The Stelas of Seti I and the Egyptian Asiatic Empire

UIDB/04666/2020 UIDP/04666/2020At the reveille of dynasty XIX, Seti I inherited an Asiatic Empire that was, in truth, no more than an Egyptian sphere of influence in that region. This pharaoh invested in military campaigns, understanding the importance of permanent control of coastal and strategic cities around the Mediterranean, creating, de facto, an Asiatic Empire. This control was based in constant military occupation and set the tone for the second and third pharaohs of this dynasty. The new persistent dominion over Asiatic lands is illustrated by stelas celebrating the victories of Seti I in Western Asia, the central focus of this study, that firstly intends to present and analyse the supra mentioned monuments, describing them, and when possible, present its inscriptions, and addressing the very relevant question that was on the genesis of their own creation: how important the Asiatic lands became to Egypt.publishersversionpublishe

The Ancient Egyptian mind and beliefs behind the New Kingdom imperial expansion

UID/HIS/04666/2013Perhaps one of the most recognizable elements of Ancient Egyptian iconography is the depiction of the dominance of enemies of Kemet by the Pharaoh. This establishes a direct connection with the most profound belief where Egypt was both the maatic centre of the Universe and should be maintained clean from those who were not Egyptian. It also reveals a central concern in the Egyptian mind: invaders must be kept at bay. Enters the New Kingdom and the political canvas from where it emerged seems to be, in fact, an implacable execution of that referred intrinsic belief taken to an extreme. It was, however, this belief that gave birth to an Empire. One proposes to analyse how a belief, applied to an unstable political scenario became one possible catalyst on the forge of an imperial dominion of Egypt over its surroundings. From the Old Kingdom until then, Egyptians mainly protected Kemet and its most immediate borders. However, always exploring, here and there, the “outside world”. But a change in view and action, one proposes because of a specific scenario to be here presented, originated a new approach and interaction of Egypt over the world that would last for several hundred years and change the political scenario, geographical frontiers and the sphere of influence Kemet had. The main challenge of this essay is to try and understand if the Egyptian New Kingdom Empire was, first, a response to protect Egypt from enemies that had dominated the Land for far too long, and second, maintained for a new imperialistic desire had eventually emerge on the mind of those who sat on the Throne of Horus?publishersversionpublishe

The Wars of Tuthmoses III and the Mediterranean

UID/HIS/04666/2019On the twenty-ninth year of Tuthmoses III reign, a new rebellion against the central power of Egypt started on the distant lands of Lebanon. In a swift strategic move, the pharaoh sent his army through the Mediterranean, bypassing Canaan and appearing in what might have felt as a blink of an eye in the Lebanon coast, conquering Ullaza and Ardata. This move was not a novelty for the ancient Egyptians of the New Kingdom, it had been used before, although more as a strategy to circumvent the mighty Mitanni, however never as a persistent military offensive tactic. What one proposes to present in this paper is exactly what could have changed on the Egyptian mind to generate such a different set of tactical responses? Is the answer in the view the pharaoh had of the world and the way Egypt should act on it to protect itself? What about the use of new military strategies, where did they come from? Was it a legacy from a country that had to forge its unity once again a century before, survival at all cost? Whatever the answers to the questions this paper will propose are, one fact is clearly true and unavoidable, the changes made by the brilliant military mind of Tuthmoses III profoundly altered the world panorama for half a millennium to come and placed Egypt in the center of history for many centuries after that.publishersversionpublishe

the Building Techniques from Ancient Egypt to Contemporaneity

UID/HIS/04666/2019Since the discovery of the now well-known and preserved examples of furniture found in several perdjet of ancient Egypt’s Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2160 BCE) and New Kingdom (c. 1550–1069 BCE) it was possible to analyze in detail each object uncovered, revealing how it was built, the composing materials, the techniques that maintained it together and other elements presente in its composition. The most interesting fact for this study is that, upon analysis, there seems to be interesting similarities between construction techniques used to assemble both ancient furniture and the ones used nowadays for the same purposes. To test the hypothesis, this paper is focused in three particular objects, the Solid Ebony Chair of Tutankhamun JE 62033, from KV62, and the Chairs of Hetepheres MFA 38.957 and JE 53263, from G7000X, -a much older chair- and analyses its structures, the materials and techniques used to assemble them, the similarities and dissimilarities, if any, between these two examples and to see if the is any correlations with them and their analog structures built three and a half millennia later, in our current days.publishersversionpublishe

