Thousands of texts discuss Egytpain cosmology and cosmogony. James Allen has selected sixteen to translate and discuss in order to shed light on one of the questions that clearly preoccupied ancient intellectuals; the origins of the world.

Genesis in Egypt: The Philosophy of Ancient Egyptian Creation Accounts (Yale Egyptological Studies)

History

Allen, James P.

Ancient Civilizations

Yale Egyptological Seminar

This is a technical study of Middle Egyptian grammar aimed at enhancing our understanding of tense, mood and aspect; a difficult area of research because, as the author notes, `we have no informants, since the discovered mummies have so far stubbornly refused to speak and are not expected to change their minds in the future'.

Future at Issue. Tense, Mood and Aspect in Middle Egyptian (Yale Egyptological Studies)

Vernus, Pascal

An illustrated catalogue of inscriptions recorded during excavatione between 1967-69. The inscriptions comprise literary and religious ostraca, construction records, Middle Kingdom texts from the chapel area, inscribed potsherds, bricks, seals and other objects.

Inscribed Material from the Pennsylvania-Yale Excavations at Abydos (Publications of the Pennsylvania-Yale Expedition to Egypt)

Simpson, W.K.

The Great Karnak Inscription of Merneptah's 5th regnal year, the longest surviving continuous monumental text from Egypt, describes the combined Libyan and Sea People invasion of Egypt c.1208 BCE. This new study, the first complete commentary on this long but unfortunately damaged text, begins with a translation of the text, accompanied by detailed notes. The study considers specific military aspects of the inscription alongside its religious background. A grammatical analysis of the Great Karnak Inscription also sheds new light on the grammar of Ramesside monumental texts.

The Great Karnak Inscription of Merneptah: Grand Strategy in the 13th Century BC (Yale Egyptological Studies)

Manassa, Colleen

Fifteen "slab stelae" and stela fragments were found set into the exterior walls of the Giza mastaba tombs from the reign of Khufu and his successors. Taken as a group, they provide one of the most important sources of Egyptian artistic and historical documents of the early Old Kingdom. This publication presents a fresh interpretation of the Giza stelae, with new colour photography, "digital epigraphy" facsimile drawings, new translations, original discovery photographs and recent colour images taken at Giza. The book is published in full colour, with numerous charts and catalogues, gathering information on all Giza tombs with slab stelae emplacements, the history of their excavation, previous scholarly research, and comparative and interpretive chapters. Appendices include both colour and line drawing palaeographies of all hieroglyphs appearing on the stelae, and a collection of the enigmatic "linen lists" that adorn the Giza stelae and many other Archaic and Old Kingdom monuments. Indexes complete the volume.

Slab Stelae of the Giza Necropolis (Publications of the Pennsylvania-Yale Expedition to Egypt)

Arts & Photography

Der Manuelian, Peter

History & Criticism

Hibis Temple, tucked away in the remote Khargeh Oasis, contains the longest monumental hymns to Amun-Re ever carved in hieroglyphs. These religious texts, inscribed during the reign of Darius I, drew upon a large variety of New Kingdom sources, and later they served as sources for the Graeco-Roman hymns at Esna Temple. As such, the hymns to Amun-Re from Hibis are excellently suited for studying Egyptian theology during the Persian Period, on the eve of the supposed "new theology" created by the Graeco-Roman priesthood. This new study, the first extensive commentary on the five liturgically connected hymns, features new translations with detailed notes. The book also considers dominant theological themes present in the texts, including the concept of "Amun within the Iris."

Adoration of the Ram: Five Hymns to Amun-Re from Hibis Temple (YALE EGYPTOLOGICAL STUDIES)

Klotz, David

This is the first complete translation and commentary on the important tableau and inscription of Queen Katimala/Karimala at Semna. Proper understanding of the paleography, grammar, and content reveals Katimala to have been a Nubian ruler at the time of the Twenty-First to Twenty-Second Dynasties of Ancient Egypt. She emerges as a political and military leader who took control of at least Lower Nubia in the wake of failed military activities on the part of a male predecessor. Katimala's inscription is not illegible, as has often been stated, but is a well-composed Lower Nubian example of a politico-religious manifesto applying many of the conventions of early Egyptian literary and historical compositions.

