Symposium 2025 - Abstracts of Papers
Abstracts of Colloquium Papers, Day 1, Nov. 7
On the evolution of Neith as an Archer
Mariam F. Ayad (American University in Cairo)
In her temple at Esna, Neith is known as the mistress of “bow and arrows.” Oftentimes, her emblem is interpreted (or represented) as a shield with crossed arrows. But while Neith’s protective role toward the deceased/King, and Osiris & his throne is attested textually as early as the Pyramid Texts, this presentation argues that such protection was not always militaristic in nature and further – that the addition of the bow and arrows to her accoutrements occurred fairly late in her long history. Adopting a diachronic approach, this paper attempts to link the textual and iconographic depictions of Neith to the broader cultural milieu in which they were created.
Presences out of context: Syria–Egypt relations in the Sixth Dynasty
Michele Marcolin (Waseda University, Accademia delle Scienze di Torino)
Sir Alan Gardiner lamented the silence of Egyptian written sources on the provenance of precious stones and metals which, though abundantly attested in Egyptian artifacts, revealed little or nothing about the trade routes that brought them to the Nile Valley. With few exceptions, this situation remained unchanged for nearly a century, despite subsequent archaeological discoveries fueled hypotheses and reconstructions. A real breakthrough came only in 1999–2000, when the present author identified in Japan the biographical inscription of Iny, sealbearer of the god on the fleet.
Reconstructed from numerous fragments, this text represents the first and only Old Kingdom account to explicitly describe Egypt’s commercial activity along the Levantine coast during the Sixth Dynasty. The toponyms and details it preserves not only illuminate relations between Egypt, Byblos, and the Syro-Palestinian coast, but also provide an unexpected key for interpreting the Eblaite term DU.GU.RA.SU as a likely toponym for Egypt.
In turn, the numerous attestations of Egyptian presence in Ebla and Byblos—and vice versa—that this new evidence has recently brought to light, has offered an invaluable complement to historical research on Egypt’s relations with the Levant at the end of the third millennium BCE. They clearly derive from a geographical horizon hardly before associated with direct contacts with the land of the pharaohs, a subject that has yet to gain unanimous recognition and that still suffers from an almost complete lack of corresponding evidence within Egypt itself. This contribution is intended as a preliminary reflection on that topic, which is currently under investigation by the author.
Blue-Painted Pottery in the Royal Ontario Museum
Lianna Sternklar (University of Toronto)
This presentation is based on my recently published article on the corpus of New Kingdom blue-painted pottery at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). Blue-painted pottery, produced between the mid-Eighteenth and Twentieth Dynasties, represents a distinctive yet short-lived phenomenon within Egyptian material culture. Celebrated for its vibrant blue color, it is decorated with floral and linear motifs often outlined with black or red lines, and occasionally with modelled elements such as the head of the goddess Hathor. The ROM collection comprises seven whole or restored jars and eight sherds. While four of the complete vessels have been published previously, the remaining three whole jars and sherds had not appeared in academic literature until my recent study.
These unpublished pieces are of particular importance not only for their decorative features but also for their uncertain acquisition histories, as they entered the ROM before the museum’s formal establishment. Their ambiguous provenance raises questions about how blue-painted pottery circulated, both in antiquity and in the modern era of collecting. In this paper, I will present the results of a comparative typological and stylistic analysis of the entire ROM corpus.
By situating these vessels within an established typological framework and setting them alongside material from other museum and excavation collections, I propose plausible sites of origin for the unpublished jars and clarify how the ROM corpus relates to wider production and distribution networks of blue-painted pottery. More broadly, this research aims to foster further scholarly engagement and provide crucial data for comparative research across museum collections.
Before Isis: A Ramesside Revelation from Behbeit el-Hagar
Hossam Hegazi (Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities)
This paper presents the discovery and epigraphic analysis of a previously unpublished limestone block inscribed in hieroglyphs, recently uncovered at Behbeit el-Hagar in Egypt’s central Delta. Traditionally associated with the Ptolemaic temple of Isis, this site has long been dated primarily to the Late Period and beyond. However, this new find offers compelling evidence that the region was active administratively and religiously during the Ramesside era, centuries earlier. The inscription features a set of titles typical of New Kingdom elite officials: “Royal Scribe, Overseer of Royal Works, Royal Confidant”, and includes a rare dedication to the kA (spirit) of a vizier (TAty). The hieroglyphic line reads:
m mDA(t).f nAy.k nAy.k snsw n kA n TAty Hry-tp nsw sS-nsw, translated as: “The royal scribe, overseer, and confidant—for the soul of the vizier, your worship and your writings are in his papyrus.”
