MODERN TRENDS IN EUROPEAN EGYPTOLOGY

By  Galina A. Belova, Amanda-Alice Maravelia, Edward Loring

When an egyptological session was officially incorporated for the first time in the agenda of the European Association of Archaeology, during the EAA 7th Conference in Esslingen (Germany, 2001) and subsequently during the EAA 8th Conference in Thessaloniki (Hellas, 2002), we were not expecting such a warm welcome even by non Egyptologists. This year’s tripartite session endeavors to continue and stabilize this short tradition, which tries focusing on European Egyptology. We hope to explore and discuss various themes, which should be mutually interesting both for Egyptologists and for specialists in European Archaeology, as well as to Egyptologists originating from other scientific disciplines (Astronomy, Informatics, Architecture, Geography & Surveying, & c.). Hence it will be divided in three sub-sessions, as follows, where all interested colleagues are welcome to participate.

1. Egyptian Collections in Modern Europe and Recent Excavations

From the early Antiquity Egyptian civilization was one of the main sources that influenced European culture. After the Egyptian campaign of Napoleon, collecting Egyptian artifacts became a significant element of modern Western culture. Many tourists charmed by the mysterious land of the pyramids sought after bringing or purchasing on various local markets a souvenir from Egypt. With time these small acquisitions became a considerable part of modern museum collections. In most cases our knowledge of Ancient Egypt is based on the monuments of material culture. The latter include not only the famous temple or funerary complexes, but also a great diversity of lesser objects, ranging from sacred cult utensils to objects of Ancient Egyptian daily life, found during systematic digs. Each monument contains information about the context where it formerly existed in. Sometimes an ordinary «unattractive» artifact becomes a unique source leading to a significant discovery. That is why the collections of Ancient Egyptian antiquities kept in the museums, and especially in Europe (where the largest among them are housed), are of primary importance. It is our responsibility to study and to safeguard them for the future generations, a fact that follows our recent successful excavations in Egypt.

2. Archaeoastronomy and Egyptology

During the last three decades of the previous century there was a significant development in the archaeoastronomical studies, whose impact on Egyptology can be considered as rather considerable. During the same period an interdisciplinary correct basis has been put towards a fruitful synthesis in Archaeoastronomy, after the important works by Anthony Aveni, Michael Hoskin, Edwin Krupp, Clive Ruggles, and (in the field of Egyptology) of Leo Depuydt, Rolf Krauss, Kurt Locher, Otto Neugebauer, Richard Parker, Anthony Spalinger, & c. The orientation of monuments all over the Mediterranean is a most fascinating topic, that presents prominent correlations with certain phenomena near the horizon and/or stars, helping to understand the forma mentis of ancient people archaeologically as well as astronomically. In Egypt, North Africa, Hellas, the Balkan Peninsula, Iberia and the whole of Europe, there are numerous examples of astronomically oriented monuments that reflect past customs and ways of thought, pointing to the possible astronomical (stellar, solar or lunar) origins of ancient religions. They also echo the irresistible archetypal impact that celestial phenomena had on the lives of ancient people and their indirect incorporation into their socio-religious system. In connection with the former guidelines and concepts, a special sub-session is being organized, that endeavors to discuss the following topics: (i) Archaeoastronomy today and its impacts on Egyptology: the golden section between the two disciplines, in opposition to the hiatus between pure science and biased or uncritical fantasies. (ii) Studies of orientations of monuments (temples, tombs, & c.) and planning of ancient towns in Egypt and Nubia. (iii) Dating and chronology of ancient Egyptian history, calendrics and Sothic dates. (iv) Archaeoastronomical studies concerning astronomical objects (instruments, calendars, zodiacs, & c.), and ancient Egyptian constellations. (v) Archetypal impacts of celestial symbols in the texts and into the folklore of ancient and modern Egyptians, viewed through the Jungian Psychology of the collective unconscious.

