The Medinet Habu Records of the Foreign Wars of Ramesses III

The Medinet Habu Records of the Foreign Wars of Ramesses III
Author: Donald Bruce Redford
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2018-02-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004354182

The Medinet Habu Records of the Foreign Wars of Ramesses III is a new translation and commentary of the Textual record of Ramesses III’s military activity. As such it dwells heavily upon the inscriptions dealing with Libyans and Sea Peoples. Since the format is oral formulaic, the texts are scanned and rendered as lyric. The new insights into the period covered by the inscriptions leads to a new appraisal of the identity of Egypt’s enemies, as well as events surrounding the activity of the Sea Peoples. The exercise is not intended to dismiss, but rather to complement the archaeological evidence. "The Sea Peoples ... still remain an everexpanding topic of scholarly research swimming in a sea of disputation.... Redford’s book will help all of us to understand better the phenomenon of the end of the Bronze Age." -Anthony Spalinger, University of Auckland, Journal of the American Oriental Society 139.4 (2019)

The Enigmatic Netherworld Books of the Solar-Osirian Unity

The Enigmatic Netherworld Books of the Solar-Osirian Unity
Author: John Coleman Darnell
Publisher: Saint-Paul
Total Pages: 714
Release: 2004
Genre: History
ISBN: 9783525530559

In Egypt, from the Old to the New Kingdom, enigmatic texts were created on the basis of non-standardized lists of characters and phonetic signs, the exact principles of which are still unclear to this day. For the first time, this study examines in detail the three most comprehensive known inscription texts from the New Kingdom, which were discovered in the tombs of Tutenchamun, Ramses VI and Ramses IX. Darnell shows that these three texts have a theological, iconographic and formal connection, and calls them collectively the "Book of the Solar-Osirian Unity". Differentiated and lively, he presents the content and theological peculiarities of these texts that deal with the afterlife with each other and in relation to other enigmatic texts of the new as well as the Middle and Old Kingdom.

Medinet Habu

Medinet Habu
Author: Frederick Monderson
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Total Pages: 150
Release: 2009-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1438950012

The Mortuary Temple of Rameses III seeks to generally survey this magnificent architectural construction from the 20th Dynasty, generally considered the last major building project of the New Kingdom that has withstood the test of time and man, and today able to exhibit the great potential of historical and architectural wonder the structure represents. The Table of Contents reads: An Introduction; Poem to the Temple of Medinet Habu; The Tomb of Rameses III; Places of the name of Rameses III; Medinet Habu: A History; The Temple of Medinet Habu: Another Look, with Conclusions and References, that seeks to attempt a number of things with this important "Mansion of Millions of Years." Beyond introducing the temple to visitors, students and even specialists, a Poem praises the temple for its magnificence and defying time. In addition, because of the significance of the tomb of Rameses III, a graphic description, written when the temple was first cleared in the late 1888s, is reproduced because it highlights all the salient features that then survived the ravages of time and man. More particularly, and just as the both tomb and temple have undergone changes, features observed over a century ago and may have disappeared with the influx of throngs of people who go there these days. Much more important, however, this work seeks to identify (some of the) places where the name of Rameses III has been preserved , whether in his temple and tomb, on civic structures, in museums and private collections, wherever, to reflect on how significant a ruler this, the last of the emperors of Egypt really was. Even more, the book seeks to put the temple in a historical context that also praises the excavators who rescued this magnificent piece of divinely inspired architecture, from a time when ancient man believed in the attributes and actions of a divine being, whom they made every effort to please because their destiny in the afterlife depended on how well, while on earth, they treated their fellow man and the gods, and how they stood before their god. Photographs, many in color, and Illustration provide the graphic view of important features of the temple that would familiarize the visitor and help in facilitating the functions of a Guide Book.

Sacred Space and Sacred Function in Ancient Thebes

Sacred Space and Sacred Function in Ancient Thebes
Author: Betsy M. Bryan
Publisher: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2007-12-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1614910650

This volume presents a series of papers delivered at a two-day session of the Theban Workshop held at the British Museum in September 2003. Due to its political and religious prominence throughout much of pharaonic history, the region of ancient Thebes offers scholars a wealth of monuments whose physical remains and extant iconography may be combined with textual sources and archaeological finds in ways that elucidate the function of sacred space as initially conceived, and which also reveal adaptations to human need or shifts in cultural perception. The contributions herein address issues such as the architectural framing of religious ceremony, the implicit performative responses of officiants, the diachronic study of specific rites, the adaptation of sacred space to different uses through physical, representational, or textual alteration, and the development of ritual landscapes in ancient Thebes.

Proportion and Style in Ancient Egyptian Art

Proportion and Style in Ancient Egyptian Art
Author: Gay Robins
Publisher: Univ of TX + ORM
Total Pages: 526
Release: 2010-07-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0292755449

This study of ancient Egyptian art reveals the evolution of aesthetic approaches to proportion and style through the ages. The painted and relief-cut walls of ancient Egyptian tombs and temples record an amazing continuity of customs and beliefs over nearly 3,000 years. Even the artistic style of the scenes seems unchanging, but this appearance is deceptive. In this work, Gay Robins offers convincing evidence, based on a study of Egyptian usage of grid systems and proportions, that innovation and stylistic variation played a significant role in ancient Egyptian art. Robins thoroughly explores the squared grid systems used by the ancient artists to proportion standing, sitting, and kneeling human figures. This investigation yields the first chronological account of proportional variations in male and female figures from the Early Dynastic to the Ptolemaic periods. Robins discusses the proportional changes underlying the revolutionary style instituted during the Amarna Period. She also considers how the grid system influenced the overall composition of scenes. Numerous line drawings with superimposed grids illustrate the text.

The Search for God in Ancient Egypt

The Search for God in Ancient Egypt
Author: Jan Assmann
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2001
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780801437861

First English-language edition, with revisions and additions by the author.This classic work by one of the world's most distinguished Egyptologists was first published in German in 1984. The Search for God in Ancient Egypt offers a distillation of Jan Assmann's views on ancient Egyptian religion, with special emphasis on theology and piety. Deeply rooted in the texts of ancient Egypt and thoroughly informed by comparative religion, theology, anthropology, and semiotic analysis, Assmann's interpretations reveal the complexity of Egyptian thought in a new way.Assmann takes special care to distinguish between the "implicit" theology of Egyptian polytheism and the "explicit" theology that is concerned with exploring the problem of the divine. His discussion of polytheism and mythology addresses aspects of ritual, the universe, and myth; his consideration of explicit theology deals with theodicy and the specifics of Amarna religion.