The author's aim is to present a study which determines the role of a chantress in ancient Egypt. Although both men and women were known to hold the title, it is the women that form the focus of this study.

Cutting-edge research by twenty-four international scholars on female power, agency, health, and literacy in ancient Egypt There has been considerable scholarship in the last fifty years on the role of ancient Egyptian women in society. With their ability to work outside the home, inherit and dispense of property, initiate divorce, testify in court, and serve in local government, Egyptian women exercised more legal rights and economic independence than their counterparts throughout antiquity. Yet, their agency and autonomy are often downplayed, undermined, or outright ignored. In Women in Ancient Egypt twenty-four international scholars offer a corrective to this view by presenting the latest cutting-edge research on women and gender in ancient Egypt. Covering the entirety of Egyptian history, from earliest times to Late Antiquity, this volume commences with a thorough study of the earliest written evidence of Egyptian women, both royal and non-royal, before moving on to chapters that deal with various aspects of Egyptian queens, followed by studies on the legal status and economic roles of non-royal women and, finally, on women’s health and body adornment. Within this sweeping chronological range, each study is intensely focused on the evidence recovered from a particular site or a specific time-period. Rather than following a strictly chronological arrangement, the thematic organization of chapters enables readers to discern diachronic patterns of continuity and change within each group of women. · Clémentine Audouit, Paul Valery University, Montpellier, France · Anne Austin, University of Missouri, St. Louis, Missouri, USA · Mariam F. Ayad, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt · Romane Betbeze, Université de Genève, Switzerland, and Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, PSL, France · Anke Ilona Blöbaum, Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany · Eva-Maria Engel, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany · Renate Fellinger, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK · Kathrin Gabler, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland · Rahel Glanzmann, independent scholar, Basel, Switzerland. · Izold Guegan, Swansea University, UK, and Sorbonne University, Paris, France · Fayza Haikal, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt · Janet H. Johnson, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Il, USA · Katarzyna Kapiec, Institute of the Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland · Susan Anne Kelly, Macquarie University Sydney, Sydney, Australia · AnneMarie Luijendijk, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA · Suzanne Onstine, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, USA · José Ramón Pérez-Accino Picatoste, Facultad de Geografía e Historia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain · Tara Sewell-Lasater, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA · Yasmin El Shazly, American Research Center in Egypt, Cairo, Egypt · Reinert Skumsnes, Centre for Gender Research, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway · Isabel Stünkel, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, USA · Inmaculada Vivas Sainz, National Distance Education University), Madrid, Spain · Hana Vymazalová, Czech Institute of Egyptology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague, Czeck Republic · Jacquelyn Williamson, George Mason University, Fairfax, Viriginia, USA · Annik Wüthrich, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austrian Archaeological Institute, Vienna, Austria

Women, Gender and Identity in Third Intermediate Period Egypt clarifies the role of women in Egyptian society during the first millennium BCE, allowing for more nuanced discussions of women in the Third Intermediate Period. It is an intensive study of a corpus that is both geographically and temporally localized around the city of Thebes, which was the cultural and religious centre of Egypt during this period and home to a major national necropolis. Unlike past studies which have relied heavily on literary evidence, Li presents a refreshing material culture-based analysis of identity construction in elite female burial practices. This close examination of the archaeology of women’s burial presents an opportunity to investigate the social, professional and individual identities of women beyond the normative portrayals of the subordinate wife, mother and daughter. Taking a methodological and material culture-based approach which adds new dimensions to scholarly and popular understandings of ancient Egyptian women, this fascinating and important study will aid scholars of Egyptian history and archaeology, and anyone with an interest in women and gender in the ancient world.

"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"--

This study examines aspects of Seth which suggest that throughout Egyptian history he was continually worshipped and indeed, at times, enjoyed some prominence, notably in the Pre- and early-Dynastic periods, during the Hyksos interlude of the Second Intermediate Period and during the Ramesside era of the 19th and 20th Dynasties. Whilst previous authors have devoted some scholarship to these various aspects of Seth there have been very few attempts to bring all these together and to demonstrate that rather than being something of an 'outsider' to the Egyptian pantheon, he actually had an important role within it, and as such was continually worshipped throughout ancient Egyptian history. In sum, the author examines the role of Seth as he was perceived by the Ancient Egyptians at specific times throughout their history. To achieve this aim a chronological approach is taken beginning with Seth's role in Predynastic Egyptian religion and then progressing through the early Dynastic and Old Kingdom, the FirstIntermediate period and the Middle Kingdom, the Second Intermediate Period, the New Kingdom, the Third Intermediate Period, the Late Period, and culminating with the Graeco-Roman Period up to the death of Cleopatra.

Egyptologist Jack A. Josephson, a writer and researcher in the tradition of the gentleman scholar, has achieved broad recognition as an authority in Egyptian art history. His lucid investigative analyses have probed and redefined the limits of inquiry, expanded research parameters, and broadened perspectives, emphasizing the undeniable contributions of art history in an intra-disciplinary framework. This volume of collected essays is dedicated to Josephson by distinguished friends and colleagues, a select roster including eminent, established scholars in the field of Egyptology and rising stars of the younger generation. Josephson views Egyptian art history as a critical but neglected area of study, and is a strong proponent of its reinstatement in the academic curriculum as an essential component in the formation of new cadres. The quality of the articles in this Egyptological medley is a tribute to the honoree and an affirmation of the esteem of his peers, while the range of subjects and variety of themes addressed reflect the degree to which he has, in his own scholarship, undertaken to implement his ideal.

A book that verifies the existence of secret underground chambers beneath the Sphinx and demonstrates its origins as the Egyptian god of the dead, Anubis • Includes an anthology of eyewitness accounts from early travelers who explored the secret chambers before they were sealed in 1926 • Reveals that the Sphinx was originally carved as a monumental crouching Anubis, the Egyptian jackal god of the necropolis Shrouded in mystery for centuries, the Sphinx of Giza has frustrated many who have attempted to discover its original purpose. Accounts exist of the Sphinx as an oracle, as a king’s burial chamber, and as a temple for initiation into the Hermetic Mysteries. Egyptologists have argued for decades about whether there are secret chambers underneath the Sphinx, why the head-to-body ratio is out of proportion, and whose face adorns it. In The Sphinx Mystery, Robert Temple addresses the many mysteries of the Sphinx. He presents eyewitness accounts, published over a period of 281 years, of people who saw the secret chambers and even went inside them before they were sealed in 1926--accounts that had been forgotten until the author rediscovered them. He also describes his own exploration of a tunnel at the rear of the Sphinx, perhaps used for obtaining sacred divinatory dreams. Robert Temple reveals that the Sphinx was originally a monumental Anubis, the Egyptian jackal god, and that its face is that of a Middle Kingdom Pharaoh, Amenemhet II, which was a later re-carving. In addition, he provides photographic evidence of ancient sluice gate traces to demonstrate that, during the Old Kingdom, the Sphinx as Anubis sat surrounded by a moat filled with water--called Jackal Lake in the ancient Pyramid Texts--where religious ceremonies were held. He also provides evidence that the exact size and position of the Sphinx were geometrically determined in relation to the pyramids of Cheops and Chephren and that it was part of a pharaonic resurrection cult.