Annual Scholars' Colloquium/Symposium Weekend 2024 - Abstracts of Papers
The 48th Annual Colloquium and Symposium will take place in Toronto on the weekend of 1st to 3rd November 2024. The topic for the Symposium this year will be Aswan: Source of Wonders.
Abstracts for the Symposium speakers are now ready and appear immediately below; Abstracts for the Scholars' Colloquium follow.
A. The Symposium, Saturday Nov. 2 (In order of presentation)
Aswan: A Fine Place to Spend Eternity - Gayle Gibson
From the ancient outcroppings of granite that created the First Cataract, to the explorers of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties, to a Jewish Garrison during the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty and onward through Roman times to the British Empire, Aswan and Elephantine have been an important and fascinating part of Egypt’s history and culture. As a major trading centre sending and receiving endless caravans of gold, ebony and ostrich feathers, and a vital first line of defence, the history of Aswan (ancient Abu) is a key to the history of Egypt.
Aswan: The Emergence of an Ideological Border at Aswan: Boundary-Making in the First Cataract Region during the 4th and 3rd Millennia BCE - Oren Siegel
Drawing on my work as part of The Borderscape Project, this talk examines how the "natural" border of the Nile's 1st Cataract was actively instrumentalized by the Pharaonic state to create political, economic, and eventually an ideological boundary. This talk examines how this process unfolded over the course of the Predynastic, Early Dynastic, and Old Kingdom, drawing on the field work projects of the Aswan-Kom Ombo Archaeological Project. We will examine how the Pharaonic state asserted itself at Aswan, with particular care paid to royal sponsorship of expeditions, the carving of royal inscriptions, and the changing settlement pattern in the wider region. The final part of this talk will attempt to connect these boundary-making efforts with those of later periods, arguing that the ideological boundary at Elephantine was in fact the product of Pharaonic efforts to economically control the region over the course of nearly a millennium.
Change and Continuity in the Town of Elephantine - Cornelius von Pilgrim
After more than 50 years of work, Elephantine may now be regarded as one of the best investigated continuously inhabited town sites. The lecture will address some of the particular challenges of excavating this multi-layered site and provide an overview of the urban fabric and its changes over time. One focus is on the pivotal role of the temple precincts, which increasingly dominate the cityscape and life in the city.
Understanding the Necropolis of Qubbet el-Hawa: Beyond the Governors' Funerary Complexes - Alejandro Jiménez-Serrano
In the present talk, we will study the necropolis of Qubbet el-Hawa from different perspectives. The first one deals with the reasons for the selection of this hill as a cemetery by the local elite of Elephantine. Then, we will explain the distribution of the tombs, which will permit us to see the funerary space as a mirror of the different social groups in the local elite. We will also explain some architectural differences seen in the tombs. Finally, we will highlight the importance of the biographies to reconstruct the Egyptian international relationships with the South and the Eastern Desert.
Enriching Each Other: The Integral Relationship between Wadi el-Hudi and Aswan - Kate Liszka
Wadi el-Hudi is a large, geologically rich area a mere 35 kilometers away from Aswan in the Eastern Desert. From the Predynastic Period until today, Aswan and Wadi el-Hudi have been inextricably connected for travelers caravaning through this region, for pastoral nomads interacting with sedentary peoples, and especially for mining expeditions extracting minerals like amethyst and gold for jewelry. This talk examines all of those periods and takes a close look at the Egyptian Middle Kingdom. At that time, the pharaoh commissioned the largest of these mining expeditions of over 1500 people from all over Egypt and Nubia. Aswan, its officials, its fortress, its jewelry, and its people held the most integral part supplying these expeditions because their food, tools, and perhaps even water kept the expeditions alive and thriving. In return, the pharaoh and people in Aswan economically benefitted from these ventures.
