Elizabeth Donnelly Carney, Arsinoë of Egypt and Macedon: A Royal Life - A Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2013.09.54

Elizabeth Donnelly Carney, Arsinoë of Egypt and Macedon: A Royal Life. Women in antiquity.   Oxford; New York:  Oxford University Press, 2013.  Pp. xvii, 215.  ISBN 9780195365511.

Reviewed by Jens Bartels, Universität Zürich

Writing a biography is a difficult task, all the more when the object of study is a person of antiquity. Evidence is usually scarce, fragmentary and distorted. Thus, reconstructing an ancient life from birth to death, even tracing the protagonist’s character or at least his / her motives, seems quite impossible. More often than not, the situation is additionally exacerbated by the lack of an ancient biography or the absence of a dense historiographical tradition. As this is exactly the case with Arsinoë II, one wonders, how one could try and write a biography about her. The (very aesthetic) design of the cover of the book by Olivia Russin could be a hint at the difficulties: the upper half shows a wonderful early Hellenistic bronze head of a woman. It may depict Arsinoë II, but also Arsinoë I or any other Hellenistic queen of that time, or simply a goddess.1 In order to be able to relate the life of Arsinoë II one has to squeeze every bit of evidence to the last drop and is still far from any continuous narration on her life let alone any hints on her motivation or her character. Of course, Elizabeth Carney is well aware of these problems. In the appendix (137-145) she thus presents a concise and critical survey of the relevant sources and the related scholarly discussion, showing the rather desperate situation. In her own words (10): “Looking at Arsinoë’s life is a bit like trying to meet someone at a big party, but somehow always missing them though, perhaps, getting a whiff of their perfume and hearing a lot of stories about them. In a sense, Arsinoë is always in the other room.”

Egyptian goddess statue unveiled in İzmir’s Red Basilica

IZMIR - Doğan News Agency

Photocredit: DHA photo

An almost nine-meter long lion-headed Egyptian goddess Sekhmet has been revived in the Red Basilica (Kızıl Avlu) in the largest structure of the ancient city of Pergamon in İzmir’s Bergama district, and opened to visits on Sept. 26. The statue has already drawn great interest from tourists in the area. 

German Excavation Institute Chairman Ferix Pilson said it would contribute to Bergama’s inclusion in the UNESO Cultural Heritage list in June next year. 

The Egyptian statue pieces found during the excavations since 1930 in the Red Basilica are among the most important statues from the Roman Empire. Among them, the lion-headed goddess statue was reconstructed thanks to the support of the Studiosus Foundation. The statue was raised last year for trial purposes and with further works, and it reached an impressive height of 8.5 meters.

Source: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/egyptian-goddess-statue-unveiled-in-izmirs-red-basilica.aspx?pageID=238&nID=55259&NewsCatID=375

Egyptian years and days

Many Egyptians continue to use several yearly calendars, the heritage of the country’s different religious traditions, writes Samia Abdennour

“The Egyptian calendar is certainly the only rational calendar that has ever been devised,” wrote the ancient Greek historian Herodotus after his visit to Egypt in the fifth century BCE.

The ancient Egyptians were one of the first nations to use a solar calendar, in around 3,000 BCE, and this shows their great regard for science and the high level of scientific knowledge they had attained. Their calendar was based on the phases of the River Nile and the associated activities in the fields of flooding, seedtime and harvesting, these making up three distinct seasons of four months each. 

These seasons shaped the lives and character of the Egyptian fellaheen (peasants) who were so engrossed in agriculture and the land that they left all other matters — social, political and economic — to outsiders. It was this that facilitated the foreign control of the country and that led to the peasants’ eventual oppression.

Egyptians today use three calendars, the Islamic, Coptic and Western calendar, the last being used by people of both faiths for most secular or official purposes. The Islamic calendar is used only for religious purposes, while the Coptic calendar is used to mark the events of the Christian year and the agricultural almanac by farmers of both faiths. 

The names given to the Islamic months were largely adopted from those of the jahiliya (the “time of ignorance” before the coming of Islam), while the names of the Coptic months are derived from the names of ancient Egyptian gods.