A detailed comparative analysis confirms that this block originally belonged to the same monument as object EA1465 at the British Museum. The two fragments match in stone type, dimensions, inscriptional style, and alignment, strongly suggesting they were once physically connected. This new evidence requires a revision of the archaeological narrative for Behbeit el-Hagar. The paleographic features and titulary conventions align not with the Late Period, but with the 19th–20th Dynasties of the New Kingdom. The find reveals a previously overlooked Ramesside layer of occupation, administrative activity, and religious presence in the Delta.
The paper calls for a reassessment of other fragmented blocks from Behbeit held in international collections, proposing a new chronological framework through epigraphic, linguistic, and contextual analysis. It also highlights the need for renewed fieldwork in the Delta, where major Ramesside centers may remain unidentified beneath later construction phases.
The earliest “foreignized” god in the Egyptian pantheon
Heri Abruña Marti (Autonomous University of Barcelona)
“Foreignized” gods are Egyptian divinities who have epithets – and, in some cases, also attributes – and play a role that are characteristic of foreign deities. During the Thinite Period and the Old Kingdom, only four gods have been classified as such: Ash “the lord of Tjehenu” (Libya); Igai, associated with Dakhla oasis; Sopdu, “the lord of the foreign lands” – who is depicted as an Asian during the Old Kingdom and the Middle Kingdom – and Dedun, “the one who is at the front of Ta-Seti” (Nubia).
Some sources of Den (Dynasty I), specifically a rock relief from Wadi el-Humur (Sinai) and three impressions of cylinder seals, depict a god of dubious identification and singular iconography, who has been incorrectly identified with Ash and Sopdu, that is, with two of the four “foreignized” divinities. As for the relief, it depicts Den smiting an Asian; the mysterious deity watches the action, and his inscription, which is very damaged, seems to mention his name and the word “malachite”, a mineral worked in the peninsula. As for the impressions, they report the conquest of an Asian city and the defeat of its leader; in this case, the inscription of the god seems to mention, again, his name – but written in a completely different way – and an epithet: “the one who is at the front of the mining region”.
So, the divinity is associated with the East – both with the Sinai and Asia – and seems to be related with two functions within the ideological discourse of the Egyptian kingship: the subjugation of Asians and the plundering of their goods.
In our opinion, his iconography, his epithet and his functions justify his inclusion within the group of the “foreignized” deities. Actually, he would be the earliest of them and would play a significant role in the evolution of Sopdu, its most important member. This presentation will be divided into two parts: the first dedicated to the group of the four “foreignized” gods and the second to the deity who would be, in our opinion, its fifth member.
Tanutamon’s dream stela and dream tradition in Ancient Egypt
Salvatore Bellavia (Universitá di Messina)
Tanutamon was a pivotal figure in the late history of Egypt, representing the final breath of resistance from Upper Egypt against the Assyrian invaders. This breath, however, marked both a failure — the end of a united and autonomous Egypt — and a rebirth: the beginning of the Kingdom of Meroe. The primary source for reconstructing the history of this ruler is the so-called Dream Stela, which celebrates the illusory victory of Tanutamon over his northern rivals, just months before the devastating and conclusive arrival of Ashurbanipal. It is particularly fascinating that Tanutamon’s victory over the contenders of the 26th Dynasty is foretold through a dream — just as, nearly a millennium earlier, the ascent to the throne of Thutmose IV had been announced in a dream. The dream thus constitutes the central trait d’union of my PhD research, as dreams held a foundational role in ancient Egyptian culture. The dream of our pharaoh belongs to a long-standing tradition. To place Tantutamon’s Stela within the topic of royal dreams, in this paper, I will begin with a comparison with the Memphis Stela of Amenhotep II, in which the gods encourage the sovereign in his Syrian campaigns, and continue with the aforementioned dream of Thutmose IV and the dream of Merneptah, also linked to episodes of war. These are all prophetic dreams, but more importantly, they are propagandistic texts legitimizing the king’s actions and heralding their success as divinely sanctioned. The peculiarity of Tanutamon’s dream, however, lies in its enigmatic nature: it is not expressed in clear terms but through a symbolic image that demands interpretation. Whereas the god Harmakhis explicitly announces to Thutmose IV that he will become king, the dream of the 25th Dynasty pharaoh is composed of a mystical vision, to be interpreted by priests in light of a long-standing tradition of dream interpretation — oniromancy — that in Egypt dates back at least to the Ramesside period, when the first dream manuals appear, and is attested throughout the following centuries, up to the Demotic Dream Books (roughly contemporary with Tanutamon himself) and into the brilliant cultural synthesis of Greco-Roman Egypt.
