You will find below the articles which make up the latest edition of the Magazine (Edition 6: May 2012). Only the items from the most recent edition appear here but to see earlier articles have a look at our Magazine Archive where you will find a complete list of previous Magazine publications.

Editorial – Magazine Edition 10

A very warm welcome to Edition 10 of the Magazine. First, it is with enormous pleasure that we welcome back Brian Alm to the Magazine.  Brian has penned a new series for Egyptological:  “Read Like an Egyptian” — Art in Ancient Egypt.  In Part 1 Brian begins with how art should be defined in the […] [more…]

The shape of this libation vessel imbues the offering with the power of its symbols, ankh (life, living) and ka (spiritual essence), reflecting its religious purpose. 1st Dynasty (3100-2900 B.C.). Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA), New York.

Read Like an Egyptian — Art in Ancient Egypt, Part 1

Probably only one percent of the ancient Egyptians were literate, and those literate few were royalty, nobility, upper-crust managers and administrators, at least some of the top military people, full-time priests and scribes. But many people could “read” what they were seeing, and understand it without knowing how to read hieroglyphs. The ideas and symbolic iconography were grounded in their culture; the art spoke to them even if their knowledge of the written text was, for the vast majority of the public, rudimentary at best — no doubt limited to a few basic glyphs. [more…]

Meretseger: She Who Loves Silence. The Cobra Deity at Deir el-Medina

Meretseger: She Who Loves Silence. The Cobra Deity at Deir el-Medina

In the Western world the cobra rarely inspires sentiments of benevolence, warmth or good intentions. It is not a cuddly beast. Matters were more ambivalent in ancient Egypt where a range of wild animals were identified with deities imbued with admired values of physical strength, protection and courage, as well as less obviously admirable qualities like aggression, retribution, vengeance and retaliation. Like Sobek, the crocodile deity, and Sekhmet the lioness, the cobra deities comprised a mixture of attributes that centred on their fierce ability to defend themselves and to strike, hissing and spitting poison, to annihilate their aggressors.  [more…]

Discovering Tutankhamun. From Howard Carter to DNA

Book Review: “Discovering Tutankhamun – From Howard Carter to DNA” by Zahi Hawass

It is now some while since Zahi Hawass was finally ousted from office as Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, following the fall of the Mubarak government in 2011; but his absolute ubiquity on TV programmes concerning ancient Egypt prior to that date (and the fact that these are repeated endlessly on various satellite/cable and terrestrial channels) means that there is little chance of any reader being unaware of his ebullient and bombastic presence. That presence is now reduced to occasional lectures about his former exploits, and adding to the series of published books that bear his name – of which this is the latest. [more…]