expanding and maintaining an Empire from Ahmose to Tuthmoses III

UID/HIS/04666/2013There are several catalysts that can be found to be the reason for the beginning of an expansionist movement of a nation. The most common are, perhaps, economic, political or defensive in nature. During the genesis of the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, one starts to observe a crescendo of territory being annexed to the heart of Egypt. The Two Lands gradually became an Empire that grew both tor South and to the East. At first, with Ahmose, the founding pharaoh of Dynasty XVIII, the reason was security, but after that, what were the motivations for continued annexation? What was used to keep the Empire together? What strategies, what innovations, what advantages did the ancient Egyptians have? Tuthmoses III extended his Empire to a stable union of territories, occupying one of the largest areas that would ever be occupied by an Egyptian pharaoh. Its maintenance would require permanent awareness of the dominated space and the surrounding enemy forces. Also, response to attacks or insurrections were paramount to the maintenance of peace. Tuthmoses III was extremely successful in doing everything needed to keep Egypt as an Empire. This essay will analyze the period of time from the reign of Ahmose to the one of Tuthmoses III, focusing on significant information that will help to clarify aspects such as the external political situation, the expansionist movements and what was involved in maintaining frontiers, enemies at bay and insurrections inside the annexed territories under control.publishersversionpublishe

Understanding Ancient Egypt’s Mediterranean Trade Routes and Materials During Pharaonic Times

UIDB/04666/2020 UIDP/04666/2020Trade is perhaps one of the most noticeable steps of an evolving civilization. For ancient Egypt, there was a wide range of potential traders, both on the African continent, especially Nubia, and over the Syrian-Palestinian corridor. However, as soon as circa 3000 BCE, Old Kingdom Egyptians were a sea-fearing civilization and an important part of the search for goods was made via the Red Sea and even via the Mediterranean. The ability to travel on the Great Green allowed the creation of trade routes with several other cultures as far as Byblos, Canaan, or Arad. With time, Egypt used the Mediterranean to import and export a myriad of products that would directly influence its own development as a civilization and eventually would also leave its mark other cultures. With this paper one proposes to present an overview of the trade routes and products exchanged since the Old Kingdom to the New Kingdom between ancient Egypt and its counterparts on the Mediterranean World, in search of an understanding of the relations established between so different cultures, focusing on the products that were actively procured and what they were exchanged for.publishersversionpublishe

Egypt in Portugal at the Beginning of the XX Century

UID/HIS/04666/2019In the 1920’s, the discovery of the tomb of King Tutankhamun started a cultural phenomenon that gripped the world’s imagination. Designs and motifs inspired in the Ancient Egypt became popular worldwide and the city of Guimarães, in the North of Portugal, was not an exception. In 1925 it was inaugurated the Café Oriental. Replicating in its interior a refined Egyptian ambience with furniture, accurate New Kingdom murals, Old Kingdom sculptures and architectural details from ancient Egyptian temples and palaces. The Café Oriental was in the centre of Guimarães’ cultural life until its destruction in the 1960’s. Using photographic glass plates dated from the 1920’s as well as local newspapers and the remaining furniture of the Café Oriental, our current purpose is to identify the models and ideas that shaped the creation of this establishment.publishersversionpublishe

Images, Perceptions and Productions in and of Antiquity

UIDB/04666/2020 UIDP/04666/2020authorsversionpublishe

Predictability of COVID-19 hospitalizations, intensive care unit admissions, and respiratory assistance in Portugal: Longitudinal Cohort study

Funding Information: The authors thank Portuguese Directorate General of Health (DGS) for providing the data. Data are available upon reasonable request. This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), through IDMEC, under LAETA project (UIDB/50022/2020), IPOscore (DSAIPA/DS/0042/2018) and Data2Help (DSAIPA/AI/ 0044/2018) projects, the contract CEECIND/01399/2017 to RSC, FCT/MCTES funds for INESC-ID (UIDB/50021/2020) and the Associate Laboratory for Green Chemistry - LAQV (UIDB/50006/2020 and UIDP/50006/2020).Background: In the face of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the timely prediction of upcoming medical needs for infected individuals enables better and quicker care provision when necessary and management decisions within health care systems. Objective: This work aims to predict the medical needs (hospitalizations, intensive care unit admissions, and respiratory assistance) and survivability of individuals testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection in Portugal. Methods: A retrospective cohort of 38,545 infected individuals during 2020 was used. Predictions of medical needs were performed using state-of-the-art machine learning approaches at various stages of a patient's cycle, namely, at testing (prehospitalization), at posthospitalization, and during postintensive care. A thorough optimization of state-of-the-art predictors was undertaken to assess the ability to anticipate medical needs and infection outcomes using demographic and comorbidity variables, as well as dates associated with symptom onset, testing, and hospitalization. Results: For the target cohort, 75% of hospitalization needs could be identified at the time of testing for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Over 60% of respiratory needs could be identified at the time of hospitalization. Both predictions had >50% precision. Conclusions: The conducted study pinpoints the relevance of the proposed predictive models as good candidates to support medical decisions in the Portuguese population, including both monitoring and in-hospital care decisions. A clinical decision support system is further provided to this end.publishersversionpublishe