3. Informatics and Egyptology

The tremendous impact of Informatics and its numerous useful applications not only in the field of Positive Sciences, but in Humanities as well, acted as a virtual catalyst for the huge progress that characterizes Egyptology during the last decades. The application of information sciences in Egyptology has been investigated and developed by the working group Informatique et Égyptologie of the International Association of Egyptologists (IAE) since the advent of the personal computer. Such applications may be roughly divided into the classifications pictorial and analytical. The term pictorial speaks for itself, in that it presents digitalized photographic and graphic representations of sites and artifacts. The area of analytical informatics is less well known. It may be divided into two areas: Ancient Egyptian Linguistics and Lexical Systems for the Analysis of Ancient Egyptian Sites, Artifacts and Historical Data. Artifacts and historical data are common to all areas of ancient studies. Processing data in this area is the subject of Knowledge Engineering. The Center for Egyptological Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (CES/RAS) will present an introduction to this new discipline based on its dynamic post-relational lexical database management system, known as GALEXYS. Interested parties will be able to obtain a CD-ROM with the actual development version of the system at no charge. A workshop for knowledge engineering will probably take place in connection with the meeting.

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ABSTRACTS

1.  EGYPTIAN COLLECTIONS IN MODERN EUROPE
AND RECENT EXCAVATIONS

Erhart Graefe

Institut für Ägyptologie und Koptologie, Münster Universität, Münster, Deutschland

New Results from the Digs of the German-Russian Team 
at the Royal Cache TT 320

In March, 2003, a second season was undertaken by the German-Russian Mission to TT 320, the Royale Cache (for the first season of 1998, reports on the results and pictures see http:\\www.uni- muenster.de\Philologie\Iaek). We were able to clear the remaining part of the first corridor and to continue to about 6 m inside corridor C. We found, that, in contrast to what we had thought in 1998, the filling of corridors B and C, underneath the layer of stones fallen from the side walls, did not mark the bottom of 1881 when the cache was emptied by Emil Brugsch. Instead, it is debris flooded in by a strong rainfall, because the cache had been left open for years after 1881. At the entrance of corridor C this layer amounted to about 80 cm above the original rock surface of 1881. The profile showed that this surface of 1881 (which contained many small and broken objects left behind by the explorer was only some centimeters in thickness. Next came a layer of fragments of limestone (of a quality which does not belong to the walls of the cache). It would be very rewarding to launch a new and big project for the study of the contents of the cache in Cairo, after which the fragments found by us could be fixed again at their proper places. This project would begin with trying to establish an inventory of the cache (for the first time, apparently it was never made) using the files of Cairo Museum. It would be rewarding, too, to continue the clearing of the cache in another season. In this paper a brief account is given of the latest finds in TT 320 and their significance is discussed.

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Galina A. Belova
Center for Egyptological Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

Ancient Memphis and the Helleno-Roman World

In November 2001 the Center for Egyptological Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences started its work at the site of Mit Rahina (Kom Tuman, Tell Aziz and Kom Dawbabi), which was continued in December 2002. The results of the first season and the analysis of surface material were very promising. The second season at Kom Tuman was concentrated again on topographical, geological and geophysical surveys, which combined several interdisciplinary methods. The geophysical survey has detected the existence of subterranean structures resembling the plans of palace structures, and living quarters. Numerous accumulations as well as separate architectural fragments, spread all over Kom Tuman, Tell Aziz and Kom Dawbabi were examined and described. Different kinds of ceramics dating from the Helleno-Roman Period were found there: amphorae, jugs, pots, lids of vessels, several fragments of faience, black-varnished and red-polished pottery. Without any doubts local ceramics and faience production workshops existed at this region. There were also found numerous samples of pottery from Chios, Phasos, & c. There are all grounds to be convinced for the tight links between Ancient Memphis and the Helleno-Roman world.

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Amanda–Alice Maravelia1  and  Eleni Cladaki–Manoli2

1 Centre de Recherches en Sciences de l’Antiquité; Université de Limoges, Limoges, France.
2 National Archæological Museum, Athens, Hellas.

