Barry J. Kemp

The early development of towns in Egypt

It may seem surprising that, after three-quarters of a century of excavation in Egypt, anyone should still feel it necessary to write an article claiming that ancient Egypt has, after all, left behind stratified town sites of the sort that have been the main source of work for the archaeoIogist in other countries ; and that, furthermore, the life which they represent can be rationally comprehended.

The Amarna Workmen's Village in Retrospect

The excavations of the Egypt Exploration Society at the Workmens Village at el-Amarna began in 1979 and were completed in 1986. The eight seasons saw extensive investigation of the ground outside the walled village as well as limited excavation inside. A wide range of evidence has been gathered, relating to the life and economic basis of this community, with particular reference to animal-keeping. Although an annual report has made available a summary of each seasons results, this article offers a general survey of the village in the light of the new work, and sets the latter within a broader framework of research on ancient Egyptian society.

The city of el‐Amarna as a source for the study of urban society in ancient Egypt

Abstract King Akhenatens short‐lived capital of el‐Amarna still seems to offer the least fragmentary example of a city layout from New Kingdom Egypt. Although often regarded as of unusual spaciousness, taking advantage of the ready availability of building land on a desert site, there are strong grounds for arguing that, at the least, its range of housing reflects a mature, developed urbanism that must have been transplanted from a parent site, and even perhaps that it exemplifies a more expansive form of urbanism that had developed much more widely in Egypt during the New Kingdom. Since inscriptions are so few, and since pottery and small finds probably belong as much to ubiquitous servant activity as to anything else, the architecture remains the most significant reflection of the society that existed there. Possible ways of evaluation are sketched out. The study is intended as a background to the planned resumption of fieldwork at el‐Amarna by the Egypt Exploration Society.

The Egyptian 1st Dynasty Royal Cemetery

Around 3100 B.C. the kingship of Egypt, a country probably united already for over a century, passed into the hands of a family which tradition states originated from the Thinite nome in Upper Egypt. At about the same time the keeping of written records was begun and these first historic kings have come to form what we know as the 1st Dynasty. This was clearly a crucial and momentous period for under their rule Egyptian civilization began to take on that peculiarly characteristic form which was to last so long. It is obviously a matter of some consequence to be able to locate the tombs of these kings but here archaeology has provided a puzzle. For two quite separate sites have been identified as the royal cemetery of the period [I].

Egyptian radiocarbon dating: a reply to James Mellaart

Mellaart is not the first, even in recent times, to query the Egyptian astronomical data, and in particular the reliability of the source for the Sothic date in Senusret 111’s reign which seems to offer the earliest independently fixed date in the Near East. In 1974, R. D. Long published an attack in the journal Orientalia, xLrIr, 261-74. This provoked a lengthy and careful response from the scholar whose name is most closely associated with the mathematical aspects of Egyptian calendars and chronology, R. A. Parker. This response provides a ready-made answer to Mellaart’s criticisms, and readers are referred to Parker’s paper for more detail (Parker, 1977). Mellaart makes two main points on this issue: the Egyptians may have made a mistake in the observation; the papyrus fragment in question is dated by indirect means and does not bear the name of the king in whose reign scholars have placed it.

How Religious were the Ancient Egyptians

Ancient Egyptian culture was permeated by statements, symbolic and direct, which defined a world of deities and divine power. They amounted to a form of knowledge that was largely divorced from general personal behaviour and which afforded little recognition of individual experience. Furthermore, although practical provision for survival after death was important, life seems not to have offered a quest for enlightenment through enhanced knowledge of the divine. The exemplary life was a career pursued in what was basically a secular society. Our use of the term ‘religion’ for ancient Egypt, whilst justifiable as a convenience, clearly covers a relationship between belief and behaviour which is distinctive for its place and time. In this article, several kinds of evidence for religious behaviour in ancient Egypt are examined in an attempt to assess the nature and strength of the commitment that they represent. The question of whether the populace at large lived by reference to a world of superstitious gesture which has left little evidence behind is only briefly touched upon.

Proportionality in Mind and Space in Ancient Egypt

Over the last twenty years experimental psychology has revived interest in the Golden Section, showing it to have some influence not only in visual perception but also in a certain kind of value judgement. The findings are here tested on ancient Egyptian sources, both archaeological and textual. They lead to a discussion of how Egyptian architects designed their buildings, and also to a consideration of the cognitive processes involved in modern analyses of the plans of ancient buildings by means of diagrammatic proportional schemes.

Tell El-Amarna, 2010*

This report on the 2010 season at Tell el-Amarna mostly summarises the findings of excavations at the South Tombs Cemetery (where a further new excavation area was begun) and the study of the Christian remains associated with the tomb of Panehsy (no. 6).

Tell El-Amarna, 2014

In the spring of 2014 the expedition returned to work at the Great Aten Temple. The programme combined re-clearance and fresh study of more of the area towards the front of the temple, accompanied by a continuation of the scheme to represent, in new materials, the original outlines of the building. This was followed by a period of study and conservation which embraced human bones and hair from the South Tombs Cemetery, decorated stonework and mortar samples from the Great Aten Temple, and pottery from the South Tombs Cemetery and North Palace. Geological prospection in the desert hinterland was done to further understanding of the sources of gypsum and of indurated limestone at Amarna.

Tell el-Amarna, 2011-12

Two periods of fieldwork are covered in this report. The first, from late 2011, was primarily a further season of excavation at the South Tombs Cemetery, which saw an exploratory trench run across the flat wadi floor, confirming that it had, at least in part, been used for burials. A notable find was of a decorated wooden coffin that included an image of a canine-headed god. A programme of repairs at the North Palace was also completed. The second, in the spring of 2012, saw the start of a new project, the re-examination of the Great Aten Temple foundations, specifically an area at the front and another towards the rear where a stela and statue had been set up. The season ended with the study of the human bones from the 2011 excavations by the University of Arkansas bioanthropology team.