The Call of Isis: Visitors to Philae in the Graeco-Roman Period - Jitse Dijkstra
In the Graeco-Roman period, Philae took over Elephantine’s role as the main religious centre of the Aswan region. At this time, indeed, it grew into the most important site for the cult of Isis in Egypt. The several thousand inscriptions and graffiti from the island testify to its multicultural, multilingual and multiethnic character. Located at the very extremity of the southern Egyptian frontier, on the border between Egypt and Nubia, visitors came in large numbers from both north and south to pay their respects to the goddess. In this talk, we will focus in particular on what the rich epigraphical record tells us about these visitors: where they came from, why they visited the island and sometimes even what they experienced.
B. The Scholars' Colloquium Day 1, Friday Nov. 1
Locks and flails: an observation on transfer of astral knowledge - Andreas Winkler (University of Toronto)
After its introduction from Babylonia, the zodiac became an integral part of Egyptian astronomy no later than the 1st century BC. While Greek and Egyptian texts from this period attest to its use in timekeeping, tracking celestial movements, and divination (astrology), the most famous monuments attesting its presence in Egypt are the temple and tomb zodiacs, with the Dendera zodiacs as prime examples. These monuments depict the constellations alongside traditional Egyptian asterisms and several additional figures, some of which remain unidentified.
Although some of the depicted constellations have been attributed to Greek origins, scholars increasingly recognize a Babylonian influence on many of them. Among the new figures in these monuments is a female figure standing behind Leo. In one instance, this figure is shown holding a flail, which has been interpreted as an Egyptian adaptation of the constellation Coma Berenices (the ‘Lock of Berenice’). According to legend, this constellation was discovered by the Alexandrian astronomer Conon of Samos in 245 BC. However, rather than interpreting this as a sign of Greek influence, my paper traces the figure back to Mesopotamian origins. As a result, I can propose a new source for the iconography of the temple zodiacs and thereby also refine the chronology of the zodiac’s introduction into Egypt.
Bukhanef, devotee of Hathor – an unusual woman from Deir el-Medîna - Deborah Sweeney (University of Tel Aviv)
At first sight, Bukhanef seems to be a typical lady from Deir el-Medîna from the reign of Ramesses II, as she is represented in her family tomb TT 10 and on other family monuments – accompanying and supporting her husband Kasa, receiving offerings together with him, mother of a large family of sons and daughters.
But Bankes Stela 7 shows her in a very different light. This stela is dedicated to the goddess Nebethetepet (a goddess often associated with Hathor and here depicted using similar iconography). Bukhanef is depicted with unusual importance, praying alone face-to-face with Nebethetepet on the top register of the stela instead of following her husband, as married women were usually represented. Bukhanef’s siblings, mostly unknown at the workmen’s village, feature prominently on the stela, playing musical instruments and celebrating. Bukhanef addresses Nebethetepet with a hymn asking for mercy and calls her an unusual name, Pipi.
The goddess Hathor was one of the most beloved goddesses at Deir el-Medîna. At that time, Ramesses II arranged for a temple to be erected at the village in her honour, beside the temple his father Seti I had built. The cult of Hathor flourished at that period, and many women from the village participated in her worship as cultic singers.
In my lecture, I will compare the iconography, family configurations and wording of Bankes Stela 7 with those of other stelae erected to local deities at Deir el-Medîna, in order to answer a puzzling question. Bukhanef was deeply devoted to Nebethetepet, a goddess closely associated with Hathor. So why was she never attested with any title connecting her to the cult of Hathor at Deir el-Medîna?
A Collection of Ancient Egyptian Wooden Funerary Figures from Qubbet-el-Hawa at the Bournemouth Natural Science Society - Sam Powell (Birmingham University, U.K.)
The Bournemouth Natural Science Society in Bournemouth, England has a modest collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. The Egyptian collection includes a model boat, a model kitchen scene, and a figure of an individual upon a base from the site of Qubbet-el-Hawa near Aswan, coming from the sale of the personal collection of Field Marshall Lord Grenfell, President of the Society in 1918.
