Studying Ramesses IIa (TM)s Dedicatory Inscription in detail allows one to connect it with the development of the Solar-Osirian theology postdating the Amarna Period of Egypt. This study thus links the historical background of the pharaoha (TM)s visit to Abydos at the very beginning of his first regnal year with the religious aspects of early Dynasty XIX.

"The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East offers a comprehensive and fully illustrated survey of the history of Egypt and Western Asia (Levant, Anatolia, Mesopotamia and Iran) in five volumes, from the emergence of complex states to the conquest of Alexander of Great. The authors represent a highly international mix of leading academics whose expertise brings alive the people, places and times of the remote past. The emphasis lies firmly on the political and social histories of the states and communities under investigation. The individual chapters present the key textual and material sources underpinning the historical reconstruction, giving special attention to the most recent archaeological finds and how they have impacted our interpretation. The first volume covers the long period from the mid-tenth millennium to the late third millennium BC and presents the history of the Near East in ten chapters "From the Beginnings to Old Kingdom Egypt and the Dynasty of Akkad". Key topics include the domestication of animals and plants, the first permanent settlements, the subjugation and appropriation of the natural environment, the emergence of complex states and belief systems, the invention of the earliest writing systems and the wide-ranging trade networks that linked diverse population groups across deserts, mountains and oceans"--

A meticulous study of the social, economic, and religious significance of coffin reuse and development during the Ramesside and early Third Intermediate periods, illustrated with over 900 images Funerary datasets are the chief source of social history in Egyptology, and the numerous tombs, coffins, Books of the Dead, and mummies of the Twentieth and Twenty-first Dynasties have not been fully utilized as social documents, mostly because the data of this time period is scattered and difficult to synthesize. This culmination of fifteen years of coffin study analyzes coffins and other funerary equipment of elites from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-second Dynasties to provide essential windows into social strategies and adaptations employed during the Bronze Age collapse and subsequent Iron Age reconsolidation. Many Twentieth to Twenty-second Dynasty coffins show evidence of reuse from other, older coffins, as well as obvious marks where gilding or inlay have been removed. Innovative vignettes painted onto coffin surfaces reflect new religious strategies and coping mechanisms within this time of crisis, while advances in mummification techniques reveal an Egyptian anxiety about long-term burial without coffins as a new style of stuffed and painted mummy was developed for the wealthy. It was in the context of necropolis insecurity, economic crisis, and group burial in reused and unpainted chambers that a complex, polychrome coffin style emerged. The first part of this book focuses on the theory and evidence of coffin reuse, contextualized within the social collapse that characterized the Twentieth and Twenty-first Dynasties. The second part presents photo essays of annotated visual data for over sixty Egyptian coffins from the so-called Royal Caches, most of them from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Illustrated throughout with high-quality images, the line drawings and color and black-and-white photographs are ideal for careful study, especially evidenced in the digital edition, where pages can be enlarged for close examination.

The present work is the result of the First International Chariot Conference, jointly organised by the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo (NVIC) and the American University in Cairo (AUC) (30 November to 2 December 2012). The intention of the conference was to make a broad assessment of the current state of knowledge about chariots in Egypt and the Near East, and to provide a forum for discussion. A wide variety of papers are included, ranging from overviews to more detailed studies focusing on a specific topic. These include philology, iconography, archaeology, engineering, history, and conservation. The book is of interest to scholars as well as anyone with an interest in ancient technology, transportation, or warfare.

Taking ancient records as the starting point for analysis, this book theorises the state, administration and economy of ancient Egypt. The Egyptian state is theorised as an administrative field of material and symbolic powers with emphasis upon the latter because it has received scant attention in Egyptology. Maat (truth, fairness, connective justice) is theorised as symbolic power discursively authored, disseminated and monitored by senior administrators who redefined its meaning to suit changes in the sociopolitical contexts. The book examines the classification schemes of the Egyptian population devised by the administrative field of power and how they were used to differentiate, hierarchise and fix specific individuals within clearly demarcated social and economic categories that aimed to fix the subjectivity of those assigned to each category. Ancient Egyptian had a significant state economic sector and a private sector. A multiplicity of sources of state economic resources are examined: taxation/ impost, war booty and tributes, and gifts exchanged between the Egyptian kings and foreign kings. A nuanced understanding of Polanyi’s work on redistribution is used to theorise the cycle of levying, collecting, storing and redistributing tax revenues. Exchanges of gifts between Egyptian kings and kings from Asia Minor are theorised as occurring on a stage of institutional drama, war booty as an ‘economy of force’ and tribute as an economy of restitution. Private exchange is theorised by developing the concept of ‘sociable markets’ and drawing on Maat in its various meanings as truth, fairness and connective justice. This book will be of interest to readers in the fields of economic history, ancient Egypt and ancient history more broadly.