SCRIBE : The Magazine of The American Research Center in Egypt : Fall 2022 | ISSUE 10
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The Celebrations
Continue!
E
veryone interested in ancient Egypt knows of the events
being celebrated this year in Egypt and throughout the
world of Egyptology. It is of course the centennial of
Howard Carter?s amazing discovery of KV62, the tomb
of Tutankhamun, and also the bicentennial of Jean-Fran?ois
Champollion?s demonstration that ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs
could once again be read and understood. ARCE has thus continued
rolling out its suite of events, bringing the celebrations to fruition!
Programs
In April, ARCE held its 73rd Annual Meeting in Irvine, California
where we celebrated these momentous events with our keynote
speaker, the current and 8th Earl of Carnarvon, Lord George
Herbert. To further mark the centennial, we kicked-off our national
chapter lecture tour in June with Dr. Marc Gabolde, who shared the
fascinating story of the fate of several missing artifacts ?diverted?
away from Tutankhamun?s tomb.
The Virtual Annual Meeting also connected researchers and
members from around the world, to participate and share their
own research findings. Both virtual and in-person lectures were
recorded and are all now online, helping more members experience
the lectures at their own convenience. A sincere thank you to all
the ARCE staff and members who helped make both the virtual and
in-person Annual Meeting such a well-organized and successful event.
We also have a number of exciting events coming up including
the continuation of the Tutankhamun Centennial Chapter Lecture
Tour with Dr. Betsy Bryan, who will be travelling to Chicago, Kansas
City, North Texas, and Atlanta chapters between September 26th
and October 3rd. The special event Transcending Eternity: The
Centennial Tutankhamun Conference carried out in partnership
with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities will take
place in Luxor from November 4th-6th, 2022, and we are honored
to continue our partnership with National Geographic through our
collaboration with their Beyond King Tut: The Immersive Experience
project in providing content and partnership programming. See
their advertisement in this issue for a discount code to visit the
exhibition and stay tuned to ARCE.org for more information!
Fieldwork
In Luxor, the renovations of Howard Carter?s house continue thanks
to the generous donation by long-time ARCE board member Adina
Savin. In this issue of Scribe, ARCE?s Sally El Sabbahy and Nicholas
Warner review the fascinating history behind the construction of
Carter?s house and its use in the years following the discovery of
KV62. In the next issue coming out in early 2023, the team will
review the outcome of the conservation efforts and report on the
grand re-opening of the house scheduled for November of this
year, on the actual centennial of Carter opening the tomb on the
4th of November, 1922.
Media Tour
In June, ARCE hosted a special media tour to highlight ARCE
Antiquities Endowment Fund (AEF) projects, Research Supporting
Member projects, and past USAID-funded projects in Cairo. The
tour included a visit to the Great Pyramid to see the results of the
Ancient Egypt Research Associate?s (AERA) AEF-funded project
to record and better-protect Khufu?s Mortuary Temple. The most
visible change is the installation of a new access walkway encircling
the remains of the temple?s formidable black basalt pavement,
which should provide a more secure and less damaging path from
which to see the surviving monumental remains. The tour also
visited the Fatimid-era Bab Zuwayla gate, one of three surviving
entrances that controlled access to the fortified medieval city of
Old Cairo, where from 1998-2003, ARCE spearheaded an intense
conservation project, with support from USAID and under the
supervision of Nairy Hampikian, to remove, restore, and re-install
the Bab Zuwayla?s sizable wood and iron doors. The final site visited
was the Church of the blessed Virgin Mary, Saint George, and Abu
Sefein to see some of the many Coptic icons that that were restored
thanks to conservation efforts led by ARCE between 1998-2004.
It is so important to revisit these successful projects in
conjunction with the media and our colleagues from the Ministry
of Tourism and Antiquities. They show just how great an impact
the USAID grants, member donations, and endowments funds
have ?in the field?.
La romanisation des dieux : l'interpretatio romana en Afrique du Nord sous le Haut-Empire /
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Heirs to the Punic and Berber traditions, the North Africans, once conquered by the Romans and willing to show respect for their new masters' gods, did not want to forsake their beloved ancestral deities and solved this dilemma by giving Roman names to their traditional gods, who nevertheless kept most of their former natures. This phenomenon, known as interpretatio romana, resulted in an interpenetration of both religious universes, each being enriched in the process. Roman African gods thus conceal dual personalities within themselves, which this book tries to investigate through all available sources (epigraphy, literature, numismatic and archaeology), unveiling many unsuspected aspects of great deities like Saturn/Baal Hammon, Astarte/Venus or Mercury/Baal Addir. If those gods of Roman Africa have inspired many individual studies, there was still a need for a book examining them all together within their interrelations. Here is then at last a real global study of the Roman-African pantheon. *** Héritiers des traditions puniques et berbères, les Nord-africains, à l'arrivée du conquérant romain, voulurent conserver leurs divinités ancestrales tout en respectant les dieux de leur nouveau maître. Ils affublèrent donc de noms romains leurs dieux traditionnels tout en leur conservant l'essentiel de leur personnalité d'origine. Ce phénomène, connu sous le terme d' , résulta en une interpénétration des deux univers religieux, qui s'enrichirent ainsi mutuellement. Les dieux de l'Afrique romaine cachent donc des personnalités multiples que cet ouvrage tente de dévoiler en mettant à profit toutes les sources disponibles : épigraphie, littérature, numismatique et archéologie. Ces grandes divinités, telles que Saturne/Baal Hammon, Vénus/Astarté ou Mercure/Baal Addir livrent ainsi tour à tour des aspects insoupçonnés de leurs personnalités. Si les dieux d'Afrique romaine ont suscité diverses études individuelles, il manquait encore un ouvrage qui les examinerait tous ensemble et dans leurs rapports entre eux. Voici donc enfin une véritable étude globale du panthéon romano-africain.
:
1 online resource (xiv, 750 pages) : illustrations, maps. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 671-693) and indexes. :
9789047410331 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Crutched Pharaoh, Seated Hunter: An Analysis of Artistic Portrayals of Tutankhamun’s Disabilities /
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Academic and popular sources alike regularly refer to Tutankhamun as “disabled” at the time of his death, citing artistic representations from the items in his tomb to back up such claims. This group of objects has been said to depict the young king seated while hunting and using a staff as a walking aid seemingly highlighting the presence of a leg-based disability. This narrative of the image depicting the truth of Tutankhamun’s physical condition has publicly become accepted as fact with images of the seated king even being used in the advertising for the touring exhibit “Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh” to suggest Tutankhamun’s “fragile constitution.” A comparison of these depictions to historical representations of kings hunting and using staffs of authority, however, suggests that these depictions of Tutankhamun were part of a traditional iconography utilized by Tutankhamun’s artists, not to highlight his disability, but instead to situate his image within the artwork of kings of the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms. This study, thus, works to dispel the pervasive myth of the existence of artistic representations of a disabled Tutankhamun, while providing a basis for understanding the true nature of the representation of disability in Egyptian art. Furthermore, this work urges Egyptologists to avoid relying on physical remains to “decipher” mortuary artwork. Such a change in method can only lead to a better understanding of the purpose of the depicted body within the mortuary context and its role as separate but complementary to the physical body in New Kingdom thought.