As part of my ongoing PhD research into ancient Egyptian wooden funerary figures, this paper aims to provide an interpretation of these figures and the activities being depicted in the scenes, and the distinctive stylistic traits which help to identify figures originating from this site. Along with discussion of the function, provenance, and object history of these examples, it will also explore other models from the site in other collections in an attempt to virtually reassemble this dispersed material. Issues in this reconstruction will be explored including discussion of pastiche models and incorrect assembly, and the impact these have upon their interpretation.
Old but not dead data: the use of archives in the study of the archaeology of tomb reuse at Qubbet al-Hawā’ - Reuben G. Hutchinson-Wong (Birmingham University)
In ancient Egypt, tombs usually functioned as the final resting place for a named individual. However, in many tombs, the space was not used just once, often receiving one or more newly deceased individual throughout the tomb’s lifetime – many of which are nameless. This talk explores the use of old data in studying already excavated late Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period rock-cut tombs at Qubbet al-Hawā’ near Aswan, Egypt. ‘Old data’ refers to materials collected and recorded in earlier excavations, now housed in archives and remaining unpublished.
For anyone investigating tomb reuse in ancient Egypt, one of the main issues they come up against is that many of these tombs were excavated in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Old data, therefore, must be engaged with in the archaeology of tomb reuse. The data can range from fleeting comments on scraps of paper to more detailed and unpublished reports. Working with old data involves consciously accepting the histories and temporalities generated by archives and acknowledging that the creation of an archive is neither objective nor without a context.
Recognising the role of archives in understanding Qubbet al-Hawā’ and the coloniality of the archaeological archives, I will explore the idea that old data does not mean dead data, but data often avoided in favour of what has already been published. In the case of Qubbet al-Hawā’, many of the late Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period tombs are unlikely to be re-excavated anytime soon, and if a new excavation does occur, this process might not provide access to that data housed in archives, leading to the need to critically re-engage old data to find new interpretations and solutions.
Sustaining Each Other: A Psychological and Anthropological Perspective on New Kingdom Iconography of Bereavement Scenes - Valentina Santini (CAMNES; PhD student University of Birmingham)
Despite the plethora of images strictly related to public expressions of mourning after the death of a member of the community, ancient Egyptian iconography crucially lacks scenes pertaining to personal and intimate anguish due to bereavement. Nonetheless, would it be possible to discern how ancient Egyptians used to privately cope with grief, by looking at the images depicted in tombs and funerary contexts? Some gestures that are represented in New Kingdom bereavement scenes appear to have clear contact points to actual human reactions to loss and death, as they are described by Psychology and Anthropology. In fact, while mourning and grieving expressions may differ from society to society and even from individual to individual, from a psychological point of view grief itself is considered atemporal and universal (Coreless et al., ‘Languages of Grief’, 2014: 132; Rosenblatt, ‘Researching Grief’, 2017) and, therefore, potentially, it seems possible to compare and contrast images related to funerary contexts in ancient Egypt and in contemporary societies. In particular, the processing of grief seems to be a fundamentally unchanged human experience, and the relevance of physical contact and even actually supporting each other’s bodies seems to be an invariant across cultures. What if the analysis of the represented gestures in New Kingdom iconography – which carry important symbolic connotations – could also give us hints on how ancient Egyptians truly reacted after the passing of a member of the community?
Starting from the XVIII Dynasty, some major changes happened in bereavement scenes: men begun to be vastly more often represented in a grieving attitude (a role played almost exclusively by women before that time) and – also because of the influence of the Amarna style – mourners started to be depicted with a proper contortion of their body, as if their poses somehow reflected the pain they were experiencing because of the death of a member of the community. However, analysing these depictions that are more closely related to the bodily response of each individual, we also find that the act of physically supporting each other serves as a coping mechanism for the bereaved and their community as a whole.
