Aegean Egyptian Interrelatlations Research Papers (original) (raw)

In the Early Iron Age the Eastern Mediterranean gradually turned into a complex network of systematic contacts among the Aegean, Cyprus, Egypt, Syro-Palestine and areas of the Near East. From the tenth century BC onwards relations between the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean were intensified mainly due to the growing Cypriot, Euboean and Phoenician commercial activity. Moreover, from the eighth to the sixth century BC direct cultural contact between the Nile land and the Greek world gained ground and this was demonstrated in multiple and different ways. Greek traders were active in the Nile Delta from the middle of the seventh century BC or even earlier, but trade obtained a more profound character only after the foundation of Naukratis at the end of the seventh century BC. Furthermore, written testimonies about pharaonic gifts to Greek sanctuaries indicate diplomatic relations among the Saite Dynasty and Greek cities, particularly in the East Greece. Another significant aspect of cross cultural interaction was the recruitment of Ionian and Carian mercenaries by Psamtek I (664-610 BC). Some of them who rose to high offices were gradually assimilated in the Egyptian society by marrying Egyptian women, participated in religious ceremonies and even followed local burial customs. As a result of the aforementioned cultural contact, Egyptian ideas affected different aspects of life and art, as shown by the impact on monumental sculpture, architecture and pottery analyzed in many studies. Less visible, but still traceable, is the relation of Egyptian religious ideology with Greek philosophy.

- by and +1
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- Ancient Egyptian Religion, Ancient History, Egyptology, Egyptian Archaeology

This article (in Dutch) evaluates the evidence for Mycenaean participation in Royal Gift Exchange, focusing especially the relation between the King of Mycenae and the Great Kings of Egypt and Hatti). It argues that the Mycenaean world... more

During the Archaic period, when commercial and cultural networks in the Eastern Mediterranean flourished again, Egyptian and Egyptianizing artefacts were spread within the Aegean. The largest assemblages of Aegyptiaca come from sanctuaries and tombs in Rhodes and Samos. Among the most common objects were amulets and figurines depicting Egyptian deities. The most popular divinity in the Aegean was Bes, a demon-god mainly associated with fertility, protection of motherhood and childbirth. The aim of this paper is to trace the multiple connotations of Bes representations at the aforementioned sites with regard to the archaeological context, and the general historical framework. Furthermore, we will try to trace iconographical and symbolical influences of Bes image on local demonic entities of the 6th century BC, the so-called ‘Fat-bellied’ demons. The presence of Bes’s image and its local ‘adaptation’ in the Aegean reflects a special cultural interaction during the 7th and 6th centuries BC. Within this framework Egyptian symbols and ideas were adopted, transformed and had an impact on popular religious tradition and cult.

The appearance of the brailed rig and loose-footed sail at the end of the Late Bronze Age revolutionized seafaring in the eastern Mediterranean. In the first visual representation of a naval battle in the Egyptian records, the battle at Medinet Habu, both Egyptian and ‘Sea Peoples’ ships are portrayed as employing this new rig on warships which are nearly identical in structure and design. This fact suggests some level of previous contact between the invading mariners and those responsible for designing and constructing Egypt’s ships of war. This paper examines the evidence for the development of the brailed rig in the eastern Mediterranean, and explores the possibility that the Šrdn of the Sea, one of the ‘Sea Peoples’ who appeared in “battleships in the midst of the sea” off of the Egyptian coast a century earlier, may have played an integral role in the transference of that technology to the Egyptians.

- by Shelley Wachsmann
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- Archaeology, Egyptology, Egyptian Art and Archaeology, Egyptian Archaeology

Archaeology seems to support the idea of widespread Minoan trading contacts and a significant number of Minoan colonies. The distribution of the place name “Minoa” in the Aegean and in the eastern and central Mediterranean also appears to imply Minoan colonies. However, we must not forget that it was the famed archaeologist Arthur Evans who gave the Minoan civilization its name. It is possible that the Minoans went by a different name entirely. If the Bronze Age Cretan king was known as “Minos”, it is quite possible that the king’s colonies were named “Minoa” after him, but this is just speculation.

- by Richard Vallance Janke and +1
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- Languages, Diachronic Linguistics (Or Historical Linguistics), Languages and Linguistics, Contact Linguistics

In three occasions Egyptian texts give us extracts of the language of the Keftiw: a school writing tablet with personal names, an inscription with place names, and a papyrus with two magical spells! The information that we can extract, although puny, could help us in our attempt to approach the Keftiw language and its nature. All difficulties of interpretation
have to be analysed and each step has to be taken cautiously.