Among the Hidden Treasures of the National Archæological Museum 
in Athens: Searching for Forgotten Mummies, 2

This is the second part of the project started last year and related with the complete and precise study of 10 anthropoid sarcophagi and their mummies, dating from the Ptolemaic Period and kept at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Hellas. The Egyptian Collection of the National Archaeological Museum in Athens keeps most of its riches well hidden in the Museum’s storerooms. Among those, we have managed to rediscover some Late Period and Ptolemaic coffins with their mummies. All these particular anthropoid sarcophagi have been published in the Hellenic language in a rather elementary and concise way (with some erroneous points) more than a century ago by Tasos Neroutsos. That author was a medical doctor who lived in Alexandria. Since then the coffins have fallen into oblivion, have never been exhibited in the Museum’s showrooms (except one), and nobody else since the late Neroutsos cared to study them accurately. Now after so many years that have elapsed, a new generation of well-qualified Egyptologists, with the Museum’s collaboration, try to bring into light these forgotten and more or less unknown nds. These coffins have been discovered in Egypt and donated to the Hellenic Government during the late 19th century by wealthy Hellenic patriots who lived in Egypt. The purpose of this article is to remind both the Egyptologists and Egyptophili the presence of these forgotten mummies and to present a complete and precise study of some of these sarcophagi, dating from the Ptolemaic Period. The remainder five out of these ten anthropoid coffins and their hieroglyphic inscriptions are thoroughly examined and presented in this paper. The previous five were presented in the Thessaloniki EAA 8th Conference, during the egyptological session, and have been already published by BAR. The third and final part of this project will include the medical and anatomical examination of the mummies, using modern forensic techniques. 

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Ashraf Alexandre Sadek

Centre de Recherches en Sciences de l’Antiquité; Université de Limoges, Limoges, France.

Obscene Figurines of the Egyptian Collection 
at the Municipal Museum of Limoges

The Municipal (Bishop’s) Museum of  Limoges owns a nice Egyptian Collection donated by Perichon Bey. This collection features about ten obscene (erotic) figurines: they are terracotta statuettes or amulets, dating from the LP and the Hellenistic Period. The research of the author on the popular religion of ancient Egypt led him to study certain texts dealing with sexuality in an obscene way. These texts were gathered by the author in his related monograph [see Sadek, A.I.: Popular Religion in New Kingdom Egypt, Hlidesheim (HÄB, 27) 1987, 242-44 (chapter “Curses”)]. They are hexing magical spells of a sexual character. Another text studied in the same book (see op. cit., 56-57) is a direct allusion to the human sexual impotence. This kind of texts was indeed very rare in the pharaonic Egypt, as well as the obscene or simply erotic representations. Two interesting questions arise, starting from the previous considerations: (i) What was the meaning and the exact use of these figurines? Various hypotheses were launched on this very issue, which ought to be re-discussed in the light of our evolved knowledge of the ancient Egyptian popular religion. Would it be plausible to connect these depictions to the fecundity cult, to a pathological obsession, or maybe to the magical curses used in the relevant texts? (ii) Why these obscene depictions were multiplied and became more numerous during the Hellenistic Period? Why were they rare during the earlier pharaonic eras and numerous during later times? These questions will be answered, using the obscene statuettes of the Municipal Museum of Limoges as a starting point and as examples/sources for our study. 

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Sergej V. Ivanov

Center for Egyptological Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

Erotic figurines found at Kom Tuman (Memphis, Egypt)

In 2001-2002 the Center for Egyptological Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences carried out archaeological and geophysical surveys at the site of Kom Tuman (Memphis, Egypt). During the first seasons there were found several terracotta figurines, that are usually called erotic. They represent naked women or men with a hypertrophied phallus. Interpretation of these figurines in the context of the results of the archaeological survey makes it possible to suggest that these objects were connected with religious rites, described by Herodotus as devoted to the god Dionysus. These figurines may be of importance for the localization of some Memphite temples, described in classical sources but heretofore not detected by archeologists.

