The purpose of the present work is to evaluate the role of the god Thoth in the Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, a corpus of funerary literature found most prominently in the underground chambers of the pyramids of the kings and queens of the 5th and 6th dynasty. Following the division made by H. M. Hays, the topic is treated in two parts: the first is concerned with Thoth in the personal texts, where he is presented as a lunar deity and a transition figure, the second with the sacerdotal texts, studying his position in the myth of Osiris and Horus. The function of the god in both is shown to stem from his role as a mediator betwen the various elements of the divine world, mainly through a number of particular findings with regard to the individual motifs in which Thoth is found in the Pyramid Texts. The work concludes with a summary of these findings and an outline of Thoth's nature in the corpus.

Le but de la thèse est d’analyser l’importance idéologique et religieuse des expéditions égyptiennes au pays de Pount, particulièrement sous la XVIIIe dynastie. La 1ère partie (chapitres 1-4) présente en détail les sources relatives aux expéditions pountites et des produits en rapportés. Bien que la prééminence soit réservée aux sources de la XVIIIe dynastie, les documents datant d’autres périodes ont été aussi inclus dans les analyses. La 2e partie (chapitres 5-8) constitue une synthèse des conclusions formulées en résultat des analyses faites dans la 1ère partie. De cette façon, l’auteur examine les divers toponymes relatifs au pays de Pount (chapitre 5), le problème de la localisation exacte de Pount (chapitre 6), le caractère des expéditions pountites en comparaison aux autres types des missions étrangères égyptiennes (chapitre 7) aussi bien que les divers liens entre le pays de Pount et la religion et l’idéologie du pouvoir en Égypte (chapitre 8). L’auteur conclut que Pount jouait un rôle crucial dans l’idéologie du pouvoir égyptienne étant particulièrement associé au dieu solaire aussi bien qu’à la déesse Hathor. Les produits pountites étaient extrêmement importants tant pour le culte funéraire royal et privé que pour le culte divin rendu dans les temples. C’est pourquoi l’organisation d’une expédition pountite était un devoir du roi qui, selon les croyances égyptiennes, obéissait à un ordre direct du dieu solaire. En plus, aux diverses époques on peut percevoir une volonté de rétablir les contacts avec Pount afin de restaurer l’ordre naturel après une période de la crise, ce qui est particulièrement visible sous le règne d’Hatchepsout de la XVIIIe dynastie. / The aim of the dissertation is to analyse the religious and ideological significance of the ancient Egyptian Punt expeditions, particularly in the 18th dynasty. In the first part (chapters 1-4) the sources concerning the ancient Egyptian Punt expeditions as well as the products imported to Egypt in their result were discussed in detail. Although the pre-eminence is given to the 18th dynasty sources, documents from other periods were also included in the analysis. The second part (chapters 5-8) constitutes a synthesis of the conclusions drawn in result of the analysis of the sources of the first part. Therefore, the author discusses various toponyms related to the land of Punt (chapter 5), the problem of Punt’s exact location (chapter 6), the character of the Punt expeditions in comparison with other foreign missions (chapter 7) as well as various links between the land of Punt and Egyptian religion and ideology of kingship (chapter 8). The author concludes that the land of Punt played an important role in the Egyptian ideology of kingship being especially associated with the sun-god as well as with the goddess Hathor. Puntite products were crucial for both royal and private funerary cult as well as for the divine cult carried out in the temples. This is why the organisation of a Punt expedition was a duty of the Egyptian king, who, according to Egyptian beliefs, was obeying a direct order of the sun-god. Moreover, in various periods we may observe a wish to re-establish the contacts with Punt in order to restore the natural order of things after a period of crisis, which is especially visible in the reign of Hatshepsut of the 18th dynasty.

The study of ancient Egyptian monumental art is based on subjective and qualitative analyses by art historians and Egyptologists who use the change in stylistic trends as Dynastic chronological markers. The art of the ancient Egyptians is recognized the world over due to its specific and consistent style that lasted the whole of Dynastic Egypt. This artwork exhibits fractal qualities that support the applicability of applying fractal analysis as a quantitative and statistical tool to be used in this field. In this thesis, I show the fractality of ancient Egyptian monumental art by analyzing black and white line drawings of twenty-eight spearate bas-reliefs with three separate programs : Benoit 1.3, ImageJ, and Fractal3e. After preparing the images with GIMP2 software - used to remove non-original lines - I analyzed each image using the fractal box-counting analysis function in the above programs and calculated their fractal dimension, D. The resulting fractal dimension supported the consistency visually identified in the artwork from ancient Egypt, both chronologically and geographically. / by Jessica Robkin. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