Ch. 8 of Woven Threads. Book abstract: Woven textiles are produced by nearly all human societies. This volume investigates evidence for patterned textiles (that is, textiles woven with elaborate designs) that were produced by two early Mediterranean civilizations: the Minoans of Crete and the Mycenaeans of mainland Greece, that prospered during the Aegean Bronze Age, c. 3000–1200 BC, contemporary with Pharaonic Egypt. Both could boast of specialists in textile production. Together with their wine, oil, and art, Minoan and Mycenaean textiles were much desired as trade goods. Artistic images of their fabrics preserved both in the Aegean and in other parts of the Mediterranean show elaborate patterns woven with rich decorative detail and color. Only a few small scraps of textiles survive but evidence for their production is abundant and frescoes supply detailed information about a wide variety of now-lost textile goods from luxurious costumes and beautifully patterned wall hangings and carpets, to more utilitarian decorated fabrics. A review of surviving artistic and archaeological evidence indicates that textiles played essential practical and social roles in both Minoan and Mycenaean societies.

- by Anne Chapin
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- Egyptology, Art History, Egyptian Art and Archaeology, Mediterranean prehistory

The subject of what has come to be described as "Minoan Goddess" is tackled by a number of scholars from several fields of study (Archaeology, Anthropology, Sociology, History of Religion, Political activism to name a few). Proposed interpretations are biased by the overexposure of selective icons and motivated by different stimuli, ignoring evidence that does not fit in the model of their preference.

Before 3000 BC, when there was no unified Egyptian state that controlled the entirety of the Nile Valley, the various communities along the shores of the Nile were already trading with each other and with people further afield. Close ties with communities in Canaan, and through these with regions further to the north, are evident from the numerous Sumerian- and Elamite- inspired elements in Late Predynastic and Early Dynastic ruler iconography. From Dynasty 6 (ca. 2345–2181 BC) onward, Egyptian texts speak of “Byblos ships,” an indication of the growing importance of maritime trade, especially with the coastal city of Byblos (in modern- day Leba-non). Through this and other Levantine trading centers, Egypt was connected to the world beyond, including the Aegean littoral. Increasing numbers of imported materials, objects, ideas, and even foreign people attest to Egypt's ever- widening horizon until, at the beginning of the second millennium BC, an international age began that witnessed unprecedented contact between the various regions of the ancient Mediterranean.
This paper offers an overview of that age of intense connections, focusing especially on Egyptian interaction with the Aegean world during the Middle and Late Bronze Age.

The tumultuous transition from the Late Bronze to the Early Iron Age in the Eastern Mediterranean was marked by a change in the iconography of warriors and warfare, particularly in Egypt and in the Aegean world. It is also at this time that the Helladic oared galley makes its first appearance, where it is used as an instrument of naval warfare in the first true sea battles in recorded history. This paper investigates these earliest representations of naval combat, with a special emphasis on the appearance and employment of new maritime technology and its effect on maritime operations and naval warfare. Also considered are what modes of fighting were utilized in, and what changes had to be made to adapt to, this earliest form of ship-based combat.

- by Jeff Emanuel
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- Ancient History, War Studies, Naval Warfare, Cultural History of War
- by Ezra Marcus
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- Archaeology, Classical Archaeology, Egyptology, Maritime Archaeology

The appearance of the brailed rig and loose–footed sail at the end of the Late Bronze Age revolutionized seafaring in the eastern Mediterranean. The most famous early appearance of this new technology is found in history’s first visual representation of a naval battle, on the walls of Ramesses III’s mortuary temple at Medinet Habu. In this monumental combat scene, both Egyptian and Sea Peoples ships are depicted with this new rig, as well as top–mounted crow’s nests and decking upon which shipborne warriors do battle. The identical employment of these innovative components of maritime technology by opposing forces in this battle suggests either some level of previous contact between the invaders and those responsible for designing and constructing Egypt’s ships of war, or shared interaction with a third party, perhaps on the Syro–Canaanite coast. This article examines the evidence for the development of the brailed rig in the eastern Mediterranean, and explores the possibility that at least one group of Sea Peoples, who may have comprised a key part of the international economy of the Late Bronze Age in their role as “pirates, raiders, and traders” (Georgiou 2012: 527) – Artzy’s “nomads of the sea” (1997) – played a similarly integral role in the transference of maritime technology between the Levant, Egypt, and the Aegean.

- by Jeff Emanuel
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- History, Ancient History, Military History, Archaeology

This chapter provides an overview of possible types of cultural contact between Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean and of the available sources, both archaeological and textual, and their interpretational values and problems. The focus is on the Early and Middle Bronze Ages, corresponding to the Early Dynastic period, the Old Kingdom, the First Intermediate Period, the Middle Kingdom, and the Second Intermediate Period in Egypt. Using sources that have recently come to light, especially pottery, the article stresses the contextual information of such finds and considers changes in paradigms of interpretation. Analyzing and interpreting imported and “imitation” wares and objects is a relatively new and very difficult field, one that has initiated a re-evaluation of both textual and archaeological evidence.