Ecclesiastical Charity for the Poor through Theban Coptic Documents - Rowida AboBakr Mohamed Fawzy (Luxor University)
Poverty perceptions have altered throughout time and across civilizations. The dominant culture, economic progress, and social and political organization influenced each view at each historical stage. Poverty is defined by need, want, and the inability to fulfill material, emotional, and intellectual demands. This is seen in the inability to receive treatment, proper housing, education, or access treatment and health care, among other expressions of material and immaterial deprivation. So a poor person is one who lacks the material means of living such as money, tools of work, or the physical energy needed to work. All religions encourage benevolence to the impoverished and charitable donations to those in need. In Christianity, many verses of the Bible urge helping the needy, such as Jesus said to him, “If you want to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”[Ma 19:21] Theban Coptic documents chronicle events in the region over two centuries, from the 6th to the 8th century AD, revealing socioeconomic realities, particularly examples of poverty and deplorable living conditions caused by political and social transformations such as high taxes, foreign invasion, scarcity of resources, and instability. Ecclesiastical organizations had a significant role in regulating the Christian community and delivering charity to the destitute, orphans, and widows of Thebes. The study reveals the management of alms through monasteries under the bishop's patronage, as well as the aspects and methods of spending those alms, which varied between money and in-kind, as well as the resources of those alms that the monasteries provided, either from their own economy or donations from wealthier members of society seeking blessings and mercy.
The Demotic Inscriptions from the Serapeum of Memphis’s Gate in the Louvre Museum (N°420) (The workmen families and cult-servants’ formulas) - Amira Hamdy Morrtaga (University of Lille, France; Egyptologist at Saqqara (Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities)
In 1851, Auguste Mariette discovered the Serapeum of Memphis, the burial place of the Apis bull. This consisted of individual tombs dating back to the New Kingdom (14th-11th centuries BC) and the Lesser and Greater Vaults (10th-7th, then 7th-1st centuries BC). At the entrance to the latter, Mariette discovered the gate of the Serapeum that is covered with graffiti. The Gate of the Serapeum at Memphis is now held in the Louvre Museum. On-site study of the monument and photography has enabled us to compile a corpus consisting of 126 demotic graffiti and one hieroglyphic inscription, the date indicated of the inscriptions are form the year 14 of Ptolemy V Epiphanes (191 BC) to the year 31 of Ptolemy IX Soter II (82 BC). However, prosopographical cross-referencing allows us to extend this chronology, perhaps from the reign of Ptolemy III Evergetes (c.250 BC) to the end of the Ptolemaic period. These inscriptions provide particularly valuable insights into the people who worked in this sacred area.
We will first consider the names of the visitors, the workers, and their relatives, which are found on the gate, in order to establish links with the people whose names appear on the Apis stele discovered in the Serapeum or in other sectors of the necropolis, for example in the Baboon and Falcon Galleries at North Saqqara. This cross-referencing makes it possible to identify families who worked in this part of the necropolis and to date inscriptions that do not contain chronological information.
We will also look at some of the original formulae that appear on the graffiti at the Gate, comparing them with those attested on the stele of Apis and the Mothers of Apis.
Snakes in the Brooklyn Medical Papyrus aka Snake or Snakebite Papyrus - Gonzalo M. Sanchez Md (Independent Researcher) and Edmund S. Meltzer Phd (Pacifica Graduate Institute)
The presenters have recently published a new translation of the Brooklyn Medical Papyrus, sometimes referred to as the Snakebite Papyrus (ca. 700 – 330 BCE), in collaboration with herpetologists. The papyrus is written in hieratic, and first translated by Sauneron, with subsequent discussion and translation in subsequent works. The first section of the Papyrus describes snakes and their bites; originally there had been descriptions of 38 snakes and their bites, but the description of the first 13 are lost. Therefore, the papyrus only names 24 snakes and the appearance of their bites, sometimes including information of their habits. The Papyrus was a pragmatic manual, intended to enable a healer to identify the snake from the patient’s description, in order to apply appropriate prognosis and treatment; snake identification remains essential in managing snakebite. It served as an important reference especially for doctors on military campaigns and at construction sites. For this reason it includes snakes from territories the Egyptians conquered as well as native species.