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Tatjana A. Sherkova
Center for Egyptological Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

Egypt on its Way to an Early State: The Nile Delta and the Valley

In the 6th-5th Millennium BCE the process of formation of settled farming cultures was completed in the Nile valley and the Delta. In the Lower Egypt the diversity of Predynastic archaeological cultures is represented by separate sites of settled cultures in its different regions. They are of the type of: Merimde in the Western Delta; Fayum A in the Fayum Oasis; ’El-‘Omari on the Helwan plateau; & c. During the 4th Millennium BCE the Buto-Ma‘adian culture was widely spread all over the Lower Egypt. In the 6th-5th Millennium BCE the Badarian culture sprang up in the Nile valley. In the 4th Millenium BCE this archaeological culture gave way to the Naqada culture and its spread from the Nile Delta up to the first Nile cataracts. In the process of its development it reached the regions of the Nile Delta and the local Buto-Ma‘adian culture was excluded. Thus, in the final stage of the Predynastic Period Egypt existed as a single cultural space, on the basis of which an early state was formed. Nevertheless, the differences between the Upper and Lower Egypt were preserved and consolidated in the religious-mythological writing tradition of the Dynastic Era. Predynastic artifacts show a quite real hidden motive of distinctions between these gigantic regions of Egypt. Firstly, they are connected with the problem of formation of a settled population. Of no less importance is the landscape and the climatic factors which stipulated distinctions between both regions of Egypt. In the humid Lower Egypt the population was engaged in farming (growing cereals). In the arid lower desert bordering with the narrow Nile valley, which was flooded during seasonal Nile overflows, cattle-breeding prevailed. This purely economic factor stipulated distinctions in the specific character of socio-economic relations, and in the rate of changes in the process of the state formation Southern Egypt had a dominating role. Cattle-breeding provided Egypt with intensive surplus products, resulting in the stratification of society, the property differentiation of population, and the concentration of wealth at the hands of a social elite. The distinctions between the delta and the valley became apparent in the richer material aspect of the cultures of Southern Egypt. This can be explained by the fact that some part of the population gave up farming and took up the development of handicrafts including its produce. These were made first-class artifacts intended for the social elite and were also exchanged with other cultures. All these factors favoured the further progress of the communities of Southern Egypt in the development of social and political changes in this country. In the second half of the 4th Millennium BCE there existed dozens of chiefdoms in Egypt. The most powerful of them were located in Upper Egypt. In Hierakonpolis the formed chiefdom headed by the chief who had sacred and military functions became the basis for the monarchic institutionalization of the royal power. The central and hierarchical structure of the social organism was also reflected in the arrangement of space of Hierakonpolis with the marked core (Predynastic town), where the ceremonial centre (from the time of Naqada II) was dedicated to the cult of the chief and to the local falcon god Horus. During the time of N‘armer, Nekhen became the centre of Hierakonpolis with a temple dedicated to Horus. A Great Deposit of the ceremonial objects was found there. Similar “sets” of votive objects were uncovered in Abydos and in the temples of outlying districts (in Elephantine, at the southernmost Egypt, as well as in Tell Ibrahim Awad, at Lower Egypt near its north-eastern border). In fact, these new data confirm that as far back as in the time of Narmer who traditionally refers to “Dynasty 0” Egypt was an early territorial state stretching from the Delta as far as the first Nile cataracts. The existence of an independent state in Lower Egypt is out of question, a fact which can be confirmed by numerous sources.