Hieratic Pottery in Canaan
Jared Chammat (University of Toronto)
Over the past few decades, a number of New Kingdom hieratic inscriptions on pottery have been found in Israel and Gaza. In many ways this corpus of artifacts would not immediately appear to be of any great significance. Egypt is known to have had a strong presence in Canaan, the area that is now modern-day Israel and Gaza, especially during the New Kingdom, therefore it is reasonable to assume that they would have left behind many inscribed objects. Furthermore, pottery was often used to form ostraca for the purpose of recording somewhat inane, unimportant information, or for composition exercises. However, an examination of these inscriptions has revealed that most of them record the collection of taxes in the form of grain from the local Canaanite population by the Egyptian state. Furthermore, many of these inscriptions actually describe the means by which the Egyptian state collected and stored this grain. A very small number might also record how the Egyptian state redistributed some of this grain among the local population.
Not only does this information offer a rare insight into how Egypt administered its interests in Canaan, but it also has the potential to change the prevailing view of the end of the Late Bronze Age and the beginning of the Early Iron Age in Canaan. These inscriptions appear to show that Canaan was flourishing agriculturally and that Egyptian administration of the region was stable, in a time when it is often thought that both of these conditions did not exist or at the very least had started to deteriorate. Finally, these hieratic inscriptions do not stop once Egypt loses hegemonic control over Canaan. In fact, they continue to form part of royal Hebrew inscriptions well into the Iron Age, which could potentially shed light onto how and when Egypt eventually lost control of the region.
Independent Tombs of Women in Ancient Egypt as Indicators of Wealth and Access to Resources
May Farouk (l’Université de Québec à Montréal, Sadat University)
The funerary landscape of ancient Egypt is overwhelmingly dominated by men. Tombs, inscriptions, and decoration typically foreground male owners, while women often appear only as secondary figures or are omitted altogether. Independent tombs belonging solely to women are therefore exceptional. For the purposes of this study, “independent tombs” are defined as burial monuments — mastabas, rock-cut tombs, or chapels — that were constructed specifically for a woman, featuring her name, image, and titles as the primary focus. Such tombs may include superstructures, decorated stelae, false doors, or inscriptions that emphasize the female owner as the central commemorated individual. These criteria help distinguish truly independent female tombs from secondary burials within family complexes where they might be provided adjacent chapels or subsidiary shafts.
This paper will trace the distribution of women’s independent tombs across Egyptian history as a means of gauging their access to wealth and resources until the First Intermediate period. In the Early Dynastic period, the stelae of Abydos, Helwan, and Abu Rawash demonstrate women’s strong funerary presence. Monumental burials of Neithhotep at Naqada and Merneith at Abydos reveal that royal women could achieve sovereign or regental power, their tombs rivaling those of kings. The Old Kingdom marks the peak of independent female tombs, with more than forty at Memphis alone with some dating to the First Intermediate period. These women, often titled “Priestess of Hathor” or “Acquaintance of the King,” possessed decorated mastabas that underscore their economic and ritual authority.
Examining these tombs diachronically, the paper will argue that independent female burials coincided with times when they held greater administrative and religious titles, as well as expanded economic role. Thus, these tombs stand as testimony to the economic empowerment of Egyptian women, which may have diminished in later periods.
Votive Objects in the New Kingdom: Form, Material, Function
Amber Hutchinson (Independent Scholar)
Votive offerings in the New Kingdom (1539-1077 BCE) consisted of uninscribed and inscribed objects that were deposited by individuals from a range of socio-economic backgrounds. The progression from local shrines to state-run temples from the Early Dynastic period to the New Kingdom period impacted the ways in which individuals could approach the gods. Uninscribed votive objects in the New Kingdom that are examined in this paper include human and animal figurines and vessels. These objects do not make clear references to deities worshipped in temples, but their spatial distribution and material can provide insight into their use and donors. Inscribed votive objects include stelae, statuary, and rock inscriptions which allowed individuals to display their identity and to express a personal relationship to the gods.
