Ancient Egypt 141

In this issue:

– Celestial Harmonies: astronomical cycles at the Temple of Dendera
– Queen Tiye: Great of Dread
– The modern resurrection of the Kushite kings of Egypt
– A Taweret talisman for perilous pregnancy
– Rome versus the Egyptian priesthood
– Athribis: the Temple of Ptolemy XII

Cover Date: Mar / Apr 2024, Volume 24 Issue 3Postage Information: UK - free, Rest of World - Add £2

£6.95

Availability: 280 in stock

Description

Not all the superstitions of the ancient world are so different from our own. The signs of the zodiac used in newspaper and magazine horoscopes were already familiar to ancient Egyptians. They can be seen in the scenes on the ceiling of the pronaos of the Temple of Hathor at Dendera, captured by José María Barrera in his remarkable photographs, one of which appears on the cover of this issue.

Although we must all be aware of how different our modern multicultural, diverse world is from that in which previous generations lived, it comes as a shock to read the quotations in Aidan Dodson’s article in this issue. Many respected Egyptologists, whose works are still studied as foundation texts, held racist views that are totally abhorrent. As such, their interpretation of the civilisation of ancient Nubia and its interaction with the neighbouring Egyptian civilisation is fatally flawed and needs to be re-evaluated, especially following more recent discoveries.

Ancient Nubia also features in Robert Morkot’s article about Tiye, Amenhotep III’s principal queen and chief adviser. If she resembled her small statuette now in the Neues Museum in Berlin, she was not a person to be crossed, and probably merited the epithet ‘great of dread of the foreign lands’.

To alleviate the harshness of their lives, ancient Egyptians took every opportunity to have a party, as Hilary Wilson tells us, and believed in the power of magical talismans like the one described by W Benson Harer. Objects like it were in regular use for many centuries, and certainly under Roman rule, despite the reduction in power of the ancient Egyptian priesthood which is catalogued by Sean Rigby.

Additional information

Weight 0.2 kg
Volume

Volume 24

Published Year

2024

Cover Date

Mar / Apr 2024

Volume Name

Volume 24 Issue 3

Rest of World Delivery

£2

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