Egyptian Archaeology

This article updates my study "Study of Cheops Pyramid Degrees" (Academia, June 2016), and incorporates graphs from "Study of Cheops Block Size Measurements" (Academia, December 2019). It deepens the analysis of step thickness variations first observed by J. Tarrel in 1924, correlating them with EDF density measurements and block height data. A structure of successive steps or degrees is proposed, revealing a potential mathematical organization in the construction of the Great Pyramid of Khufu.

Apotropaic Symbolism Medusa was the only mortal among the Gorgons who could be killed. The hero Perseus beheaded her with a sickle, a curved blade, while she was asleep. To avoid looking directly at her, he used his metal shield to observe her reflection. Her severed head, known as a gorgoneion, had the power to ward off evil spirits, curses, and ill wishes. As a result, beads depicting her carry a special apotropaic meaning, helping to repel all forms of bad luck.

The tomb of Rashepses, situated to the north of Netjerikhet’s Step Pyramid complex in Saqqara, was already known in the early 1800s. James Burton, who travelled in Egypt between 1820 and 1839, visited the tomb around 1827.
The first scientific-like exploration of the tomb was undertaken by Karl Richard Lepsius, who briefly excavated a small part of the tomb and copied some of its scenes and inscriptions. He also made a rough plan of the structure.
In 1907 and 1908 James E. Quibell pursued a small work in the mastaba. In his extremely brief report, he mentions the northern passage of the tomb, with numerous later burials. 
Since 2010 the exploration of the tomb has been continued by the team of the Supreme Council of the Antiquities headed by the principal investigator. Previously unknown parts of the mastaba were cleaned, including above all a room with a false-door. The newly explored parts of the tomb revealed a partly preserved relief decoration with remains of its original colors. In addition to the superstructure, also the burial chamber has been cleaned, which is beautifully decorated with paintings.

The tomb of Ramesses IX (KV 6) in the Valley of the Kings preserves two versions of the so-called "Book of the Awakening of Osiris and the Transit of the Solar Barques". The first is located on the rear wall of the sarcophagus chamber, while the second appears on the astronomical ceiling of the second corridor. The former was included in the critical edition of this composition prepared by Joshua Aaron Roberson ("The Awakening of Osiris and the Transit of the Solar Barques: Royal Apotheosis in a Most Concise Book of the Underworld and Sky", Freiburg–Göttingen 2013), whereas the latter was omitted and has therefore long remained unpublished. The present paper, which includes the author's original hand-copies, aims to describe this second version of the text and to provide its translation.

La tomba di Ramesse IX (KV 6), situata nella Valle dei Re, conserva due versioni del cosiddetto "Libro del Risveglio di Osiride e del transito delle barche solari". La prima si trova sulla parete di fondo della camera del sarcofago, mentre la seconda è collocata sul soffitto astronomico del secondo corridoio. La prima versione è stata inclusa nell’edizione critica di riferimento del componimento, curata da Joshua Aaron Roberson ("The Awakening of Osiris and the Transit of the Solar Barques: Royal Apotheosis in a Most Concise Book of the Underworld and Sky", Freiburg–Göttingen 2013), mentre la seconda ne è rimasta esclusa e pertanto è rimasta a lungo inedita. Il presente saggio, contenente apografi originali dell'autore, si propone di descrivere questa seconda versione del testo e di fornirne la traduzione.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior consent of the publisher. ISBN: 0-9779370-0-3

Story telling is indisputably a trending and effective way of revealing the value of the items displayed in the museums. By the continuous development of VR technologies, using AI technology in story telling will immerse the user with an exquisite experience during his/her visit. Admittedly, AI technology has become a creative method in the field of museums. By the recent re-inauguration of the Graeco-Roman Museum in Alexandria, applying AI story telling in this museum will be an innovative way to induce a favorable attitude toward the cultural heritage of Alexandria and promoting for the heritage of the city. This research aims to provide a better understanding of the effectiveness of AI story telling the Graeco-Roman Museum of Alexandria and its role in promoting for the cultural heritage of the city. Furthermore, the research examines the role of AI story telling in the experienec of visiting the museum in question and its effetivness in the frequency of visiting it once again. The research will presnet diverse AI story telling scenarios relevant to the main themes of the museusm in question.