La violence interpersonnelle n’a encore jamais été globalement étudiée pour l’Égypte antique. Elle a été examinée pour les époques lagide et romaine, mais à partir de la seule documentation grecque. Cette thèse a pour objectif l’étude de ce phénomène au Nouvel Empire et aux époques grecque et romaine. Cette approche comparative vise à souligner les spécificités propres aux deux grandes périodes, ainsi que les similarités dans l’expression et le traitement de la violence interpersonnelle. Pour mener cette recherche, tous les textes égyptiens des périodes envisagées mentionnant une agression physique dans un cadre quotidien ont été traduits et analysés. Le corpus de cette étude intègre des textes documentaires, littéraires, royaux et funéraires. Une analyse du vocabulaire de la violence a été menée, ainsi qu’une étude des mécanismes du règlement des conflits violents. Enfin, a été posée la question d’une spécificité de ces aspects en fonction de la nature des protagonistes de la violence. / Interpersonal violence in Ancient Egypt has never been subjected to a comprehensive study. Papyrologists examined it for the Hellenistic and Roman periods, though based on the sole Greek documentation. The objective of this dissertation is to study this social phenomenon for the New Kingdom, and the Greek and Roman periods. This comparative approach endeavours to highlight the characteristics and similarities of each epoch in the mechanisms of expression and treatment of interpersonal violence. For this purpose, every Egyptian text from the New Kingdom, and Greek and Roman periods that reports a physical assault has been translated and analysed. Therefore, this research includes documentary, literary, royal and funerary texts. A thorough analysis of the terminology of violence was carried out, as well as a study of the mechanisms of conflicts regulation. Finally, the issue of specificities according to the gender, the social status and the age of both victim and assailant was raised.

Le mot « harem » renvoie immanquablement à un imaginaire orientaliste construit autour du sérail turc. Le « harem » dans l’Égypte ancienne appelait donc à une redéfinition en s’appuyant sur les attestations connues de l’Ancien Empire jusqu’aux périodes tardives. Les deux expressions qui servent à le désigner, jpt nsw et pr xnty, permettent tout autant d’évoquer la communauté des femmes et des enfants qui y résident, le bâtiment qui les abrite que l’institution toute entière, privilège royal. À l’origine, le « harem » constitue des quartiers privés dans le palais du roi, puis peut au Nouvel Empire caractériser des « harems » séparés du lieu de résidence du pharaon, mais encore intégrés au complexe palatial, parallèlement à la création de « harems » en dehors du complexe palatial. Le « harem » connaît alors un essor considérable tant du point de vue architectural qu’institutionnel, sans doute en raison notamment de la mise en place de mariages diplomatiques avec les filles de souverains étrangers. C’est à cette époque, sous le règne de Thoutmosis III, qu’est bâti le « harem » de Mi-Our, situé à l’entrée sud de la dépression du Fayoum, qui regroupe les seuls vestiges conservés d’une telle structure architecturale, ainsi qu’une documentation inscrite et méritait donc une attention particulière. Nous nous sommes par ailleurs attachée à l’examen des habitants du « harem » ainsi qu’au personnel chargé de l’administrer. Ce dernier a fait l’objet d’une étude prosopographique exhaustive pour déterminer de quelle manière cette entité administrative était hiérarchisée, mais également dans le but de comprendre la microsociété que constituait une telle institution. / The word "harem" invariably refers to an orientalist fantasy built around the Turkish harem. The "harem" in Ancient Egypt was then due for a redefinition based on the known attestations dating from the Old Kingdom to the Late Period. The two expressions used to designate it, jpt nsw and pr xnty, allow to evoke at the same time the community of women and children who live there, the building that houses them, as well as the institution as a whole, which is a royal privilege. Originally, the "harem" constitutes private quarters in the king’s palace; then during the New Kingdom, it can characterize "harems" separated from the pharaoh’s residence but still integrated into the palace complex, along with the creation of "harems" outside the palace complex. The "harem" then experienced a considerable growth both in terms of institution as well as of architecture, probably due in part to the setting up of diplomatic marriages with daughters of foreign rulers. It is under the reign of Thutmose III that was built the "harem" of Mi-wer, located at the southern entrance of the Fayyum depression. The fact that it includes the only remains of such an architectural structure as well as a written documentation therefore deserved a specific attention. We also examined the inhabitants of the "harem" and the employees who were in charge of its administration. These people are the subject of an exhaustive prosopographical study conducted to determine how this administrative unit was organized but also to understand the microsociety that was such an institution.

