This essay is about female inheritance in ancient Egypt. Death had a very important part in the Egyptian culture. The goal in this essay is to put focus on an everyday aspect of death, which is often left out. That is, how the living was affected by the death of a close relative. Since women had a weaker economic position than men, they are likely to have been more affected. Hence, the essay will focus on women. Most of the existing research is based on primary sources from the Late and Ptolemaic Period. But since that is relatively late in the Egyptian history, it is important to see what female inheritance looked like earlier in history. It is also important to compare different periods in order to see if inheritance developed during time or stayed unchanged. The issues will be how the death of the husband and a family member affected the woman, and how her death affected other persons close to her. In order to answer this, primary sources consisting of texts from Lahun (the Middle Kingdom) and Deir el-Medina (the New Kingdom) will be analyzed in a comparative study. The most important results are that inheritance was based on the relationship between the individual rather than on gender and the death of the husband had the biggest influence on the woman’s life. How big the influence was depended on whether or not she inherited as a widow.

According to the orthodox priest John Meyendorff, the Byzantine dream consisted of the establishment of a universal Christian empire spiritually and politically governed by the emperor of Constantinople. This essay intends to shed light on the topic of Byzantine religious and political expansion in the context of Byzantine view on Barbaricum and the barbarians inhabiting it. The fundamental question asked is: how do the Byzantines view the barbarians outside the Byzantine Empire and in what sense, if any, does this view have implications for the Byzantine dream? To answer the question the essay examines four 6th century historians, namely: Procopius of Caesarea, Johannes Malalas, Menander Protector and Agathias of Myrina. The method being used is a hermeneutical method and the theoretical framework is made up of Edward Said’s Orientalism. The results indicate that the barbarians in Barbaricum were viewed upon with great distrust. The Byzantines considered the barbarians to be ontologically different from themselves. Furthermore, the Byzantines regarded the barbarians behaviour as uncivilized. The typical barbarian was deemed to be wild, cruel, irrational, mostly religiously backwards, lacking in education and, more often than not, displaying arrogance and boasting. At the same time they were mystified, and thought of as physically impressive beings capable of unnatural strength. Consequently, the barbarians were viewed upon as creatures of lust and physicality rather than, like the Byzantines, beings of rationality and sense. The conclusion can be made that the Byzantines regarded Barbaricum in much the same manner as the postcolonial powers regarded the Orient – through the construction of a dichotomy between the self and the other. Concerning the Byzantine adherence to the Byzantine dream as expressed by John Meyendorff, to spread the Byzantine Empire beyond its borders and consume Barbaricum by political and religious means, the results indicate that there are reasons to question Meyendorff’s assumption. It’s plausible that there indeed were Byzantine inclinations to transform Barbaricum. Furthermore, the results indicate that the Byzantine view of the barbarians played some part in shaping that inclination. It’s, however, also plausible that while the Byzantines may have strived to transform Barbaricum, it doesn’t neccessarily follow that it had to succumb to Byzantine imperial authority. The investigated sources seem to suggest that the primary Byzantine goal was solely to transform Barbaricum religiously and politically into something that resembled the Byzantine Empire but wasn’t necessarily a full fledged part of it.

The concept of slavery in ancient Egypt is a debated issue, that has mostly focused upon the different uses of the phrasing and terminology of the different words for servitude. Without giving too much emphasis upon the different terminologies, this essay presents a summary of the state of slavery within the borders of Egypt during the New Kingdom. As different kinds of servitude existed in the country, the focus is upon the types of slaves who were the property of their master and could be bought and sold. The essay presents who the slave was and where he came from, as well as what kinds of duties the slave was used for. The process of acquisition is also covered, before finally discussing the rights of the slave as well as the means to become free of your bonds.

No description available.

No description available.