In 2012, the Archaeological Mission of the University of La Laguna began its work in TT 209 (Luxor, Egypt) under the name Proyecto dos cero nueve [Project two zero nine]. The objective of this article is to present a synthesis of the processes of excavation and documentation in the area of the tomb where activities began, the courtyard (areas C1 and C2), during the first three seasons (2012, 2013/14 and 2014). The working method is explained, the two main formation processes of the sedimentary deposits that the archaeological investigation recognised-geogonic and anthropic-are described, and the different kinds of materials found there are examined, which correspond to a broad chronological and cultural framework. The analysis of this dataset has made it possible to obtain a historical interpretation of the activities that were carried out in this external part of the funerary complex, from the moment of its construction to the present.

The enigmatic term ploion hellenikon (Greek Boat) is known from eleven papyri from Egypt, the most ancient of which dates to AD 206-207 and the most recent to AD 581. It has been earlier suggested that this term may designate a ship built according to Greek shipbuilding tradition as opposed to an ancient Egyptian one. Other hypotheses suggest that this term could refer to a small-tonnage ship or a decked ship that can transport cargo in its hold, a feature not present in indigenous ships. Archaeologists discovered a significant number of ancient ships from the Egyptian Late and Ptolemaic periods during the excavations of the submerged city of Thonis-Herakleion in the Nile Delta. We can distinguish these ships into two distinct groups based on their constructional features. While the first group is composed of Nilotic freighters built of local woods in a very particular fashion as described by Herodotus (2.96, baris), the second one includes the hulls that relied on pegged mortise-and-tenon joints and were built mainly with imported woods. However, these ships have a number of local constructional features. The analysis of this material supports the hypothesis that the term ploion hellenikon designated a ship built in Greek tradition as opposed to the Egyptian one. The article proposes a hypothesis focusing on the major constructional differences that may have led to this distinction.

"Le journal de Merer" trouvé par hasard par P.Tallet de la Sorbonne, nous donne des informations de première main sur le transport des blocs du parement de la pyramide depuis les carrières de Turah.
On en retient que les blocs ne pouvaient faire ce trajet que préalablement installés dans des mini barges, ce qui faisait de ce trajet une routine sans difficultés.

This paper re-examines the ritual function of the “seven sacred oils” and accompanying items (linen strips) in Old and Middle Kingdom funerary contexts, traditionally interpreted as components of the Offering Ritual in the Pyramid Texts (PT). Focusing on PT 77 and PT 81—spells associated with these products—it argues that their original context was not the Offering Ritual, but rather the so-called Object Ritual, a non-royal counterpart to the Insignia Ritual. Within this framework, oils and linen are reinterpreted as central instruments for restoring the deceased’s identity and effecting their transformation into an akh-spirit.
Through detailed textual and contextual analysis, the study traces the appearance of oil and linen motifs across a range of sources, including the PT corpus, elite mastabas, “object friezes” in decorated burial chambers, and Middle Kingdom coffins. The core case study is the Eleventh Dynasty tomb of Meru (TT 240), which uniquely preserves decorated surfaces in both the burial chamber and the rock-cut sarcophagus. The juxtaposition of offering lists, object friezes, and ritual texts (including PT 77, PT 81, PT sakhw spells, and Coffin Texts [CT]) in both spaces reveals an integrated program of decoration that provides a rare context for understanding the ritual function of the products in question.
The study highlights the fluidity between royal and non-royal funerary traditions, challenging assumptions about the exclusivity of certain ritual elements and contributing to discussions on the interplay between the Pyramid and Coffin Texts. In particular, it identifies CT spell 861—previously considered a unique occurrence in Meru’s sarcophagus—as corresponding to a set of spells from the Insignia Ritual attested in late Old Kingdom pyramids.

