Wódz w opresji, czyli Ramzes II pod Kadesz

Leader in distress that is Ramses II at Kadesh Ramses II, in the king’s fifth regnal year, invaded Hittite territory intending to take the city of Kadesh on the Orontes. The Hittite king Muwatallis II, prepared to stop him with a large army, including allied contingents. Ramses’ army marched from Egypt and in one month had gathered perhaps as many as 20 000 men, composed of four divisions of 5000. Each of the divisions consisted of 500 chariots and infantry; they were named after the gods: Amon, Re, Ptah, Seth. King Muwatallis’ army consisted of 8000 to 37 000 men. The Hittite chariots numbered around 3500 machines in a force of about 10 000 men. Each of the 2500 Egyptian chariots were served by a crew of two and were a firing platform for archers; they were light and flexible. The Hittite chariots were heavier, crewed by three (a driver, soldier and shield-bearer) and presumably designed for shock attack. The Hittite king cunningly hid his army behind the mound on which the city of Kadesh was built. Assuming that the enemy had withdrawn, Ramses hurried towards Kadesh and set up camp. The 2500 Muwatallis’ chariots charged out from hiding, scattering two Egyptian divisions. Ramses led his bodyguard and chariots in a desperate charge (like the pounce of a falcon) in an attempt to halt the Hittites, who looted the Egyptian camp before being driven out by fresh Egyptian troops (Nearinu, Ptah division). Ramses had won the battle but lost the war

"Asiatic" copper in New Kingdom Egypt

This work presents a combination of Lead Isotope Analysis ( LIA ) and ancient Egyptian texts and depictions in order to describe the history of the ox -hide copper ingots presence in Egypt , which w ere called by the Egyptians “Asiatic copper”. Ox-hide ingots in Egypt represent a particular case where the information given by ancient sources and modern chemical analyses might be combined in order to establish the provenance of archaeological objects and the hist ory of a particular m aterial during the Bronze Age. Ox -hide ingots arrived to Egypt where the first kings of the Egyptian New Kingdom developed an impressive building program through the entire country and needed a supply of copper and other materials. The “Asiatic copper” was depicted in different tombs and temples from the 18 th to the 20 th dynasties in Thebes and Amarna. According to depictions and texts, three different regions supplied copper according to ancient Egyptians: Syria, Cyprus and Crete. Howe ver, the LIA of the lead present in mined copper permits to establish that the ingots were made of copper from Apliki mines, in Central Cyprus. The depictions in Egyptian tombs and temples probably represented not only the actual region of provenance but a lso the peoples involved in the trade, because t he ingots were traded by Syrian merchants following a route that passed Syria, Cyprus, Crete and GreecePostprint (published version

Micro-geophysics to assess the integrity of some statues in the Museo Egizio of Turin, Italy

On request of the Soprintendenza in charge of the Museo Egizio of Turin, a quite large number of tests have been performed on four statues of the museum to assess their integrity both for practical (moving the statue) and archaeological purposes. Ultrasonic tomography and georadar have been used with fine results on sub-decimeter scale. In this paper we present the main results on the statues of the Pharaons Ramses II (Fig.1 left) and Tuthmosis I. (Fig.2 left). Both the statues belong to the collection set up by Bernardino Drovetti, Console Generale of France in Egypt in the early XIX century. Ramses II statue was restored in the first half of the XIX century. Few documents can be found on these restoration works: very likely the statue arrived broken to Turin and was reassembled with cement mortar (Hartleben, 1909) No news can be found neither on the type of mortar nor on the quantity of mortar actually used. The statue of Ramses was probably found at Tebe in 1818. It is made by basanite exploited from a quarry in Uadi Hammamat. The basanite is a basaltic extrusive rock also known as Lydian stone or lydite. It was almost exclusively reserved to the crafting of statues of pharaons or divinities. In many parts of the statue the mortar (as dark as the stone) is clearly visible (Fig.1 right). The statue of Tutmosis I was found by J.J. Rifaud , a Drovetti 's agent, in 1818 in Tebe, very likely in the Karnak temple. The king sits on a throne with many scripts on both the sides of the seat. The statue is made by a dark diorite with some light pink plagioclase crystals sizing few centimeters. Its conservation seems fairly goo

Music and Political Space in Ancient Egypt

Im alten Ägypten nahm Musik durch die Strukturierung von militärischen Paraden, könig-lichen Festen und religiösen Prozessionen eine wichtige Rolle im öffentlichen Raum ein. Alle diese Situationen können gleichzeitig auch als politische Räume verstanden werden, da sie immer auch zur politischen Kommunikation dienten. Der vorliegende Artikel un-tersucht, wie Musik und Musikinstrumente zu diesem Zweck verwendet wurden und wie politische Wirklichkeit sowie ihre Veränderungen sich in deren Auswahl widerspiegel