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Alexei A. Krol

Center for Egyptological Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

Origins of the Sed-Festival: On the History of a Hypothesis

The Sed-Festival (Hb-sd) belongs to one of the most mysterious phenomena of the Ancient Egyptian culture. On the present day stage of our knowledge about the festival, everything could be contested except of the very fact that it existed for almost the whole lifespan of pharaonic Egypt. It seems like some of the ideas put forward in order to explain the possible origins of this festival, the very meaning of its rituals and such, pointed beaten but wrong paths or better to say “ring roads”. As a result, false conclusions based on wrong premises only increase our misunderstanding of the phenomenon. In the present paper we would like to come back to the beginning of the 20th century when the first attempts to understand the Sed-Festival were undertaken. We believe that the misinterpretation of the Hb-sd origins made at that time still consists an obstacle in the way of its correct comprehension.

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Maya Müller

Museum of Cultures , Basel, Switzerland.

From the History of Archaeology:
The Destruction of the Late Antique Necropolis in Egypt Reconsidered

Although the facts are known, their impact remains unresolved: Between ca. 1880 and 1914 all of the late antique cemeteries in the Nile Valley were radically destroyed and the plundered artifacts were scattered to the four winds. Targeted were tens of thousands of burials dating from the Roman to the Early Islamic Periods. It is a real horror story because the excavations, although largely legal, were not documented. This obviously resulted in the absolute loss of all historical information. The past few decades have seen the publication of much material pertaining to the development of official antiquities’ authorities and to persons such as dealers, archaeologists and collectors, who had to do with antiquities in the age of exploitation. Thus, it is now possible to progress beyond the phase of archaeological history in which the actors of the drama were simply accused, sentenced or aquitted. The exploitation of the late antique cemeteries needs no longer to be considered as an isolated phenomenon, but can now be integrated into the broader context of the Archaeology of that period. One of the principle players was the French Egyptologist Albert Gayet. Many thousands of Coptic textiles in many museums, also in Basel, stem from his “excavations”. Gayet was the only one of the excavators of that period who left us a few notes on his activities: notes larded with romantic anecdotes meant to win sponsors for his “excavations”. This information can now be re-evaluated.

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Sophia Tsourinaki

Benaki Museum, Athens, Hellas.

Looped Pile Textiles in the Benaki Museum

The technique of weft looping is obtained by means of the ground or a supplementary weft thread drawn into loops above the surface of the textile, producing an effect similar to modern toweling. These loops gave added thickness and warmth to various kinds of clothing, household pieces and hangings, that may have been used in public and religious contexts. The first evidence of surviving textiles comes in the several specimens of linen with all-over patterns of looping, including many towels drafted to help wrap up and give decent death to the collective burial of sixty soldiers at Deir ’el-Bahri, associated with Dynasty XI Pharaoh Montuhotep II. The technique was still widely employed in Egypt during the Roman and Late Byzantine Periods, where the naturalistic depiction of scenes with coloured woolen loops was closely connected to the working method of the mosaicists. The collection of Egyptian textiles in the Benaki Museum comprises 21 looped pile pieces from the Late Byzantine period, which display a variety of the technique applications. Of special interest are the remains of a fine garment with pile on both sides of the fabric, thus indicating the ancient Hellenic terms amphimalla, amphimita, amphitapa, and attesting that this rare type of weaving method was executed on a vertical loom. On the basis of the detailed analysis of the textiles and the actual experiments of the looped pile methods, an attempt will be made in this paper to determine more precisely whether they may be classified into three certain methods of pile formation. Moreover, the direct relationship between fabric characteristics and loom type will point to a possible way of practical interpretation of data, otherwise not so well documented. The structural differences of groups, sharing common technical and iconographic systems, will provide evidence of distinguished workshops or weaving traditions.

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2.  ARCHAEOASTRONOMY AND EGYPTOLOGY

Amanda-Alice Maravelia 

Centre de Recherches en Sciences de l’Antiquité; Université de Limoges, Limoges, France.