- by Bettina Bader
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- Archaeology, Egyptology, Pottery (Archaeology), Egyptian Archaeology

An initial study of the figures depicted as wielding swords on signet rings and lentoid seals led to the conclusion that the primary surface to see the iconography of signet rings and certain other seal types was more often the sealing than the seal itself. Although this is a valid observation, the picture is much more complicated than that, as the Minoan artisans played with the established form of these seals in a remarkably sophisticated fashion, satisfying the practical needs of display and administration, but also creating something far more refined and thought provoking that we should really call 'art'. The incredibly sophisticated minoan art has been unparalleled elsewhere taking seal carving and administration to a level that has never been taken before.

- by Evangelos Kyriakidis
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- Cultural History, Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Iconography

This study investigates the identity of the female Adorant depicted before two female deities in the “Room of the Fresco” (Room 31) of the Cult Center Mycenae. It is argued that the Adorant is accompanied not by a griffin, but a guardian lion (or a lioness), traditional symbol of power at Mycenae. Certain Egyptianising features of artistic style (symbolic size, registers) are combined with an Egyptianising formula for royal offerings to the gods to create an internationalizing iconography of elite social status and sacred communion with the divine. It is suggested that the Adorant represents a female member of the royal family at Mycenae (perhaps even a queen) acting as priestess. Yet the painted platform of Room 31, which includes a low step and the three ash-filled disks, imply that the Adorant, like the two deities above, also received offerings. This apparent contradiction is resolved when the Adorant is understood as a priestess of elite (royal?) social status who honoured the gods and was herself also the object of veneration. Such a reading explains the size disparity among the painted figures (the Adorant, as elite human, is smaller and less important than the deities) and, intriguingly, hints at ruler cult at Mycenae.

This contribution reassesses the date and origin of a particular group of cornelian and red jasper scarabs, displaying line designs such as crosses and stars on their bases. The numbers that surfaced in the southern Levant and the Aegean have led scholars to attribute them to Ramesside Egyptian, Late Bronze Age IIB/III Palestinian, or even Middle Minoan II workshops. An assessment of the Egyptian finds, however, remained wanting. This article presents an overview of all provenanced artifacts and argues that the recorded quantities and, more importantly, their archaeological context and distribution pattern throughout Egypt, the Levant and the Aegean indicate an Egyptian origin and 18th Dynasty date for these scarabs with geometric designs.

- by Anne Chapin
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- Archaeology, Gender Studies, Gender History, Mediterranean prehistory

The Late Bronze Age ended with a bang in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean: palaces and empires collapsed, from Greece to Egypt; coastal territories were beset by pirates and marauders; migratory peoples were on the move across land and sea; and geopolitical lines were permanently redrawn – conditions reflected, in many ways, by the world portrayed in Homer’s Odyssey. The notorious ‘Sea Peoples,’ mysterious groups of warriors who were credited by the pharaoh Ramesses III with destroying empires across the Near East at this time, fit into this puzzle in some way, although their exact role continues to be hotly debated. In the Odyssey’s various subplots, Odysseus himself carries out activities that are that highly reminiscent of the Sea Peoples, as he engages in raids and skirmishes while circuitously making his way back from Troy. Though it is presented as a falsehood within Homer’s master narrative, one such subplot, the “Second Cretan Lie” (Odyssey xiv 191–359) is striking in its similarity to the experience of one specific Sea Peoples group, whom Egyptian pharaohs referred to as the "Sherden of the Sea", and whose seaborne attacks they claimed that “none could withstand.”
This book marshals documentary, pictorial, and material evidence to examine Odysseus’ Second Cretan Lie in the context of the Late Bronze–Iron Age transition, with particular emphasis on changes in the iconography of warriors and warfare, social and economic upheaval, and remarkable innovation in maritime technology and tactics. Particular focus is given the hero’s description of his frequent raiding activities, including an ill–fated attempt on the Nile Delta, and on his description of seven subsequent years spent in the land of the pharaohs, during which he claims to have gathered great wealth. Setting the evidence for the Sherden of the Sea against this Homeric narrative demonstrates not only that Odysseus’ Second Cretan Lie fits into the temporal framework of the Late Bronze–Early Iron Age transition, but that there were historical people who actually lived that which Odysseus falsely claims as his own experience.