The multiple reading of the Caractors Document glyphs meaning “Gaddianton tribe” (presumably modified and finally engraved by Moroni) also provide the double glyph meaning in Egyptian of “to throw a spear” and “owl” with the translation being “Spearthrower Owl’s tribe.” The Egyptian glyph for owl and it’s cultural meaning of evil, death, and war are completely consistent with the name and motif of this leader of the evil Gaddiantons, who Mormon indicated that at the end of his book, this Gaddianton did provide the overthrow, and “almost the entire destruction of the people of Nephi” (2:13).

In 1992 the Berlin Egyptian Museum paid Mario Roberty, Basel, 3,000,000 German Mark (1,530,000 €) for ÄMP 34437, a statue of Akhenaten. Leopold Rütimeyer, a well-remembered citizen of Basel, had purportedly acquired the statue in 1889, in Egypt. Since the claim is unsubstantiated, and Roberty is known to be the attorney of the documented art trafficer Frieda Tchacos, Zurich, it may be concluded that the statue was exported illegally from Egypt not long before 1992.

The 38 season of the German Institute of Archaeology and the Swiss Institute for Architectural and Archaeological Research on Ancient Egypt at Elephantine was carried out from October 30, 2008 till December 15, 2008 and from January 8 to April 4, 2009. The work on finds from earlier seasons was continued. This included studies of small finds, seal impressions and lithics dating to the Old Kingdom, pottery of the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms, and the Roman era, Nubian pottery, as well as botanical, animal and human remains. The study of architectural fragments of the temples of Satet of the Middle Kingdom, and the Greco-Roman temples of Khnum was continued, together with the conservation of the wooden columns from the palace bakery of the First Intermediate Period. Excavations were carried out in the area between the temple of Satet and the sanctuary of Heqaib, in the precinct of Khnum, and its later occupation layers and at the south-western part of the town enclosure of the 2 mille...

This paper proposes an explanation for a 579-year discrepancy between a revised chronology of Egypt's Twelfth Dynasty and the orthodox scholarly timeline. The author argues that this significant gap stems from a fundamental error in the orthodox model: the misidentification of the Sothic cycle's starting point. Orthodox chronology is shown to rely on a cycle beginning with the mythical figure Miebis (c. 2782 BCE), leading to the placement of key astronomical events, such as the heliacal rising of Sirius in the 7th year of Senusert III, in 1874 BCE. In contrast, the revised chronology anchors its timeline to a different Sothic cycle linked to the Hyksos period. Through a method of "drift dating" applied to Fifth Dynasty papyri, the author establishes a firm heliacal benchmark of 2256 BCE. This date is synchronized with a historical event recorded in the Book of Sothis-the deification of the Apis bull in-2233 during the reign of the Hyksos ruler Aseth/Salitis. The paper contends that 2257/56 BCE represents the correct cyclical starting point, and that the coexistence of multiple, parallel calendar systems in Egypt explains how two such different chronological schemas could be derived from the same astronomical data. The conclusion posits that the 579-year difference is not an error in the revised model, but rather the result of orthodoxy's reliance on an incorrect Sothic cycle, confusing an Osirian tradition with a later Hyksos-era calibration. The study integrates analysis of king lists, astronomical data, and interdynastic synchronisms to challenge the foundations of conventional Egyptian chronology.

