IFAO

The topic of this article is the study of a statue belonging to an official from the Middle Kingdom called Renseneb, which was seized by the Egyptian authorities in 2015 in Damiette among more than one thousand artefacts. It came from some clandestine excavations on the site of Abydos. The owner of the statue, who holds the titles ḫtmtj bjty (treasurer of Lower Egypt) and jmy-r gs pr (director of domain) is supposed to be the same as the owner of a statue discovered in 1998 at Kerma and of a stela kept in the museum of Berlin (ÄGM 32/66). The study of the second title enables Renseneb to be seen as a member of the local administration who was in charge of the management of a royal domain attached to the mâhât-chapel of Mentuhotep II in Abydos.

The excavations of the Madamud (Louqsor) mission on the forecourt of the Montou temple, already cleared by Bisson de la Roque between 1929 and 1931 were carried out in 2017-2018. He discovered a ceramic production area and an enclosure wall called the "9m wall". At ­present, a substantial new supply of archaeological data enables us to go back to the question of ­dating the stratigraphic relationships of these different structures. Thus, the 9m wall can now be ­associated with the restoration of the temple carried out during the reign of Thutmes III, which was to serve as the entrance pylon to the temenos. Its erection marked the discontinuation of the ceramic production district located southwest of the Middle Kingdom temple, which was in operation during the 17th and early 18th dynasties. However, the 9m wall was in operation until the Ptolemaic period, and later was levelled in the Augustan period.

This paper examines the function, chronology, and gender issues of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom oyster shells, taking MMA 23.2.76a as a case-study. It presents a critical analysis for the early publication on the function and the gender of the owner, of this oyster shell and many others, based on a close investigation of this object. Furthermore, it investigates the archaeological context in which these oyster shells were found, presenting some unpublished materials from Sheikh Farag, collaborating with the published material from Lisht and Esna. It shows the relationships the oyster shells entertain with other objects of Late Middle Kingdom, e.g. shabtis and ivory tusks, and the absence of the wooden models, typical early Middle Kingdom objects.

In this paper, we will present the latest results of the excavations conducted in Buto (2016-2018) by the French Mission, in the frame of the collaboration with the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut in Cairo (DAIK), holder of the concession, showing evidence of a large storage building of the Early Roman period on the top of the kom A (sector P18), a very rare kind of economic structure in the Delta in Graeco-Roman times. Some contributions, based on the different sources provided in this sector, and in relation with the food economy (macro-remains of cereals, wine and oil and maybe fish, amphoras and an ostracon mentioning the transport system), present the current state of the research in this area, in some pluridisciplinary approachs, integrating the textual economical references, and, in the light of this case, suggesting the role of Egypt in the Roman economy.

Excavated since 2009, the thermal baths of Taposiris Magna were built in the second half of the 5th century and were in use until the end of the 7th-beginning of the 8th century. This building, remarkably well preserved, is part of a thermal baths complex in the Mareotis area with which it shares most of the characteristic features. Its interest lies in two main points: it is one of the few facilities of the Mareotis area that is well documented and dated. More importantly, it underwent some huge renovation works during the Byzantine-Arabic transition period. As such, it is a valuable testimony of the strong vitality of the Roman-Byzantine thermal traditions despite the political change. The study of the last stage, dated back to the middle of the 7th century, shows that the changes in the techniques and arrangements which can be observed are connected to the internal changes in the Byzantine societies, that is to say before the Arab and Muslim Conquest.

This article focuses on the study of an unpublished 21st Dynasty shabti box kept in the Ismaïlia museum under the registration number 2560. This box, which was probably discovered in the Bab el-Gasus cache, belonged to a Theban elite member called Imen-niut-nakht. His functions were essentially clerical and curial in the Amun temple of Karnak and for the Master of the Two Lands. This shabti box is decorated with a long inscription which combines a funerary formula, an offering formula and an extract of the Chapter 6 of the Book of the Dead. The analysis of this shabti box is completed by a prosopographical study. Furthermore, the historical question of the existence of a court around the High Priests of Amun is discussed based on the only known mention of the title [...] ỉmy-ḫnt in Thebes during this Period, inscribed on our shabti box.

Publication and translation of the unpublished set of inscriptions on the south side of the pylon door of Khonsu temple in the south-western area of Karnak. The so-called “offering” scenes engraved on its surface show two differentiated phases of the decorative program: first, under the pontificate of the high priest of Amon Pinedjem I, and then a restoration by Alexander the Great.

The mummies of three men, each missing their left thumb, were discovered in the West cemetery at El-Deir (Kharga oasis). From the archaeologists’ point of view, the sole interpretation possible is self-mutilation. We now know that young men who wanted to escape from being enlisted in the Roman army used to cut off one finger, commonly their left thumb but, until now, only texts spoke of that. Now we have proof.

Idenou is an attested title since the Middle Kingdom. Heinrich Brugsch, who was followed by many Egyptologists, determined early on its signification. According to this scholar, the jdnw is a person acting as a substitute to another. Moreover, it was established that the importance of that person depended on the administration employing him and the hierarchical level occupied. In this study, the author establishes that this title can be employed according to two schemes. In the first, the title refers to a person, while in the second it refers to a group of people or an institution. Relying on many examples, the author proves the ambivalence of the jdnw, both substitute and leader, and proposes to translate the term by “régisseur”/“manager” in the cases corresponding to the second scheme. His hypotheses are confirmed by the study of several particular cases.

This study on the mammisi of Nectanébo in Dendara reconsiders the initial arrangement of its Propylates and their coverage, as proposed by F. Daumas in 1950 (BIFAO 50): it proves that the palmiform columns were surmounted by a Bes god, and supported a stone cover.