- by Jeff Emanuel
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- Mythology And Folklore, Ancient History, Archaeology, Egyptology
- by Antonio Perez Largacha and +2
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- Ancient Egyptian Religion, Egyptology, Egyptian Art and Archaeology, Egyptian Archaeology

Situated at the crossroads between North-eastern Africa, the Mediterranean, the Near East and the Indian Ocean, ancient Egypt was a strategic pathway that facilitated contacts and the circulation of peoples, products and ideas across these vast regions. Sometimes it was the monarchy that took the initiative in these contacts, whereas in other cases mobile populations, local leaders, itinerant merchants and independent individuals fulfilled such role. Archaeology is gradually revealing the importance of these actors, usually neglected in official inscriptions that highlight, by contrast, the centrality of the monarchy and its institutions. At the same time, new methods of research cast a new light on the modalities of these contacts and the extent of the networks operative in the Bronze Age across these regions and, more generally, Eurasia. Finally, Egyptian regions participated in these exchanges in very distinctive ways, so control over flows of wealth, access to coveted goods and contacts with privileged trading partners represented significant moves in their strategies. A constant tension between different political models (centralized, confederacies of cities and territories, regional kingdoms) reemerged once and again through the millennia, led often to the collapse of the central authority and seem inspired, at least in part, by the impact of trading activities and exchanges.

- by Juan Carlos Moreno Garcia
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- History, Economic History, Archaeology, Egyptology
- by Shelley Wachsmann
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- Archaeology, Egyptology, Egyptian Art and Archaeology, Egyptian Archaeology

The Austrian archaeological team led by Manfred Bietak that excavated the palatial district at Avaris (Tell el-Dab‘a) has produced some significant results for illuminating Lower Egypt’s history of the 2nd millennium BC. While Bietak’s subsequent publications related to the New Kingdom primarily have focused on the exquisite Minoan wall paintings and the site’s association with Peru-nefer, much less attention has centered on the timing of the mid-18th-Dynasty abandonment that Bietak says occurred “after Amenhotep II,” and was followed by an occupational gap. Did the abandonment occur during the reign of Amenhotep II, at the end of his reign, or during the reign of Thutmose IV? The present work seeks to bring together all of the relevant data—from the archaeological evidence at the site, the epigraphical record, and corroborative evidence from Theban tomb paintings—in an attempt to determine more precisely the timing of the site's mid-18th-Dynasty abandonment.

- by Douglas N Petrovich
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- Ancient History, Archaeology, Egyptology, Near Eastern Archaeology

In this paper, we explore the cohesiveness of the social network that connected the Great Powers during the 14th century BCE, by concentrating on the archive found at Amarna. The evidence of the tablets implies that the Bronze Age rulers, vassal kings, merchants, and messengers of the day optimized the existing
diplomatic, mercantile, and communication networks for maximum efficiency. What we wish to emphasize is the very high quality of evidence that we have in these royal letters about the social relationships between individuals. Not only do we know who wrote to whom and how often, but we also have wonderfully
detailed evidence within the correspondence of efforts to be close to one another, as well as feelings of anger at each other or even tension and mistrust. All of it is their social world and it is clear from these letters that the Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean was actually a measureable Small World, according to terminology
used by Social Network Analysis.

Whilst gold is the metal that is most commonly associated with Mycenae -mostly because of Homer's reference to that city, but also because of the fabulous death masks that were uncovered by Schliemann in the shaft graves of Grave circle A, relatively little is known about the role and appreciation of silver in the Mycenaean world. Silver artefacts have been found only sporadically at Mycenaean sites, suggesting that the metal was rare, yet there is good evidence that the Mycenaeans were already mining silver in the Laurion, south of Athens. This article will try to explain this apparent dichotomy, by exploring the role and importance of silver in the Mycenaean world.

- by John Coleman Darnell and +1
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- Egyptology, Egyptian Art and Archaeology, Egyptian Archaeology, Caravanserais

NOW IN PAPERBACK!
In this book I explore the ancient history and modern historiography of relations between Egypt and Greece from the fifth century BCE to the early Roman empire. Beginning with Herodotus, I analyze key encounters between Greeks and Egyptian priests, the bearers of Egypt’s ancient traditions. A series of four moments emerge as rich micro-histories of cross-cultural interaction: Herodotus’ interviews with priests at Thebes, Manetho’s composition of an Egyptian history in Greek, the struggles of Egyptian priests on Delos, and a Greek physician’s quest for magic in Egypt. In writing these histories, I move beyond Orientalizing representations of the Other and colonial metanarratives of the civilizing process to reveal interactions between Greeks and Egyptians as transactional processes in which the traditions, discourses and pragmatic interests of both sides shaped the outcome. The result is a dialogical history of cultural and intellectual exchanges between the civilizations of Greece and Egypt.

- by Ian Moyer
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- Ancient History, Egyptology, Hellenistic History, Graeco-Roman Egypt