The methods for analyzing the votive evidence include examination of the material properties, textual references, archaeological context, and associated practices that can be linked to its deposition. Not many votive offerings were found inside the main temple sanctuaries. The ones that were found mainly represent elites that had access to the temples. Most votive offerings were located along processional routes, as well as in settlements and funerary areas. Many figurines recovered from sites across Egypt are small (approximately 6-15 cm or 0.1-0.29 cubits in height) and made of fired or unfired clay, although there are examples in other materials, such as limestone, ivory, wood, and faience. Their recovery from secondary or disturbed archaeological contexts at many sites has often made it difficult to determine use. The portability of figurines allowed for their transportation and use in different sites, including areas associated with processional rituals. Votive vessels can occur in domestic, funerary, industrial, and religious spheres and have been used as receptacles to contain perishable and non-perishable materials used in offerings and rituals. Inscriptional material attests to the types of individuals involved in votive activity during the New Kingdom, including details about duties, gender, and socio-economic status, and offers information about potential locations of votive activity that can help to determine the layout of the non-royal ritual landscape of each site.
Breaking the Mould: A Male ‘Fertility’ Figurine from the Redpath Museum
Émilie Sarrazin (Yale University)
Two clay statuettes from Egypt were part of a large collection of objects donated to the Redpath Museum following the dissolution of the National History Society of Montreal in 1925. One of these artifacts can unquestionably be associated with what Geraldine Pinch categorized as a “Type 3 fertility figurine,” a well-documented type of nude female figure commonly found between the Second Intermediate Period and the early 18th Dynasty. Its counterpart, however, is strikingly unusual: though stylistically similar, it depicts a male figure. This artifact belongs to a little-known and scarcely studied corpus whose very existence leads us to reevaluate prevailing notions about the function of “fertility” figurines. This paper aims to initiate a discussion about male clay figurines from the 2nd millennium BCE while also drawing attention to a museum collection that has received little engagement from the Egyptological community.
The study begins by situating the Redpath figurine within its institutional context, addressing uncertainties surrounding its provenience. It then provides a detailed description of the object before turning to the examination of artifactual parallels and their findspots. Informed by this comparative analysis and current scholarly literature, the presentation concludes by considering how the production of male clay figurines complicates and enriches our understanding of the possible uses and meanings attributed to this type of object.
Abstracts of Symposium Papers, Nov. 8
Turbulent Times, Hostile Neighbours: Egypt in the Late Period
Turbulent Times, Hostile Neighbours? Contextualizing Egypt’s Third Intermediate Period
Jean Li
The Third Intermediate Period spanned the time from the end of the New Kingdom (ca. 1069/1070 BCE) to the subsequent reassertion of Egyptian control by the Saite 26th Dynasty (664 BCE). Virtually all aspects of the history, archaeology, and social and cultural developments of this era are complex, imperfectly understood, and subject to continued revision. Once characterized as an era of political weakness and cultural decay, Egypt of the Third Intermediate Period was a dynamic period that witnessed various diffused power strategies used by groups, those that held power historically and those who gained power, such as women and foreigners. Cultural practices and concepts, such as kingship, religion, material culture also transformed. This lecture will explore some of the tensions between maintaining tradition and cultural innovation in this overview of the period.
The God’s Wife of Amun: Origins & Rise to Power
Mariam F. Ayad
This presentation will focus on the God’s Wives of Amun of the 25th Dynasty, contextualising them and highlighting their role in the transition of power in the Theban region (Libyan to Nubian, and Nubian to Saite); their participation in temple ritual; and their awareness of the past (including a brief discussion of the archaism clearly seen in Amenirdis' selection of Pyramid Text spells; and her choice of titles.
Continuity and Innovation: Theban Temple-Tombs of the Kushite and Saite Periods
Ken Griffin
This lecture explores the distinctive Theban temple-tombs of the Kushite (25th Dynasty) and Saite (26th Dynasty) periods. It will examine how these monumental structures reflect a deliberate revival of older Pharaonic traditions, paying particular attention to their owners and their high status within the royal and elite circles of Late Period Egypt. Through their architecture and decoration, these tombs offer profound insights into the religious beliefs, political aspirations, and cultural identity of a vibrant Late Period Egypt.