This paper deals with the embalming process in ancient Egypt. Samples were collected from six objects from Medelhavsmuseet in Stockholm. The objects were one supposed ladle and five different contents from pottery. Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR) and gas- chromatography/mass spectrometry was used to characterize the components of the materials. The result was then correlated with previously made analysis of embalming materials to discover similarities. The results show complex mixtures mainly consisting of resin from Pinaceae origin, also beeswax, vegetable oil and Castor oil. Some samples show differences in the mixture, one dominated by cholesterylacetat. The results of the ladle samples is comparable to previous samples from other analysis and can therefore be confirmed as an embalming ladle.

An osteological study on human skeletal remains from Maassara in Egypt. The goal of the study was to get a good picture of the health of the individuals buried in the graves at Maassara. The study was combined of nine individuals. Two from the Early Dynastic period and six individuals from the Old Kingdom. All the adult individuals have some form of pathological change. Most pathological changes are in the spine. Most pathological changes were age-related. Some of the individuals were very poorly kept and the bones were very fragile.

No description available.

In this essay the author analyses four works in the historical fiction genre: George Shipways’ Imperial Governor (1968), Lindsay Davis’ The Silver Pigs (1989), Simon Scarrow’s The Eagle’s Conquest (2001), and Adrian Goldsworthy’s Vindolanda (2017). All these works feature elements of the conquest and rule of Britain by the Roman empire. The study seeks to ascertain how the novels depict Roman imperialism and compare this to contemporary academic theoretical discourse, mainly post-colonialism and its influence on ancient studies and ancient archaeology. In this way, the study shows how the novels reflect British historical culture and the cultural memory of the Roman empire. The study has been conducted with the use of a qualitative text analysis. The results have been compared to the contemporary academic theoretical discussion. The result of this study indicates that historical fiction prior to the 1990s were mostly influenced by terminology and theoretical perspectives that are heavily tied to the 19th century British imperial projects. Postcolonial discourse, introduced in classical studies during the 1990’s, resulted in a change in perspective and the voices of the conquered peoples were considered far more frequently. The Roman imperial perspective was handled with more nuance and criticism. The result also indicates that the literary works, in line with their academic contemporary discourse, relate the discussion of ancient Roman imperialism to modern imperialism, especially British imperialism, thus affecting the British cultural memory and identity.

This thesis is a study of six Middle Kingdom bread moulds that are currently part of collections in Swedish museums. This thesis is also a discussion on the problems in early Egyptological documentation, with focus on sites such as Mirgissa, Abu Ghalib and Hawara. These are the rumoured places of origin of the six moulds that are part of the analysis for this thesis, three which are from the Gustavianum in Uppsala, and three which are from the Medelhavsmuseet in Stockholm. This author hopes to shed some new light on these objects and give them the documentation they deserve. By presenting two case studies on more modern excavations at the sites of Mersa Gawasis and Elephantine, this author will discuss what can be done to move forward in documenting objects in the future, regardless of if they are new finds or if they are a re-documentation of old ones. Furthermore, by using typology theories, the aim is to look at how documentation can get better. This author strives to place these moulds into a new light and bring forth some much-needed documentation to these types of bread moulds. / Denna uppsats är en studie gällande sex brödformar från Mellersta Riket, som förnärvarande finns i kollektioner i svenska museum. Denna Uppsats är också en diskussion om de problem som finns i tidig egyptologisk dokumentation, med fokus på områdena Mirgissa, Abu Ghalib samt Hawara. Dessa är de spekulerade platserna av ursprung för de sex formarna som är del av analysen för denna uppsats, tre som kommer från Gustavianum i Uppsala, och tre som kommer från Medelhavsmuseet i Stockholm. Denna författare hoppas på att ge nytt ljus till dessa objekt och ge dem den dokumentation som de förtjänar. Genom att presentera två fallstudier av mer moderna utgrävningar vid platserna Mersa Gawasis och Elephantine, kommer denna författare att diskutera vad som kan göras för att kunna gå framåt i dokumentation av objekt i framtiden, oavsett om de är nya objekt eller en om-dokumenten av gamla. Genom att använda typologiteorier, är huvudsyftet att kolla på hur dokumentation kan bli bättre. Denna författare strävar efter att placera dessa formar i ett nytt ljus, och bära fram en mycket behövlig dokumentation på dessa typer av brödformar.