Period mummies represent the mummification technique at its best. The main aim of this research is to produce a scientific study of the Third Intermediate Period mummies in the British Museum. It attempts to answer some important questions and considers to what extent a detailed radiographic investigation of a group of mummies can provide evidence about disease processes, diet, mummification techniques, funerary and medical practices within that period. Non-invasive techniques were used during this study to investigate a group of seven mummies from the collection of the British Museum. The mummies are encased in cartonnage cases except one mummy which is inside a wooden coffin. The radiological methods (i.e. X-ray radiography and CT scanning) provided new information regarding the manufacturing of cartonnage cases during that period. The detailed radiographs showed aspects of the mummification techniques that were not reported during pervious investigations. A historical account of the Third Intermediate Period was given in chapter one while chapter two provides information regarding the mummification techniques used during this historical period. Chapter three gives information on previous radiological studies and chapter four gives detailed description and photographs of the selected mummies, the subjects of this investigation. Chapter five contains a full description of the methods used during this study and the results and discussions were presented in chapter six. A catalogue with detailed information is attached as an appendix to the thesis to present the physical anthropological data and radiological finds with regards to each mummy from this selected group.

Cette étude vise à déterminer la place du nord de la Moyenne Égypte à l’époque libyenne (XXIIe-XXIVe dynasties). Cette région est alors d’une importance stratégique majeure car elle est située à la jonction entre les deux pouvoirs qui s’affrontent autour de Thèbes d’une part et de Tanis – Bubastis d’autre part.Le premier volume aborde le territoire du nord de la Moyenne Égypte en évoquant ses différents lieux d’un point de vue toponymique et archéologique. Les sites qui ont fourni du matériel d’époque libyenne ou qui sont réputés avoir été occupés à cette époque y sont présentés et étudiés. Le deuxième volume rassemble et étudie au total 127 monuments (matériel funéraire, stèles, statues, objets, textes et édifices, dont plusieurs inédits) qui constituent notre partie documentaire. Dans un souci d’exhaustivité, nous avons pris en compte l’ensemble de la documentation d’époque libyenne, ou supposée telle, provenant du nord de la Moyenne Égypte, mais également les documents qui concernent l’histoire de la région, sans pour autant en provenir.Notre troisième volume fait la synthèse des informations historiques fournies par cette documentation. Il ressort de notre étude qu’il faut abandonner l’hypothèse de l’origine héracléopolitaine des rois de la XXIIe dynastie. Nous avons également pu déterminer que l’emplacement de la frontière entre les deux pôles principaux du pays a varié au cours de l’époque libyenne. D’abord située à El-Hibeh, elle s’est déplacée vers le Nord, à Héracléopolis, puis a reflué vers le Sud dans la région de Tihna (Akoris). De ce fait, il convient d’abandonner l’hypothèse de la résidence héracléopolitaine des rois de la XXIIIe dynastie « thébaine ». / This study aims to understand the place of the North of Middle Egypt during the Libyan Period. This area is at this time of great strategic importance as it is situated between the territories directed by Thebes and the ones under the power of the king residing in Tanis – Bubastis. The first volume deals with the toponymy and archaeology of the Northern part of Middle Egypt. The sites where material from the Libyan Period has been found or is said to have been found are studied.In the second volume, a total of 127 monuments (funerary material, stelae, statues, objects of various kinds, texts and buildings, some of them being unpublished) are related and studied. In order to be as exhaustive as possible, we have taken into account the whole inscribed documentation either from Libyan Period, or supposed to be so, issued either from the Northern part of Middle Egypt, or documents concerning the History of the region although coming from other origins.Our third volume is a synthesis of the historic information drawn from this documentation. Our study shows that the hypothesis of the Herakleopolitan origin of the 22nd Dynasty Kings should be abandoned. We were able to determine that the location of the boundary between the two great centres of the country changed throughout the Libyan Period. First situated at El-Hibah, it was displaced to the North, at Herakleopolis, and then moved back to the South, in the vicinity of Tihna. We were able to conclude that, in spite of certain hypothesis, the residence of the kings of the 23rd “Theban” Dynasty should not be located in Herakleopolis although.

The aim of the diploma thesis is to examine textile production in old Egypt based on textile findings from the Royal Necropolis in Abusir. In the first part the author deals with technology of production of this material. The main part of the thesis is the analysis of the new textile findings from Abusir, the textile-technological survey and their interpretation. Technological aspects, their evaluation and comparison with findings from other Egyptian sites are then discussed in a separate chapter. Due to the character of evidences, the author focuses on two periods: 3rd and 1st millennium BC. Finally, the various archaeological contexts in which the textiles in Abusir were found and the functions of this material were outlined. Keywords ancient Egypt, textiles, production, Old Kingdom, Third Intermediate Period, Late Period, archaeology, mummification

No description available.

The chronology of the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Near East is currently a topic of intense scholarly debate. The conventional/orthodox chronology for this period has been assembled over the past one-two centuries using information from King-lists, royal annals and administrative documents, primarily those from the Great Kingdoms of Egypt, Assyria and Babylonia. This major enterprise has resulted in what can best be described as an extremely complex but little understood jigsaw puzzle composed of a multiplicity of loosely connected data. I argue in my thesis that this conventional chronology is fundamentally wrong, and that Egyptian New Kingdom (Memphite) dates should be lowered by 200 years to match historical actuality. This chronological adjustment is achieved in two stages: first, the removal of precisely 85 years of absolute Assyrian chronology from between the reigns of Shalmaneser II and Ashur-dan II; and second, the downward displacement of Egyptian Memphite dates relative to LBA Assyrian chronology by a further 115 years. Moreover, I rely upon Kuhnian epistemology to structure this alternate chronology so as to make it methodologically superior to the conventional chronology in terms of historical accuracy, precision, consistency and testability.