A Modern (Simultaneous) Observation of the Heliacal Rising of Sirius 
from Hellas (and Egypt)

The heliacal rising of Sirius, the ancient Egyptian Sothis, was fundamental for the determination of the New Year’s Day in Antiquity and was used by the Egyptian priests/astronomers in order to fix the civil year. The most intriguing factor in this kind of observation is the correct measurement of the arcus visionis, the angle between the heliacally rising star and the Sun, whose value is crucial for the correct observation of this phenomenon and the deduction of precise conclusions. In order to test a recent theory proposed by B.E. Schaefer, and in collaboration with Rolf Krauss (Germany) and Mosalam Shaltout (Egypt), who performed a modern observation in Egypt, we present the results of our observation from Hellas (Athens latitude, 09-10-11/VIII/2003, A = 111°).

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Anne Sophie von Bomhard

Paris, France

Interpretation of Sothic Dates in Egyptian Chronology

To establish a chronology of the ancient Egyptian history requires contributions from several generations of Egyptologists. It calls for the results of archaeological excavations, for the study of Egyptian texts, and for a parallel comparison with other contemporary civilisations. The fundamental base according to which these facts are organised, the very backbone of Egyptian chronology, is the corpus of Sothic dates, i.e. the mention of the first (heliacal) rise of Sirius within the Egyptian civil year. Unfortunately, few such dates are known, and some of them, in addition, seem to be incompatible. Any thorough scientific approach, however, would forbid to take only some of them into account and to exclude others. We must include all such dates appearing in the Egyptian texts, because their lack of conformability could be merely outwardly apparent and due to erroneous interpretations by Egyptologists. The purpose of this paper is to review all currently known Sothic dates, to precisely determine the context in which they appear in order to better apprehend the information they provide, and for each of them to carry out a critical analysis of their possible interpretations. 

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Edward Loring

Center for Egyptological Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia  

The Relative Chronology Project of the CES/RAS

The time axis may be considered as the backbone of history. There is nothing which does not have a time coordinate. The goal of this project is to obtain a more coherent view of concurrent historical developments in Egypt and other geopolitical entities, which may have been in contact with, or exerted influence on the culture of the Nile Valley. The research instrument employed is the analytical database management system GALEXYS of the Center for Egyptological Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The initial method implemented has been to create a databank record for each regnal year of each ruler in every culture of Western Asia, the Aegean and North Africa. Until connected with a numerical time axis such elements of information are dimensionless, even though firmly anchored historical concordances may exist. As we travel further back in time, the exact dating of artifacts and events becomes increasingly illusionary. Still, in order to compare developments in various cultures a collation on the time axis is required. Based on the most widely accepted published chronologies, we have linked each record of a regnal year with the Julian year in which it is thought to have begun. Each reign thus consists of a set of ordered pairs in the form Regnal Year/Julian Year. Events and artifacts dated to a certain regnal year are linked to the pair (or pairs) in which they occurred. As most researchers have their own concepts of the numerical chronology it is possible to shift a reign, a dynasty or any other type of period up or down on the numerical axis as desired. As events and artifacts are linked with a binary construct, they are automatically shifted with the regnal year or other relative value (“attributed to the reign of NN”, & c.), which gives the closest dating. This paper examines the possibilities and applications of this experimental system. 

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Nadezhda A. Reshetnikova

Center for Egyptological Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

The Planning of Towns in Ancient Meroe, 
According to the Materials of the Latest Excavations in Sudan

We know not so much about the planning of towns in ancient Meroe (the territory of modern Sudan). At the end of 19th/beginning of 20th century scholars were more interested in the cult architecture of the Ancient Kingdom of Kush. As a result, practically all the archaeological information that we have about this culture is connected with temple complexes, or with building activities of the ancient Egyptians on the territory from Aswan to the third Nile’s cataract. As an exception we could only mention the excavation of John Garstang in Meroe, the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Kush.  But the latest archaeological discoveries on the territory of the modern Sudan make it possible to say more about the organization of the ancient meroitic settlements. On the example of Ancient Sudan’s architecture we have a good possibility to trace the transformation of forms of Egyptian structures, which were introduced in Ancient Nubia, the influence of the African and Hellenistic cultures, as well as some natural factors. The analysis of orientation, space organization, proportions, constructions and forms of the Nubian architecture and the planning of towns and settlements in the Kingdom of Kush, brings to light some characteristic features of the building activities of the Nubians. We can also distinguish some architectural elements and the ways of planning the building’s complexes of the Ancient Meroitic state, which are characteristic only for this culture. The alterations that took place in the societal life were also reflected in some ways in the architecture. Thus, the research of these specific features make it possible to reveal some regularity, which connects the use of the architectural forms with social and cultural processes and to judge about the character of the ancient Meroitic culture, using some simple archaeoastronomical and topographical methods.