The linguistic features of the text follow and illustrate the so-called “Standard Theory” of Egyptian verb-forms. Especially worthy of note are the points of contact between the Snake Papyrus and the Edwin Smith Papyrus, a text which, in its extant and final form, is much older, its surviving exemplar dating to the Second Intermediate Period.
Lack of consensus on snake identification in the papyrus stems from incomplete available information, absence of imagery in the papyrus, and a lack of familiarity with ancient terms and translation idiosyncrasies. In their work, the presenters also considered the paleoenvironment and climate history, in North Africa and the Levant. Many animals that graced the Nile in ancient times, including reptiles, had been forced to move south deeper into Africa.
Collaboration with noted herpetologists and current work in herpetology enabled us to provide this in-depth study of the section of the papyrus comprising a list of venomous snakes, including names and descriptions of the snakes, characteristic behaviors of each, symptoms of their bites, and prognoses, as well as the deity or deities which were appealed to for intervention in many descriptions.
Prophets in Ancient Egypt - John Gee (Brigham Young University)
Egyptologists generally have two comments about the Egyptian title Hm-nTr, literally "servant of god." The first is that the traditional translation of the term is prophet. The second is that the translation is inappropriate. We will examine the question in depth, by looking closely at how one became a prophet, and what they did. The full picture of their activities requires all kinds of documentation, including receipts, contracts, letters, and ritual texts. In light of that, we can then examine whether the traditional translation fits the evidence, and if not, what translations might be better.
On the Path to Becoming a Deity - Elisabeta Pana (Central Connecticut State University)
Dedicated to the memory of Barry Kemp
The role of temples and palaces in establishing a setting for ritual and ceremony by creating a replica of the cosmos is well documented by researchers of ancient Egypt. This study advances the hypothesis that other structures in the royal cities, such as the ancient harbor at the Birket Habu site, were an integral part of such a setting for ritual and ceremony. The analysis of the excavated material at Birket Habu and the inscriptional evidence at the private tomb of Kheruef led Egyptologist Barry Kemp to a firm conclusion that the harbor was the site of the first Sed festival during the reign of Amenhotep III. He also noted that “the king, his jubilee festival, the voyage of the sun, large expanses of water, the pre-eminence of the sun over all forms of life, all seem linked in some way, and at Malkata with the large urban complex as well.”
In this study, I posit that such a link is encoded in the design of the harbor at Birket Habu. Aligned with the entrance to Malkata palace, the El Qurn peak, and the entrance to the tomb of Amenhotep III in the western arm of the Valley of the Kings, the harbor was likely designed by Egyptian architects as a map on the ground to guide the king’s voyage during the afterlife. The length of the harbor is equal to the distance between Malkata and El Qurn peak, while the width is equal to the distance between El Qurn and Amenhotep III’ tomb. The sailing of the royal barque during the Sed festival appears to symbolically recreate the voyage of the sun through the underworld and the path to be followed by the king after death to become a deity.
Restoring the sarcophagus lid of Queen Takhat - Lyla Pinch-Brock (Research Associate, Royal Ontario Museum)
Starting in 1991, hundreds of fragments of a lavishly-decorated pink granite sarcophagus lid inscribed with the name of Queen Takhat began to turn up in flood debris in KV 10 in the Valley of the Kings during excavations directed by Dr. Otto Schaden. The fragments were associated with the remains of the burial of a female. Edwin C. Brock, an expert in royal sarcophagi, worked on piecing the lid together up until his death in 2015.
After Schaden's death in 2016, Salima Ikram continued the clearance as part of the Amenmesse Project KV10-KV63. By 2018, over 200 fragments of the sarcophagus lid had been recovered. In 2018, Ikram asked Lyla Pinch-Brock to resume Edwin Brock's work. A project to restore, consolidate and record the sarcophagus lid with a professional conservation team began shortly thereafter. The project, completed in 2019, was carried out under the aegis of the American University in Cairo and the Supreme Council of Antiquities, funded by the American Research Centre in Egypt and the William H. Petty foundation.