Ancient Egyptian Fortress Yields New Finds

Archaeologists at the ancient Egyptian fortress at Jaffa in Israel uncover new clues to understanding a monumental city gate complex

Since 2011, a team of achaeologists have been uncovering some tantalizing new finds at the remains of a fourteenth century B.C. Egyptian fortress gate complex at the coastal city of Jaffa in Israel. It is today the only Egyptian gate ever excavated in Israel, and excavation co-directors Aaron A. Burke of the University of California, Los Angeles and Martin Peilstöcker of the Israel Antiquities Authority are convinced that the site may tell an important story about how an Egyptian enclave survived and persisted within Canaanite territory well over 3,000 years ago.

"New archaeological data combined with well-known historical texts of the Late Bronze Age are now shedding light on the nature of interactions between the Canaanite inhabitants of Jaffa and its environs and the Egyptian inhabitants of the New Kingdom fortress built atop the city’s earlier remains," reports Burke and Peilstöcker. "The resulting picture is one colored by episodes of violence and peaceful social interactions in Jaffa over a period of more than 300 years, from ca. 1460 to 1130 BC."

Excavations in 2012 revealed strong evidence of a violent destruction event, with clues to its extent indicated when excavators discovered a commemorative scarab of Amenhotep III dated to the mid-fourteenth century B.C., found within the upper destruction layers and apparently fallen from what the archaeologists interpreted as a second story administrative office floor. In 2013, they exposed the city gate’s passageway below more than 1.5 meters of destruction debris. The finds included arrowheads, a spearhead and lead weight, decorative ivory inlays, numerous charred seeds, a number of ceramic vessels, antlers from deer, and nearly two dozen cedar timbers thought to have once made up the gate’s roof and upper story. The seeds, identified as those of barley, olive pits, grape pips, and chick peas were a welcome find, as they provide an insight to the foods consumed at the site.

Philippa Lang, Medicine and Society in Ptolemaic Egypt. Studies in Ancient Medicine - A Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2013.09.48

Philippa Lang, Medicine and Society in Ptolemaic Egypt. Studies in Ancient Medicine, 41.   Leiden; Boston: Brill, Pp. xii, 318.  ISBN 9789004218581.  $151.00.

Reviewed by Michaela Senkova, University of Leicester

Medicine and Society in Ptolemaic Egypt is the latest title published by Brill in their ‘Studies in Ancient Medicine’ series.1 It presents a rich overview of the forms of healing employed across all strata of society in Ptolemaic Egypt, from ‘temple medicine’ to scientific approaches to medical issues. The term ‘society’, however, means here primarily the Egyptians and the Greeks, whose testimony to healing practices and theory presented in literary, archaeological, papyrological and epigraphic evidence represents the core source material for the book. Medical traditions and theoretical approaches of social minorities like the Jewish communities, for instance, do not find their way into the text for ‘simplicity’s sake’ (xi). Consequently, much of the volume is concerned with the contrast between ethnic and cultural approaches to medicine among the native Egyptians and the Greek settlers, and the evaluation of arguments for and against the possible influences these two medical cultures may have had upon each other. Lang covers a broad canvas in this compact study, recognizing a number of socio-cultural factors as medically relevant (namely agriculture, botany, demography, linguistics and religious practice) in order to explore how inhabitants of Ptolemaic Egypt might have experienced and dealt with disease.

Wednesday Weekly # 2

Welcome to the Wednesday Weekly, your weekly dose of links to Egyptology news, articles, blogs, events and more.

UCL INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY

Call for Papers: Current Research in Egyptology XV

The 15th Current Research in Egyptology conference will be held at UCL and KCL in April 2014 for which a call for papers is announced with a deadline of 15 November 2013.

For more information:

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/calendar/articles/20130916

TETISHERI

New addition to Julia Thorne's blog: Meet the gods: Sekhmet

http://www.tetisheri.co.uk/3/post/2013/09/meet-the-gods-sekhmet.html

ACROSS BORDERS

New addition to the blog by Julia Budka: Nehi at Elephantine

http://acrossborders.oeaw.ac.at/nehi-at-elephantine/

ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM

New additions to the ROM's blog by Matthew Church: 

Amarna Artifacts in the ROM's Ancient Egypt Collection
http://www.rom.on.ca/en/blog/amarna-artifacts-in-the-roms-ancient-egypt-collection

Restoring a Rebel Pharaoh's Kingdom: In the field with Prof. Barry Kemp
http://www.rom.on.ca/en/blog/restoring-a-rebel-pharaohs-kingdom-in-the-field-with-prof-barry-kemp