Лідерство в контексті суспільно-політичного та релігійного розвитку стародавнього Єгипту

The influence of the leadership management paradigm of class societies on the formation of mechanisms of exercising power of the rulers of Ancient Egypt is analysed. It is shown that the ancient Egyptian pharaohs, claiming the status of mediators between pagan gods and humans, and subsequently their divine origin, were unable to abandon the sanctified traditions and beliefs of the requirements for rulers as leaders. Therefore, with the unlimited power of the Oriental tyrants, they continued to be accountable to the pagan gods and men for the observance of the principles of humanity, justice, and care for their subordinates. They demonstrated their exceptional qualities and abilities that gave them not only a formal right to operate them, but also to exercise them on the basis of authority. The history of the Ancient Egypt is full of the examples when the rejection from these underlying principles had deplorable effects for the whole country. Therefore, pharaohs of the country had to return to their reconsidering.Проаналізовано вплив лідерської управлінської парадигми докласових суспільств на становлення механізмів реалізації влади правителів Стародавнього Єгипту. Показано, що давньоєгипетські фараони, утверджуючи за собою статус посередників між богами й людьми, а згодом і своє божественне походження, не змогли відмовитися від освячених традиціями й віруваннями вимог до правителів як до лідерів. Відтак, маючи необмежену владу східних деспотів, продовжували нести відповідальність перед богами й людьми за дотримання в управлінні принципів гуманності, справедливості, піклування за своїх підлеглих. Вони демонстрували свої виключні якості й здібності, які давали їм не лише формальне право управляти ними, а й реалізовувати його на основі авторитету. Історія Стародавнього Єгипту переповнена прикладами коли відмова від цих засадничих принципів управління мала згубні для країни наслідки. Тому фараони країни вимушені були знову й знову повертатися до їхнього осмислення

Integration of foreigners in Egypt: the relief of Amenhotep II shooting arrows at a copper ingot and related scenes

The relief of Amenhotep II shooting arrows at a copper ingot target has often been considered as propaganda of the king’s extraordinary strength and vigour. However, this work proposes that the scene took on additional layers of significance and had different ritual functions such as regenerating the health of the king, and ensuring the eternal victory of Egypt over foreign enemies and the victory of order over chaos. Amenhotep II was shooting arrows at an “Asiatic” ox-hide ingot because the ingot would symbolize the northern enemies of Egypt. The scene belonged to a group of representations carved during the New Kingdom on temples that showed the general image of the king defeating enemies. Moreover, it was linked to scenes painted in private tombs where goods were brought to the deceased, and to offering scenes carved on the walls of Theban temples. The full sequence of scenes would describe, and ritually promote, the process of integration of the foreign element into the Egyptian sphere.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

The smiting of the enemies scenes in the mortuary temple of Ramses III at medinet Habu

The ritual scenes of smiting the enemies are a topos of the Egyptian ico-nography of military nature which goes through Egyptian history almost in its entirety, from the 4th millennium BC until the 2nd century AD. Regarding to the New Kingdom there are innumerable known and sig-nificant cases that we can evoke as examples. There is, however, one ex-traordinary example, by the profusion of that kind of scenes in almost every room and its components, which arises a noteworthy emphasis: the mortuary temple at Medinet Habu, built for Ramses III (c. 1182 – 1151 BC), second pharaoh of the 20th Dynasty and for many scholars the last great pharaoh of the New Kingdom. In this text we will pass in detailed review these scenes, explaining and interpreting the underlying ideological message as the function of its recur-rent and appealing iconographic utilization, as in the function of the space-architectural localization where they are to be found at the Medinet Habu complex.As cenas rituais de massacre dos inimigos são um topos da iconografia egípcia de cariz militar que atravessa quase toda a história egípcia, do IV milénio a.C. ao séc. II d.C. No que ao Império Novo diz respeito, são inú-meros os casos conhecidos e significativos que se podem evocar a título de exemplo. Há, porém, um caso extraordinário, pela profusão deste tipo de cenas praticamente em todas as suas divisões e componentes, que suscita um merecido destaque: o templo funerário de Medinet Habu, edificado para Ramsés III (c. 1182-1151 a.C.), segundo faraó da XX dinastia e para muitos estudiosos o último grande faraó do Império Novo