As a result of this initiative, many new and surprising discoveries were made, including the location of a large piece of the sarcophagus lid in the nearby Monastery of Mari Girgis. These discoveries shed light not only on the origin and re-attribution of the sarcophagus lid itself and the lid's final owner, but also on the origin and identification of other fragments of unrelated sarcophagi found during the clearance.
B. The Scholars' Colloquium Day 2, Sunday Nov. 3
What is the function of the kneeling woman vessels from the 18th dynasty? - Kirsten Uyttersprot (KuLeuven) VIRTUAL POSTER
A subject that has been neglected for quite some time in the study of Egyptology are the vessels in the shape of a kneeling woman. There are not a lot of vessels of this type known, or so we think. The woman represented is most of the time holding a baby, a horn, an unknown object or nothing at all. Little study has been done on this type of vessel. In the course of my research I have found 22 mostly complete vessels and 6 fragments. The reason why these vessels deserve some attention is because of their interesting shape but also because they only appear in the 18th dynasty. The function of these vessels is still unknown but there are some good suggestions.
The theory that is believed by most researchers is that these vessels were used for medical reasons. But by doing research and by grouping the vessels based on the objects they hold or do not hold as well as the shape the woman is sitting in, I would like to make another suggestion. The provenance of most of the vessels is unknown, but for the ones we know, they are all coming out of tombs. But why do they only appear in the 18th dynasty? I would like to suggest that the vessels in the shape of a kneeling woman were introduced as a change of the previous Hathor and Isis vases that disappeared right before the 18th dynasty and that they have a funerary meaning.
Hellenizing the Pharaohs: Greek settlements leading to Ptolemaic dynastic rulership - Ana Belén Rumí Gutiérrez (Complutense University of Madrid) VIRTUAL POSTER
Interrelations in the Ancient Mediterranean were essential to trading and political relationships among the different civilizations. Known are the Greek colonies founded along the Mediterranean Sea. These settlements in Egypt started with the foundation of Naukratis as a trading post, but ended with multiple cities named after the rulers of the last pharaonic dynasty, the Ptolemies. In the almost 7 centuries between said foundation and the death of the infamous Cleopatra VII, other cities had been built following the Greek pattern and ensuring the Hellenic continuation.
Through the presentation and analysis of three main Greek settlements in Egypt, this research will aim to show the gradual Hellenization of Egypt that eventually led to the inclusion and acceptance of the Ptolemaic dynasty in the pharaonic tradition. To do so, three main Greek settlements will be presented; Naukratis (the first in Egypt), Alexandria (the major port city and hub, founded by the precursor of the Ptolemaic dynasty, Alexander the Great) and Ptolemais. These three settlements correspond to distinctive periods in history and show a strong argumentative and chronological line, and how this provided the Ptolemies an important tool in their quest to ensure the Egyptian rulership. While Naukratis presents the introduction of the Greeks in Egypt (soon followed by Thonis-Heracleion), Alexandria is the first step to a future Hellenized Egypt, with a new city built following the Greek patterns. It is important to notice the role that Alexander the Great played in the first years of (indirect) Ptolemaic dominion. City foundation and Greek settlements provided Ptolemy I, and soon after his descendants, with a powerful and useful tool to ensure their control of the government and establish a successful Hellenistic rulership. Ptolemais was the first of many Ptolemaic cities to come.
Social Media as an Academic Tool: The EGEPOA project - Patricia Bou Pérez, Ana Díez-Flόres, Nerea López-Díaz and Clara Martínez-Moreno (Universitat Autόnoma de Barcelona) VIRTUAL POSTER
Gender studies have established a significant presence in Egyptology and Assyriology, although not as prominent as other areas of interest. Despite its now broader tradition, discussions on gender in Egyptology and Assyriology largely remain confined to specialists, with limited outreach and communication to the broader public. This lack of visibility has a negative impact on both fields, as traditional perspectives and narratives continue to dominate public discourse.