The Inscription of Queen Katimala at Semna: Textual Evidence for the Origins of the Napatan State (Yale Egyptological Studies)

Darnell, John Coleman

The ruins of the mortuary complex named Enduring-are-the Places of Khakaure-true-of-voice- in-Abydos are located at South Abydos. Erected for pharaoh Khakaure-Senwosret III (ca. 1878-1841 BC) of Dynasty 12, the Abydos complex includes a subterranean royal tomb built beneath a peak anciently called Anubis-Mountain, and a mortuary temple named Nefer-Ka (Beautiful-is-the-Ka) established for the afterlife cult of Senwosret III. Although the Egypt Exploration Fund initially discovered and examined the site between 1899-1902, the Senwosret III complex has for the last century remained enigmatic, partially through virtue of its location at Abydos. It has often been identified as an Abydene royal cenotaph. In 1994 the University of Pennsylvania-Yale University-Institute of Fine Arts, NYU Expedition initiated a renewed program of excavation at South Abydos. A focus of this work has been a comprehensive investigation of the Senwosret III mortuary temple. Excavation of the temple's well-preserved architecture in tandem with work on its surroundings now provides the basis for a detailed reconstruction of this major Middle Kingdom royal mortuary temple. The volume includes six parts arranged in twenty-two chapters with three appendixes. Part I examines the organization of the Senwosret III complex as a whole. Part II is devoted to the architecture and functions of the containment building that housed the stone-built cult structure named Nefer-Ka. Part III examines the architecture, decorative and statue program of the cult building proper and presents a reconstruction of the building's layout and appearance. Part IV discusses the significant archaeological contexts that surround the temple including external activity areas, refuse deposits and the temple's ceramic assemblage. Part V includes publication of the seal corpus associated with the temple and presents a model of the temple's administrative structure based on institutional stamp seals and private name seals. Part VI examines the current evidence pertaining to the tomb enclosure and Senwosret III's subterranean tomb. The volume includes drawings and photographs of approximately one thousand objects: relief, statue and architectural fragments, small objects, seals and seal impressions, and ceramics. In its overall characteristics, the Senwosret III complex is an innovative royal mortuary establishment. Although it has discernible roots in the preceding royal pyramid tradition, the complex as a whole displays traits which presage the New Kingdom format of royal burial complex in the Valley of the Kings. Its hidden tomb at the foot of Anubis-Mountain, paired with its cultivation-edge mortuary temple makes this site pivotal in the evolution of the Egyptian royal mortuary complex. The volume addresses our understanding of this site as either a cenotaph or burial complex for Senwosret III, and the cult of this king which was maintained at South Abydos for some 150 years until its decline at the end of the 13th Dynasty, ca. 1700 BC.

The Mortuary Temple of Senwosret III at Abydos (Publications of the Pennsylvania-Yale Expedition to Egypt)

This new study is the first translation of the papyrus of Padikakem, with an extensive commentary. The complete early Ptolemaic manuscript from the Walters Art Museum contains two uncommon texts in hieratic. The initial text, a Ritual of Introducing the Multitude on the Last Day of Tekh, is identified as a temple liturgy by its rubric title, while its themes recall love poetry and the Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys. The second text, a rarely attested Book III of glorification spells (sakhw) has an exclusively mortuary character. The spells of this section largely originate in the Pyramid Texts and include specific instructions for recitation by the lector priest. The two texts are established as a coherent composition that belongs to the Greco-Roman tradition of merging Egyptian funerary practices with temple liturgies. The diverse sources and themes of the texts shed light on the evolution of Osirian and mortuary theologies from the Old Kingdom onwards. The study also thoroughly examines the development of grammar and paleography among the parallels.

The Mortuary Papyrus of Padikakem: Walters Art Museum 551 (Yale Egyptological Studies)

Literature & Fiction

Barbash, Yekaterina

Publication of the rock inscriptions and depictions discovered by the Theban Desert Road Survey in the northern Theban desert and area west of Naqada. Highlights include new prayers to Amun and Hathor, composed by a priest, Pahu, several important predynastic and protodynastic tableaux, and the only rock inscriptions of Akhenaten in "Amarna" style.

Theban Desert Road Survey II: The Rock Shrine of Pahu, Gebel Akhenaton, and other Rock Inscriptions from the Western Hinterland of Naqada (Yale Egyptological Publications)

John Coleman Darnell

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Books by Yale Egyptological Seminar