Les recherches récentes sur la XIIIe dynastie ont abordé séparément les questions chronologiques et politiques d’une part, et celles traitant de l’administration et de la société d’autre part, le résultat étant une vision fragmentée de l’Histoire de cette époque. Il est donc apparu nécessaire d’élaborer une synthèse historique sur la XIIIe dynastie qui réunit ces différentes problématiques. L’originalité de notre travail consiste en une approche globale de la documentation de la période, fondée sur l’étude croisée des sources historiques et archéologiques, royales ou privées, sans les opposer ni en privilégier plutôt l’une que l’autre. Cette entreprise est d’autant plus nécessaire que la XIIIe dynastie n’a été étudiée jusqu’à présent que dans le cadre d’études globales sur le Moyen Empire ou la Deuxième Période Intermédiaire. Elle n’y occupe pas forcément une place très importante et elle y est souvent l’objet d’opinions peu flatteuses. Notre thèse est divisée en quatre chapitres. Les deux premiers sont consacrés à la datation, à l’identification et à l’étude du milieu social des principaux acteurs de la XIIIe dynastie que sont les rois et l’élite de l’administration et du clergé. Les deux derniers traitent de questions politiques, qu’elles soient architecturales, religieuses, économiques ou diplomatiques. Dans le premier chapitre, les limites de la XIIIe dynastie sont fixées, ses souverains identifiés et la famille royale étudiée. Le deuxième est dévolu à l’examen de l’administration et de la société de cette époque et s’articule autour de l’étude prosopographique des élites. L’activité constructrice et les développements religieux de la XIIIe dynastie au sein du territoire traditionnel de l’Egypte sont abordés dans le troisième. Le dernier chapitre traite en partie de thèmes abordés dans les deux précédents, mais dans un contexte géographique différent, celui des marges de l’Egypte et des territoires nouvellement annexés en Basse Nubie et au Levant. Les questions de politiques extérieures y sont également étudiées. Les résultats auxquels nous sommes parvenus contribuent à changer la vision traditionnelle de la XIIIe dynastie, la grande oubliée du Moyen Empire, tant sur les plans politiques, économiques que sociaux. / In recent times, the 13th Dynasty has been approached either from a chronological and political perspective or from an administrative and social standpoint. The result is an incomplete view of the History of that period. The need to touch on those different issues in a single historical study quickly arose. Our work is unique in the sense that it tackles the problems of this period in a global way, based upon a crossover study of the historical and archaeological sources, may they be royal or private, without opposing them or favouring one or the other. This attempt at an overview is all the more necessary that the 13th Dynasty has always been examined within general studies on the Middle Kingdom or the Second Intermediate Period but never in its own right. Thereby, it is often looked upon in a superficial manner and poorly considered. Our thesis is split in four chapters. The first two are devoted to the dating, identification and social study of the main protagonists of the 13th Dynasty, which are its kings, high officials and higher priests. The last two deal with political issues, whether architectural, religious, economical or diplomatic. In the first chapter, once the frame of the 13th Dynasty is ascertained and its kings identified, the royal family is examined. The second one is devoted to the administration and the society of that time through a prosopographical study of its elites. We look into the royal work projects and religious developments of the 13th Dynasty inside the traditional borders of Egypt in the third chapter. The last one covers in part some of the issues dealt with in the previous two chapters, but within a different geographical context, that of the edges of Egypt and its newly annexed territories in Lower Nubia and in the Levant. Foreign policies are also considered in this final chapter. The results attained in our thesis contribute to change the traditional view of the political, economical and social aspects of the often overlooked Dynasty of the Middle Kingdom, the 13th one.

This thesis discusses a small, red granite, Egyptian royal portrait head in the collection of the Michael C. Carlos Museum in Atlanta, Georgia. The head is determined to be a fragment from a group depicting the king in front of the monumental figure of a divine animal, probably a ram or baboon. Scholars have attributed the head to the reigns of various New Kingdom pharaohs, including Horemheb and Seti I, but on more careful examination its style demonstrates that it dates to the reign of Ramesses II (1304-1237 B.C.).

This dissertation is rooted in one general question: what can the wood from ships reveal about the people and cultures who built them? Shipwrecks are only the last chapter of a complex story, and while the last fifty years of nautical archaeology have managed to rewrite a number of these chapters, much of the information unrelated to a ship’s final voyage remains a mystery. However, portions of that mystery can be exposed by an examination of the timbers. An approach for the cultural investigation of ship timbers is presented and attempts are made to establish the most reliable information possible from the largely unheralded treasures of underwater excavations: timbers. By introducing the written record, iconographic record, and the social, economic, and political factors to the archaeological record a more complete analysis of the cultural implications of ship and boat timbers is possible. I test the effectiveness of the approach in three varied casestudies to demonstrate its limits and usefulness: ancient Egypt’s Middle Kingdom, the Mediterranean under Athenian influence, and Portugal and the Iberian Peninsula during the Discoveries. The results of these studies demonstrate how ship timbers can be studied in order to better understand the people who built the vessels.

No description available.

This paper aims to investigate the embalming process and the Balanites aegyptiaca from two pottery originated in ancient Egypt. The two objects were from Medelhavsmuseet in Stockholm. Samples were collected and analyzed with Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR) and Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry to identify which components the samples contained. The results show complex mixtures mainly consisting of resin origin from Pinaceae and the vegetable oils from the Balanites aegyptiaca.