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Irina B. Kulikova

Center for Egyptological Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.

The Field of Reeds in the Pyramid Texts

Using information given by the PT it is rather difficult to localize the Field of Offerings (sx.t  Htp.w), as well as the Field of Reeds (sx.t  jAr.w). It could be thought as situated in the northern part of the sky or, probably, could mean the realm of the dead in general. Its description and that of the Field of Reeds are quite alike. It is a district rich in water canals and pools where the dead found food and drink–offerings. It could be mentioned just as the aim of the deceased’s journey or as the place, in which they have their abode. As we see, the conception of the Field of Offerings and that of the Field of Reeds are quite similar though there are some differences. The localization of the Field of Reeds is connected more with the eastern part of the sky and that of the Field of Offerings is connected more with the northern one. Both of them are thought as situated on the edges of the firmament. However, the localization of these two districts is often conventional. They frequently have a rather symbolic than a pure geographical meaning. As to their nature, they look like the marshlands rather than the arable lands, though in the PT we find some instances of this description. In the case of the Field of Reeds there is evidence that the deceased cultivated barley and reaped emmer there. In the Field of Offerings the deceased was provided with food; this aim is the main one for that region. In the Field of Reeds he was purified and obtained his throne. The Field of Reeds was associated only with the “hereafter” and the Field of Offerings, probably, was originally a place in “this world”, which provided the deceased with the food–offerings. The Field of Reeds has a close connection with solar gods such as Re‘, Horus, Khepri and the gods of the Great Ennead of Heliopolis. The PT also mention once Osiris “who purifies in the Field of Reeds”, but this is a unique instance. The Field of Offerings is connected more closely with the Imperishable Stars (Jxm.w-Skj.w), Sothis, Orion and also Osiris. In the Cofn Texts the last became the god, who ruled the Field of Offerings.

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3.  INFORMATICS AND EGYPTOLOGY

Edward Loring

Center for Egyptological Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia   

Informatics and Egyptology: Review of a Fruitful Interdisciplinary Approach

The application of Information Sciences in Egyptology has been investigated and developed by the working group Informatique et Égyptologie of the International Association of Egyptologists since the advent of the personal computer. Such applications may be roughly divided into two classifications: Pictorial and Analytical. The term Pictorial speaks for itself in that it presents digitalized photographic and graphic representations of sites and artifacts. The area of Analytical Informatics is less well known. It may be divided into two domains: Ancient Egyptian Linguistics and Lexical Systems for the analysis of Ancient Egyptian sites, artifacts and historical data. The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the work of the Center for Egyptological Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the lexical/analytical area. We speak of Knowledge Engineering, a discipline in which lexical data are decomposed into normalized building blocks. These can be selectively searched and reintegrated to constitute output, describing all instances in which they occur. As opposed to hypertext databanks in which words in flat texts are simply indexed without concern for their actual meanings, the project here described is a dynamic multidimensional structure, based on the specific meanings and nature of terms stored in thesauri. Output is generated at runtime and mutations are possible at any time. Formally the system has the nature of a sparse matrix, providing space for any number of additions at any structural juncture. The system allows analysis of ancient Egyptian texts in the archaeological/historical contexts of their carriers. At present the system can be inverted for input/output in English or German and includes a module for Ancient Egyptian.

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