This thesis uses phylogenetic methods such as cladistics to address and revaluate the evolution of ceramic data. Evolution is often implied in ceramic studies but its exact operation in relation to cultural transmission is rarely specified. This thesis asks how phylogenetic methods can be used to study ceramic evolution and how these can reform our perception on the narrative of ceramic change. It does this by forming a theoretical approach based on current anthropological and archaeological theories on ceramics, in conjunction with insights from evolutionary methods. A synthesis of ceramic theory tries to outline the different theoretical approaches and how they might fit with evolutionary perceptions of material cultural change. It suggests that the chaine operatoire of ceramic production is critical in identifying ceramic characteristics to use in evolutionary analysis, and forms the key conceptual framework to address the meaning of ceramic evolution relating to cultural process...

The tomb of Irukaptah, located next to the causeway of the Pyramid of Unas at Saqqara archaeological site and dating to the 5th Dynasty, is renowned for its finely carved reliefs and distinctive rock-cut statues of its owner. Due to its rarity and artistic significance, the tomb is widely known as the "Butcher's Tomb" among Egyptologists, attracting many visitors. However, its location on low-lying bedrock made the tomb vulnerable to flooding. In March 2020, heavy rains caused substantial water infiltration, reaching a height of approximately 80 cm in the chapel. As a result, the lower wall inscriptions and statues suffered severe damage, requiring urgent restoration. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of conservators at Saqqara site, restoration was completed in March 2021. However, environmental evaluations and progress reports were delayed due to the prioritization of restoration work and other sites experiencing similar damage, and no comprehensive flood prevention strategies were implemented. Given the increasing risk of extreme weather events due to climate change, it is critical to assess the impact of flooding on the tomb's wall paintings and to implement preventive measures for its future protection. Moreover, other tombs and monuments within Saqqara also face the risk of flooding, highlighting the need for broader solutions. In response to these challenges, the authors are preparing to launch an Egyptian Japanese joint research project with the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) and the University of Tsukuba to preserve and manage the tomb. This presentation outlines the preliminary environmental surveys and discusses potential flood prevention strategies.

Si les études entamées depuis les années 2000 par les responsables du programme ont d'abord été principalement axées sur la documentation de la fin du I er millénaire av. n. è. (Basse Époque -époque ptolémaïque), à partir notamment des imitations de conteneurs importés des centres les plus actifs du bassin méditerranéen oriental et occidental, celles-ci gagnent désormais à être étendues à l'ensemble des périodes pharaoniques. Le phénomène d'imitation, d'assimilation ou de transposition de conteneurs ou d'autres catégories de vaisselle en terre cuite reste un objet d'étude récent, documenté de façon ponctuelle, quoique déjà bien attesté dès l'époque prédynastique. Il est maintenant possible d'envisager une approche diachronique de ce phénomène. De même, si les limites chronologiques de ce thème méritent d'être élargies, le répertoire formel qu'il implique doit être à nouveau considéré : le phénomène d'imitation ou d'assimilation des conteneurs étrangers, grecs, levantins ou chypriotes, sans oublier ceux de la Méditerranée occidentale et d'Afrique du Nord, gagne aussi à être étendu sur le plan typologique et élargi aux questionnements d'ordre culturel et commercial qu'il suppose. Limitée jusqu'à présent à des conteneurs de grande taille, des amphores et des jarres notamment, l'étude des assimilations égyptiennes des productions importées, en provenance de sphères culturelles variables selon les périodes envisagées, doit être étendue aux conteneurs de petite taille (gourdes, bouteilles, vases à parfums ou à onguents, récipients dits de service, amphores de table, récipients à mesure tels que les cuvettes et/ou mortiers), afin de mesurer le degré d'impact du phénomène, sur les plans tant géographique que socio-économique et culturel. Pour tenter de répondre à ces questions, les points suivants seront prioritaires dans le cadre du programme : -Le premier volet est l'étude des sources archéologiques, en suivant la chronologie, avec la réalisation d'une typologie de référence par groupe de production (forme/pâte), une définition de leurs usages, et le recensement systématique de la présence de ces conteneurs sur les sites archéologiques d'Égypte, voire même des exemplaires exportés hors du territoire égyptien. -Le deuxième volet est la caractérisation de leurs pâtes (marneuse, calcaire, mixte et alluviale) grâce aux études pétrographiques qui seront conduites à l'Ifao par Éric Goemaere (géologue, Institut royal des sciences naturelles de Belgique). -Le troisième volet du projet concerne la diffusion des conteneurs égyptiens de tradition étrangère, matérialisée par plusieurs cartes pour chaque groupe céramique et chaque période chronologique. Pour ce dernier point, la reconnaissance des matériaux céramiques est cruciale, car elle permet de reconstituer les circuits empruntés par ces conteneurs, dans le cadre du commerce interrégional comme de celui, plus prestigieux, du commerce international.

