Jenny Cromwell Picture the scene: from across the way, a young man spots a young woman who takes his breath away. She is exquisite, with dazzling eyes and sweet lips. Every part of her body is the epitome of feminine beauty. She is beyond compare. But his love is only from afar. A papyrus todayContinue reading “‘My heart, don’t act so stupidly!’: An Ancient Egyptian Love Song”
Tag Archives: Hieratic
Nomads, Mercenaries, and Goldmines: Desert Politics in the Ramesside Period
Julien Cooper When we think of Egypt’s wealth, our mind often wanders to geological riches. Most of this wealth originated in the Eastern Desert: the gold of Tutankhamun’s mask, the famous Egyptian eye-paints of kohl or malachite, or even the majestic purple porphyry columns that today hold up the roof in the Hagia Sophia inContinue reading “Nomads, Mercenaries, and Goldmines: Desert Politics in the Ramesside Period”
Ebony and Meretseger: On a New Kingdom Herd of Cows
Jennifer Cromwell A sale document from the Fayum showed us that Roman soldiers living here named their cows, as discussed in a previous post. But, they were not the first people in Egypt to do so – Egyptians had been naming their cows for millennia beforehand! On the back of a magical text from New Kingdom Thebes,Continue reading “Ebony and Meretseger: On a New Kingdom Herd of Cows”
A Donkey Called Rameses
Jennifer Cromwell In the village of Deir el-Medina, the home of the workmen who built the royal tombs of the Valley of the Kings, donkeys were big business. While scenes from the New Kingdom show pharaoh riding a horse-drawn chariot into battle, neither horses nor camels played a part in the day-to-day lives of villagersContinue reading “A Donkey Called Rameses”
Papyrus Stories 