HAIR AND DEATH IN ANCIENT EGYPT

by María Rosa Valdesogo Martín

Hair, Mourners and Light in Ancient Egypt
http://hairanddeathinancientegypt.wordpress.com/2013/09/19/hair-mourners-and-light-in-ancient-egypt/

Hair, Mourners and Secret in Ancient Egypt
http://hairanddeathinancientegypt.wordpress.com/2013/09/23/hair-mourners-and-secret-in-ancient-egypt/

ALBANY INSTITUTE OF HISTORY AND ART

New Exhibition: The Mystery of the Albany Mummies - 21 September 2013/8 June 2014

The story of the Albany Mummies centers on two Ancient Egyptian mummies and their coffins, one dating from the 21st Dynasty and the other from the Ptolemaic Period.

For more information about the exhibition:
http://www.albanyinstitute.org/ge-presents-the-mystery-of-the-albany-mummies.html

THE BRITISH MUSEUM

New contribution to the British Museum blog by curator Richard Parkinson:

Reading an ancient Egyptian poem
http://blog.britishmuseum.org/2013/09/19/reading-an-ancient-egyptian-poem/

EGYPT EXPLORATION SOCIETY

EES Finance & Business Manager: Recruitment Information

The UK’s leading Egyptological organisation, the Egypt Exploration Society, is looking for an enthusiastic and well-organised Finance & Business Manager to fill a key role within the team.

For more information:
http://www.ees.ac.uk/news/index/235.html

BOB BRIER

Pre-order Bob's new book "Egyptomania" available November 12.
http://drbobbrier.com/

THE EGYPTIAN HISTORY PODCAST

New episode: Episode XIX: The Beloved of Re - Pepy
http://egyptianhistory.libsyn.com/episode-xix-the-beloved-of-re-pepy

THE WALTERS ART MUSEUM

New exhibition: Egypt's Mysterious Book of the Faiyum - 6 October 2013/5 January 2014

The Book of the Faiyum is an exquisitely illustrated ancient papyrus depicting Egypt’s Faiyum oasis, a center of prosperity and ritual during the Greco-Roman period. Major sections of the manuscript—reunited for the first time in 150 years—are displayed alongside Egyptian statues, reliefs, jewelry, and ritual objects to illuminate the religious context that gave rise to the enigmatic tale of Sobek, the crocodile god who brings sun to the Faiyum.

For more info about the exhibition:
http://thewalters.org/exhibitions/faiyum/

LUXOR TIMES

New addition to the blog:

Exclusive footage: Sphinx Avenue ongoing work and issues
http://networkedblogs.com/Pj3De

SSEA VANCOUVER

Lecture: Women's Health in Ancient Egypt

Date: 26 September 2013, 7 p.m.
Place: Alliance for Arts & Culture
#100 – 938 Howe St
Vancouver, BC 

More info and tickets:
http://sseavancouver.wordpress.com/2013/09/07/womens-health-in-ancient-egypt/

EGYPTIANS

New blogpost by Timothy Reid:

The Search for Alexander: An Exhibition
http://tim-theegyptians.blogspot.nl/2013/09/the-search-for-alexander-exhibition.html

Egyptian Dog Mummy Infested with Bloodsucking Parasites

By Jeremy Hsu, LiveScience Contributor   |   September 23, 2013

A dog mummy has revealed the first archaeological evidence of bloodsucking parasites plaguing Fido's ancestors in Egypt during the classical era of Roman rule.

The preserved parasites discovered in the mummified young dog's right ear and coat include the common brown tick and louse fly — tiny nuisances that may have carried diseases leading to the puppy's early demise. French archaeologists found the infested dog mummy while studying hundreds of mummified dogs at the excavation site of El Deir in Egypt, during expeditions in 2010 and 2011.

"Although the presence of parasites, as well as ectoparasite-borne diseases, in ancient times was already suspected from the writings of the major Greek and Latin scholars, these facts were not archaeologically proven until now," said Jean-Bernard Huchet, an archaeoentomologist at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.

Mentions of dog pests appear in the writings of ancient Greeks and Romans such as Homer, Aristotle and Pliny the Elder, and a painting of a hyenalike animal in an ancient Egyptian tomb dated to the 15th century B.C. shows what is likely the oldest known depiction of ticks. But evidence of ticks, flies and other ectoparasites that infest the outside of the body has been scarce in the archaeological record — until now. (The only other known archaeological evidence of ticks comes from fossilized human feces in Arizona.)