The Long Arm of Psamtik II? Neglected Sources for His Nubian War
Jeremy Pope
When Psamtik II sent his Egyptian troops and their foreign mercenaries into Nubia in 593 BCE, how far south did they advance? According to maximalists, the king’s armies traveled at least to the Fourth Cataract of the Nile and thereby struck at the Napatan heart of Aspelta’s Kushite kingdom. Opposing this view is a minimalist interpretation of the war which argues that it reached no farther than the Second or Third Cataract and was therefore a minor engagement, possibly even directed against a mere chieftain of Lower Nubia. As both theories have a long history and a similar number of proponents during that span, neither can be properly termed the orthodox view, nor its alternative dismissed as heterodox. In fact, maximalists and minimalists have favoured as evidence the same limited corpus of Greek graffiti and Saite royal stelae, disagreeing primarily in how they would reconcile these sources with one another, and whether they would relate them in turn to the burnt architecture of Upper Nubia and the inscriptional and iconographic destruction found throughout much of the Middle and Lower Nile. This lecture proposes to broaden the scope of this analysis by highlighting additional, neglected sources of evidence that tip the balance of probability between the maximalist and minimalist options. This lecture will offer a preview of the presenter’s forthcoming publications based on research he conducted as a member of the Jebel Barkal Archaeological Mission.
The World of Aršāma, Persian Governor of Egypt (ca. 420–400 BCE)
Rhyne King
From 525 to 400 and again from 343 to 332 BCE, Egypt was part of the Achaemenid Persian empire, the largest kingdom of the time. This lecture will discuss the experience of Persian rule in Egypt through a remarkable set of evidence: the correspondence of a man named Aršāma, the governor (or satrap) of Egypt in the late 400s. Letters written to and from Aršāma survive on papyri, now mostly held in the Bodleian Library (Oxford). Through these letters we can uncover the textured experiences of Late Period Egypt: the aristocratic Persian diaspora, the Egyptian managers working on their estates, and the forced workers brought to Egypt from other parts of the empire.
Back to the Future: Art of the Late Period
Lawrence M. Berman
The Late Period saw Egypt invaded by the Kushites, Assyrians, Persians, and Greeks, with intermittent periods of native rule, ending with the Roman conquest of 30 BCE. Amid all this turmoil and passing of armies it may seem miraculous that Egyptian art survived at all; but not only did it survive, it flourished. The period is often singled out for its archaism; however, Late Period art does more than look to the past, it points to the future as well.
Abstracts of Colloquium Papers, Day 2, Nov. 9
Introducing the New Tutankhamun Gallery at the Greand Egyptian Museum
Yasmine Mohamed (Grand Egyptian Museum)
The new Tutankhamun gallery at the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) is finally open to the public. This special presentation will offer the first glance at the brand-new permanent display, highlight what is special about it, and describe how the visitors have reacted thus far.
A first look at the Kampp -23- tomb in the North Asasif
Casey L. Kirkpatrick (Simon Fraser University, University of Western Ontario);
Abdelgaffar Wagdy (Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities);
Fathy Yaseen (Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities)
The Kampp -23- tomb, situated in the North Asasif area of the Theban Necropolis, was first described and roughly mapped by Friederike Kampp during her 1989 survey. Her account relied on observations of the tomb’s exterior, as well as Diethelm Eigner’s notes and a preliminary plan prepared between 1975 and 1978. Additionally, an early 19th century drawing by Robert Hay documented the tomb’s façade, including its large mudbrick superstructure before its collapse. Since 2023, a joint Egyptian-Canadian mission, made up of the PTAH Project and Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, has undertaken the excavation, documentation, conservation, and restoration of the Kampp -23- tomb. These investigations identified the tomb’s owner as Amenmose, Mayor of Thebes. Although it is possible that a later Ramesside official with the same name and title existed, current evidence strongly suggests that the tomb belongs to the same Amenmose, Mayor of Thebes, who served under Ramses IV. This individual also held other significant positions, including Councilor to the King and God’s Father of Amun. This paper presents the recent discoveries at Kampp -23- and the identity of Amenmose, Mayor of Thebes.
The Louis de Clercq Collection at the Louvre Museum: a material witness of cultural interactions between Egypt and the Levant
Daniela Galazzo (University of Paris-Sorbonne, Paris IV)
The aim of this proposal is to present the results of research conducted on Egyptian and Egyptianizing objects belonging to the de Clercq Collection, today preserved at the Louvre Museum in Paris. This project includes 234 objects, most of them are scarabs and scaraboids, and 15 objects made in different materials (bronze, stone, marble and faience). They belong to the collection of antiquities assembled in the second half of the 19th century by Louis de Clercq, a French politician and collector who donated to the Louvre Museum many of the objects today displayed in the museum.