In response to this challenge, we launched the project "Estudis de Gènere en Egipte i Pròxim Orient Antic - EGEPOA” (Gender Studies in Ancient Egypt and the Near East) one year ago. Our initial goal was to bring together students and early-career researchers in gender studies within Egyptology and Assyriology, fostering networks and promoting research beyond strictly academic circles. Subsequently, we expanded our efforts by leveraging social media, particularly Instagram, to communicate gender studies in these fields and reach a diverse audience.
This poster presents our experiences conducting the EGEPOA project and the use of our Instagram profile to communicate gender studies. We share results from data analysed via Instagram’s professional dashboard and from our workshop attendees, including audience demographics such as age groups, nationality, and gender.
Jules Ratzkowski and the Egyptian Collection at the Château Ramezay Museum in Montreal - Jean Revez (Université du Québec à Montréal)
In 1916, a French Art Dealer, Jules Ratzkowski, gave close to 150 ancient Egyptian pieces to the Château Ramezay Museum in Montreal. This hitherto largely unknown and unpublished collection, comprising mostly of ushebtis and other minor pieces of funerary equipment, contains also several larger inscribed stone blocks. I was asked by the curatorial direction of the institution to give a fresh look into the collection that had already been assessed in the 1950s by Winifred Needler, the late Egyptian and Near Eastern department curator at the ROM, who considered the collection to be largely made of forgeries. While many pieces do seem to be fakes, others are in fact undoubtedly genuine and worthy of interest. This lecture will allow to gain greater knowledge into the life of Jules Ratzkowski and the public art auction scene in Montreal during the earlier part of 20th century, and to delve into the question of the criteria determining the degree of authenticity of an Egyptian art collection.
Ancient Egyptian Influences Across Toronto’s Architectural and Cultural Landscapes - Thomas Greiner and Stephen Ficalora (University of Toronto)
The opening of Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in 1914 brought together a diverse set of museum collections with a wealth of Egyptian objects acquired for the museum’s founding (Teather 2009, 205). This event took place at the same time as an emergence of pharaonic influences can be felt within the city's architectural and cultural fabric. This talk explores how components of the rich and colourful repertoire of Egyptian iconography occur across Toronto's landscape, tracing its roots from the mausoleum of Sir Casimir Stanislaus Gzwoski in historic St. James Cemetery to later examples in other urban spaces including the Lillian Massey Building within the University of Toronto, Museum subway station, and a local Egyptian-owned Papyrus Restaurant. Through an in-depth analysis of these places, this talk will argue that the pervasive adoption of pharaonic influences within Toronto’s architecture reflects a dynamic process of cultural exchange and appropriation. A discussion of the results of our research will show how these influences have contributed to the city’s architectural identity and continue to foster a rich tapestry of cross-cultural connections.
Reconstructing the biography of the Predynastic fishtails - Mona Akmal M. Ahmed (Helwan University, Università di Pisa)
The onset of the Predynastic period marked increasing social stratification and the development of territoriality and specialized production. The emergence of elites and rapidly evolving beliefs in the afterlife contributed to accelerating the pace of advances related to the production of prestigious funerary goods. It is from this time onwards that domestic knives started to be distinguished from funerary knives. Fishtails were frequently recorded from non-domestic contexts during the Naqada I-II period. The luxurious shapes of these knives and their skillful production reflected the development of production techniques and the importance of both their producers and intended owners.