This is, I believe, the first English translation of a popular account of Montet's WWII excavations at Tanis, the Egyptian capital during the 22nd and 23rd Dynasties.  Illustrated with photographs and line drawings, the monograph provides an insight into the conditions and practices of archaeological excavation at that time.

Construction of the Great Pyramid with pulley-like systems using counter-weights on sliding-ramps.
Simon Andreas Scheuring
npj Heritage Science, volume 13, Article number: 473 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s40494-025-02018-w

Free Open Access version:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s40494-025-02018-w

Supplementary Information:
https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs40494-025-02018-w/MediaObjects/40494_2025_2018_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Supplementary Movie:
https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs40494-025-02018-w/MediaObjects/40494_2025_2018_MOESM2_ESM.mov

The construction method of Khufu's Great Pyramid remains debated. Several theories have been proposed that implicate construction-ramps and a layer-by-layer bottom-to-top growth progress. Regrettably, none provides satisfactory explanations how to lift blocks weighing up to ~60 tons and for the tremendous pace to place blocks every ~1 min. Here, a radically different proposal for the construction of the Great Pyramid is presented, where blocks were lifted using pulley-like systems fueled by sliding counterweights down sliding-ramps. One pulley-like system and three sliding-ramps are still visible today, assigned as the Antechamber, and as the Grand Gallery, Ascending Passage, and Descending Passage, respectively. The construction proposal based on analysis of the pyramid's architecture and masonry, is physically advantageous and can explain the fast construction. The proposal offers explanations for the recently discovered voids, and for structural features such as the course height variations, the concavity and the central furrow of the pyramid faces.

Study on the identification of the tapestry series of the "Story of Achilles" by Peter Paul Rubens, woven for José Lila Valdés, Marquis of Los Álamos del Guadalete through the correspondence and photographs that the archaeologist and hispanist George Bonsor sent to Archer Milton Huntington and which is preserved in The Hispanic Society of America

Podcast n° 7 de la série Echos du temps produite par le musée d'Archéologie nationale / Podcast No. 7 of the Echos of Time series produced by the French National Museum of Archaeology  (Saint-Germain-en-Laye), in collaboration with Daphné Mavrocordatos, digital project manager.
The episode discusses the research methods and some of the archaeological explorations of Jacques de Morgan, who contributed to the development of French archaeology abroad (see link below).

Despite its geographic correspondence with a key fourteenth-century BC port, the tell of Yavneh-Yam has yielded only meagre evidence for Late Bronze Age occupation. The recent discovery of a sealed monumental rock-cut burial cave with hundreds of grave goods provides the first clear evidence for a significant polity.

"Thus, people like Nibbi and O'Mara should be encouraged enthusiastically, because they poke the corpses of the 'walking dead', the orthodox scholars who never deviate by a hair's-breadth from consensus opinions, and make them awaken from their sleepwalking and stir slightly".
Robert Temple.

Using durations from the ancient chroniclers, the authors propose a revision of Egyptian Dynasties 19 and 26 so that Dynasty 26 endured from 671 to 525 BC, while Dynasty 19 lasted from 666 until the Inaros Rebellion in 475 BC. The results agree fairly closely with the chronologies of Velikovsky, Down, Waite, Curnock, and Aitchison for Dynasty 19.