Archival documents attest a relevant correspondence between de Clercq and some merchants and antique dealers sent to the Levantine region with the aim of buying antiquities to enrich his collections. The de Clercq collection, like many other archaeological collections formed in the 19th century, does not provide precise and scientific information regarding the archaeological contextualization of the objects it is composed of. For this reason, it is challenging to establish whether these finds are to be considered products of local Levantine workshops or whether, at least in part, they arrived in the Syro-Palestinian region following trade with Egypt or cultural contacts. However, they are an important iconographical and material witness to the diffusion of the Aegyptiaca within the complex system of relationships and exchanges between the civilizations of the Mediterranean basin.
The Role of the mnꜤt in the New Kingdom Household
Cannon Fairbairn (University of Birmingham)
Individuals, most often women, titled mnꜤt appear on a variety of monuments and in a range of texts during the New Kingdom. Given the title is most often translated as “nurse” or “wet nurse,” understanding of who these individuals were and their role is society is often colored by modern perceptions of wet nursing, breastfeeding, and motherhood.
My research seeks to define these individuals from ancient Egyptian perspectives and sources. Several studies have considered the royal nurse (nsw mnꜤt), but few examine their non-royal counterparts and how practices compared between royal and non-royal groups. Such non-royal mnꜤt are the subjects of this presentation. Encouraged by scholars like Meskell (1997), I will focus on individuals and their experiences, exploring what may have been the understood about the role and place of mnꜤt in the household. To complicate this discussion, no sources survive containing mnꜤt perspectives, who are instead always represented on the monument or in the inscriptions of another. However, much can be learned from their representations.
This presentation explores several depictions of non-royal mnꜤt in both visual and textual sources, exploring the roles fulfilled by these individuals and their relationships with others in the ancient Egyptian household. While the breast determinative (Gardiner D27) written with the word mnꜤt, underlies the role’s original and lingering association with breastfeeding, I suggest that the role of mnꜤt was more complex than simply a breastfeeder.
I propose that mnꜤt served an intimate and central role in the ancient Egyptian household, but resists categorization into kin or household worker, residing in a grey area between these groups or, perhaps, existing in both simultaneously or situationally. Their place appears in parallel with mothers, sisters, and grandmothers, who all worked caring for the children of the household, while still retaining aspects of paid work. By considering mnꜤt, we can gain further understanding as to the structure of ancient Egyptian households and kin groups, the relationships between individuals, and what was thought to bind individuals together.
Late Kushite/Early Saitic Matrix at Memphis: Establishing Connections Between Families and Monuments
Nenad Marković (Independent Scholar)
Under the leadership of Psammetichus I of Sais (664–610 BCE), Egypt experienced a period of both reunification into a centralised monarchy and considerable prosperity. Regardless of political shifts, several established temple families in Memphis persisted in their roles from the prior Kushite rule. It is unfortunate that there has been a lack of research into their monuments and the creation of detailed genealogies and familial relations.
This paper will examine four case studies. To begin with, a marital bond will be suggested between the family of Senebef, who officiated the Apis burial in regnal year 24 of Taharqa, and Pashereniset (I), who served Isis, Mistress of the Pyramids, as well as multiple Old Kingdom kings at Giza, a generation later. Secondly, a father-son link will be suggested between individuals designated as “ḥbs-djw and overseer of the double house of silver” on a naos stela Cairo EMC PV.2014.09 and a Serapeum stela Louvre IM 3129 from regnal year 21 of Psammetichus I; both are cognatic ancestors of two temple lineages. Thirdly, identification will be made between Padisu, maternal grandfather of the owner of Cairo EMC PV.2014.09, and the like-named owner of the block statue Cairo EMC CG 659. Finally, the individual whose name is lost on stela Cairo EMC JE 36861 and who was in charge of the Amun-Re temple in the Ptah precinct, son of […]-nakht, is to be linked with Hathat, son of Khnumnakht, great-great-great-grandfather of the owner of a Serapeum stela Louvre IM 4125, who served in the Ptah temple under Darius I (r. 518– 486 BCE).