The biographic approach is employed as a tool in the current research to go beyond the aesthetic of those knives, and explore the various reasons that gradually contributed to imparting symbolic values on fishtails. In this regard, object biography is used to reconstruct the various life phases of fishtails. These phases start with investigating fishtails within their original context/environment i.e. in archaeological sites, where fishtails played roles in the lives of ancient owners and producers. The subsequent phases refer to their life after becoming part of the archaeological record, and after reaching their new artificial environment/museums, considering new interactions with modern users and viewers, such as excavators, researchers, curators, and museum visitors. Investigating fishtails through the biographic approach proved profoundly significant for reconstructing the objects trajectories, crucial for understanding the interplay between spaces, people, and things.
The Despair of Taharqa: Some case studies on emotions in the royal inscriptions of Taharqa - Hsu, Shih-Wei (Spanish National Research Council, Madrid)
The Kushite king Taharqa (690–664 BCE), the youngest son of Pi(ankh)y, was crowned in Memphis after the death of Shebitku. Taharqa focused on his building activities in both Egypt and Kush, establishing temples that served as centers of territorial administration. He made significant efforts to create a stable central government for the double kingdom. However, the rising power of the Neo-Assyrian Kingdom posed a great threat to Egypt. During Taharqa’s reign, the Assyrians attacked Egypt in 674 BCE by Esarhaddon and again in 667 and 664 BCE under Ashurbanipal. Taharqa was wounded and forced to flee from Memphis to Thebes and eventually to Napata. The entire royal family, including royal wives and princes, was captured by the Assyrians. While ancient Egyptian kings typically recorded only their positive deeds and expressed positive emotions, Taharqa's inscriptions are an exception, as they reveal his negative emotions during these events, particularly his feelings of “despair” and “helplessness,” as he asks Amun for aid during the so-called “Evil time” or the period of “the raging of the foreign lands.”
This paper will provide an overview of the historical background of Taharqa and analyze his royal inscriptions to discuss his emotions, such as joy, happiness, love, sadness, despair, and anxiety. I will examine his royal inscriptions from a new perspective, discussing the emotional transition in Taharqa, to understand why he experienced these feelings and how he expressed them.
The Material Sourcing and Production of Upper Egyptian ‘Soul Houses’ at the Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto, ON) - Maegan Hanway-Smith (University of Toronto)
To date, little ink has been spilled on the topic of pottery offering trays and Petrie’s so-called ‘soul houses’ (Petrie 1907). Historically, little information could be garnered from these Middle Kingdom objects due to a lack of inscriptions, confidence in their dating, and understanding of how they may have been used. However, the world of ceramic analysis can provide a greater understanding of intimate areas of ancient pottery production. In the case of ‘soul houses’ and pottery offering trays, ceramic analysis can help us understand the production processes and material sourcing of the clay used for their production. This study looks at various pottery offering trays and ‘soul houses’ in storage at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), of which come from a variety of Upper Egyptian sites, including Armant/Luxor and Rifeh.
In this presentation, I will focus on the macroscopic fabric analysis of the pottery offering trays and ‘soul houses’ to better understand the sourcing of Upper Egyptian geological materials (particularly those coming from the Aswan area) in the clay fabric as well as some of the possible production and exchange processes. This is a preliminary presentation of my ongoing research meant to engage scholars in the conversation of non-elite pottery production in Middle Kingdom Egypt.
Amun in the Garden - Mark Trumpour (ROM, Independent Researcher)
In the far corner of the garden of the Palazzo Barberini in Rome is a large stela of Aswan granite measuring 2.4m tall x 1.22m wide and .19m thick. It bears a striking relief carving of the god Amun sitting on a throne. It has no label or signage with it and it is not formally entered into the register of the collection of the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, which is responsible for the site. Little has been written about it, save for scattered, brief references; almost nothing appears when it is searched for in online searches. Pieces like this raise many questions: Where was it created - Egypt or Rome? Why was it created? What was its function - merely decor or some higher significance?
This paper aims to fill this gap by looking at what is known of this monument, its provenance, and examination of its stylistic features. Much about it is odd when considered from an ancient Egyptian context; the idiosyncrasies will be pointed out, and theories explored as to what its function may have been in ancient Rome.