A large limestone ostracon, labelled as Ostracon LHTT 5499 (oLHTT 5499), was found in 2018 by the archaeological team of the Swiss National Science Foundation project “Life Histories of Theban Tombs” (LHTT) of the University of Basel in the forecourt of tomb K 555 in Sheikh Abd el-Qurna. The texts on the ostracon constitute a further example of a relatively small corpus of texts on archery and the physical training of royal children. The handwriting analysis of the cursive hieroglyphic texts suggests that the entire surface was inscribed by the same individual, who likely copied the content as a model for a tomb inscription. The find’s major significance lies in the fact that it provides an insight into the Egyptian perception on the importance of the education of royal children. Due to phraseological similarities with an inscription in the tomb of Min (TT 109), it also allows the verification and the improvement of the reading of a previously known textual source on the subject. The find, being a textual ostracon with a hitherto unknown text, presupposes the existence of a so-far unidentified early or mid-Eighteenth Dynasty tomb of a royal tutor at Sheikh Abd el-Qurna.

The huge volcanic eruption at Thera (Santorini), situated in the Aegean Sea,
occurred within the Late Minoan IA archaeological period. However, its temporal
association with Egyptian history has long been a controversial subject. Traditionally,
the eruption was placed in the early 18th Dynasty, associated with Pharaoh Thutmose
III as the youngest option or with Pharaoh Nebpehtire Ahmose as the oldest possibility.
We investigated museum objects from the 17th and early 18th Dynasty, at the
transition from the Second Intermediate Period to the New Kingdom, a period hardly
studied with radiocarbon dating. Our research facilitated the first-ever direct radiocarbon
time comparison between this Dynastic transition period and the Minoan Thera
eruption. Detailed results are presented of a mudbrick from the Ahmose Temple at
Abydos (British Museum), a linen burial cloth associated with Satdjehuty (British
Museum), and wooden stick shabtis from Thebes (Petrie Museum), evaluated within
a comprehensive context of historical Egyptian chronology options. Since the above
items cannot be arranged in a stratigraphic sequence, Bayesian analysis could not
be used. We adopted an alternative strategy within radiocarbon time space. Comparing
our uncalibrated dates of 17th and early 18th Dynasty objects with a robust series
of uncalibrated radiocarbon dates for the Minoan Thera eruption, it becomes clear
that the two data sets have a different time signature. The Minoan eruption is older
than the reign of Nebpehtire Ahmose, the first king of the 18th Dynasty, who reunited
Upper and Lower Egypt. Our calibrated results support a low chronology for his reign
and the beginning of the New Kingdom. Previous radiocarbon dates of king Senusert
III support a high chronology for the Middle Kingdom. Therefore, the Second Intermediate
Period, sandwiched in between these united Egyptian Kingdoms, embodies
a significant time interval, as also indicated by Bennett’s genealogical studies of the
El-Kab governors.

The monograph offers the first comprehensive art historical analysis of the painted decoration of Middle Kingdom wooden box coffins from Beni Hassan. No fewer than 900 tombs were excavated in the Lower Necropolis in the early 1900s by John Garstang (University of Liverpool), and they still contained extensive burial equipment, including wooden box-shaped coffins. Careful study of published and archival material in the course of the project Painted for Eternity (University of Vienna) has revealed that more than 260 coffins (over 220 of them with decoration) must have been found. At least 81 coffins (or fragments thereof) have been located in museums worldwide and a further 32 decorated coffins were identified on the excavation photographs. For the first time, these coffins are presented in a catalogue, thoroughly examined as for their layout and the iconography of the decorative elements, set into context and published along with the excavation photographs, drawings and high-quality images in colour. The study reveals the existence of a well-established local tradition and important phenomena such as the use of templates, prefabrication and reuse. An overall analysis of the Beni Hassan coffin decoration is in preparation and will be included in the second volume of the study.