Egyptian Monastic Networks: Connectivity, Exchange, and Sacred Topographies (4th–7th c. CE)
Pau de Soto (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; Ariadna Guimerà, Universidad de Málaga)
The Coptic Project investigates how large-scale exchange systems operating in Late Antique Egypt (fourth – seventh centuries AD) shaped the emergence and siting of Coptic monastic communities. In the post-imperial landscape, Christian expansion reprogrammed former Pharaonic and Greco-Roman temples, while foundations proliferated outside urban centres. Although hagiographic narratives long cast this world as predominantly eremitic, recent research calls for systematic reassessment, foregrounding more diverse forms of organization and interaction.
Our study adopts a multi-proxy, multiscale methodology. First, we have assembled a relational database of Coptic monastic sites — monasteries, lauras, anchoritic cells, churches, and mixed or gendered communities — coded by type, chronology, gender composition, antecedent building use, and cultic function. Second, we integrate a comprehensive reconstruction of the Roman road network, together with routeways and cost surfaces derived from topography and hydrology. Third, we exploit monastic papyri that document actors, places, transactions, and inter-institutional ties, providing a corpus of economic behaviour. These datasets are analysed through computational modelling and network science, including cost-distance analysis, centrality metrics, and community detection at multiple scales. We address uncertainty through metadata, sensitivity analyses, and reproducible workflows with controlled vocabularies.
Preliminary results challenge isolation-driven readings of Egyptian monasticism. Evidence indicates that siting, function, and longevity correlate with connectivity and nodal position within movement and supply networks. Many communities appear pragmatically embedded in infrastructure it, calibrating distance and access to goods, labour, and information. The analysis also suggests reconfigurations across the fourth to seventh centuries, with shifts that track changes in administrative geography, taxation, and exchange intensity.
By articulating spatial, temporal, typological, and economic dimensions within a single analytical framework, the project delineates the configuration, transformation, and resilience of sacred landscapes in Coptic Egypt. Beyond its historical contributions, the approach is portable: a replicable protocol for integrating archaeological, textual, and infrastructural data to test narratives of religious geography elsewhere in Late Antique Egypt. The presentation will outline scope and methods; describe the database and modelling pipeline; and discuss case studies illustrating the approach’s power and limits, including route accessibility in site selection and ties between monastic estates, agrarian hinterlands, and urban markets.
Experiencing Otherness: Foreigners as Participants and Props in Imperial Pageantry
Carla G. Mesa Guzzo (University of Toronto)
During the late 18th Dynasty (ca. 1353-1292 BCE), Egyptian kings engaged in a programme of military pageantry designed to express and reinforce the ideals underpinning Egyptian imperialism. These events included acts on the battlefield and post-campaign displays which showcased Egyptian victory over an enemy. They could also include occasions which did not outwardly focus on imperial maintenance, such as reward ceremonies for loyal officials or important festivals celebrating the state god. In these cases, an appearance by the king could be coopted as a useful occasion for imperial spectacle. Many of these elaborate events incorporated images of foreigners into the proceedings, as icons on architectural elements or royal vehicles. These highly idealized images showed both bound and defeated enemies as well as supplicant, deferential members of the imperial fold, who accepted Egyptian hegemony as given. However, real, living individuals of foreign origin were also major participants in and witnesses to these events, both as vassals and prisoners of war. They brought with them a complex array of identities and backgrounds as well as their own emotional and sensory landscapes.
This paper will take an experiential approach, drawing on theoretical frameworks that encompass the senses, embodiment, performance, and theatricalized violence, attempting to discover what it was “really like” to witness and be a part of Egyptian imperial spectacle. In doing so, a wide array of evidence will be analysed, ranging from the texts and images in private tombs to palatial architecture and human remains. It will treat the audience and participants as a multifaceted collection of individuals and groups, comprised of both Egyptians and foreigners who may have experienced everything from pain and humiliation to pride and elation.
Unseen history: Fragments of the Montuhotep Temple at Deir el Bahari at the Royal Ontario Museum
Gayle Gibson (Royal Ontario Museum)
The first director of the Royal Ontario Museum, Charles Trick Currelly, spent several seasons working at Deir el Bahari, first with Edouard Naville and later for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Currelly was very good at collecting scraps and tatters, anything that might enhance the Museum he was building in Toronto. Among many bits and pieces is a collection of over 100 fragments of decoration, chiefly from Akh Swt, the temple of Montuhotep the Unifier. In the light of new excavations and explorations at Akh Swt, the Museum has been re-examining this old collection. This talk will be a report on what has been discovered in the storeroom.
