Third Intermediate Period

INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH: Egypto-Levantine relations have varied from the Neolithic through Persian periods, ranging from overland and maritime commerce, diplomatic missions, emigrants, imperial expansion, and alliances, while at other times Asiatics have traded, raided, pastured their flocks, infiltrated, taken refuge in, served as mercenaries, and sometimes controlled parts of Egypt.  Although fluctuations occur in the intensity of contact, in general interactions have increased over time, with local adoptions and emulations of different aspects of each culture: language, literature, religion, art, and artifacts.

The David and Solomon's kingdoms are no longer considered as historical by minimalist archeologists. According to Israel Finkelstein and Neil Silberman, for example, authors of The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts, at the time of the kingdoms of David and Solomon, Jerusalem was populated by only a few hundred residents or less, which is insufficient for an empire stretching from the Euphrates to Eilath. They suggest that due to religious prejudice, the authors of the Bible suppressed the achievements of the Omrides. Some Biblical minimalists like Thomas L. Thompson go further, arguing that Jerusalem became a city and capable of being a state capital only in the mid-seventh century. Likewise, Finkelstein and others consider the claimed size of Solomon's temple implausible. A review of methods and arguments used by these minimalists shows that they are impostors for writing history. The historical testimonies dated by a chronology anchored on absolute dates (backbone of history) are replaced by archaeological remains dated by carbon-14 (backbone of myths). The goal of these unfounded claims is clearly the charring of biblical accounts.
https://www.lulu.com/shop/gerard-gertoux/kings-david-and-solomon-chronological-historical-and-archaeological-evidence/paperback/product-1r86w6my.html

ABSTRACT: Preface to the Guide:

Focus and limitations:
The compilation of this guide began in Spring 2007 as a series of check lists and book requests for the somewhat small collection of Egyptological and related works in M. H. Sterne library at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.  During the development of several courses on Ancient Egypt, the Ancient Near East, and other areas spanning Prehistory through to the Roman period (and later), the collection grew, and continues to expand, and began to require a research paper guide for students enrolled in courses dealing with these geographic areas and time periods. The nature of the prime cliental, namely undergraduate to MA students in a North American setting, in conjunction with limited funding, has steered  –of necessity– the building of both Sterne library’s collections and this guide towards mostly English-language sources, less expensive works, and more easily available and more recent publications.

Overall aims:
In order to maximize student and public research usage of the existing, albeit still limited, collections, I have since compiled and incorporated selected journal articles, book chapters, encyclopedia entries, and other book titles from Sterne Library’s physical holdings (i.e., non-electronic sources) into diverse categories of research topics/subjects.  In addition, every effort has been made to add a full listing of electronic sources (including links) available to researchers of the geographic and temporal areas covered by this guide (i.e., mainly Prehistoric to Roman period Egypt).  The guide also provides general assistance for more serious/professional scholars (i.e., a quick reference to key articles, chapters, and volumes), but remains a tool aimed at English-speaking undergraduate-MA students and the public, focusing on Sterne’s holdings (note: other emerging Egyptological libraries will also approximate Sterne’s holdings).

Design and usage:
An attempt has been made to obtain sources spanning all aspects of Ancient Egypt and related areas, which have in-turn influenced the subdivision of the guide into general works, time periods, and diverse subject areas. Some of these categories have grown sufficiently large to merit further subdivision, such as the New Kingdom section, which has a general list of sources, materials regarding individual rulers, and a few affiliated topics of interest (Exodus; Sea Peoples).  I have attempted to place each source (i.e., books; book chapters; encyclopedia entries; journal articles) under each pertinent topic category that it covers, but naturally I may have missed some categories, while there may be other complementary and broader works that cover such topics elsewhere.  A list of the pertinent call number ranges has been placed at the end of the guide (see table of contents) to assist in the merits of additional shelf-browsing.

Beyond the guide:
Naturally there are numerous significant Egyptological sources outside Sterne Library’s holdings (including electronic links: e.g., JSTOR) that might be retrieved via interlibrary loan.  Sterne Library’s current Egyptological resources, however, are sufficient to introduce most areas of Egyptological research, and enable the researcher to consult the endnotes/footnotes and bibliographic data listed in recent books, articles, and encyclopedia entries to compile a list of further resources that may either be accessed via interlibrary loan, or possibly by visiting directly a neighbouring professional Egyptological library: e.g., the instructor (UAB); Atlanta (Emory University); Memphis (Memphis State University).

The collections in other Birmingham and Alabama libraries have online links via Sterne Library’s website, and offer many duplicate and different Egyptological works that are often accessible to the public/students: e.g., Birmingham Public Library, Gorgas Library (UA).  Naturally, I encourage students, faculty, and public researchers to see me for further assistance with this guide and their research topics.

Gregory Mumford (UAB)
Update: 15 Jan., 2021

PLEASE NOTE: This resource has received substantial updates in pertinent sections within the guide.  Some additional sorting of various articles/entries is still required, but these articles can be found, unsorted, at the end of the guide (e.g., articles from KMT, JSSEA, EA, etc., listed chronologically and by issue). I anticipate another update in the following year ...

J. Pope, "The Historicity of Pediese, Son of Ankhsheshonq," Revue d'Égyptologie 66 (2015), 199-225 and pls. XVIII-XXV. Nous publions ici la statue Stockholm NME 81 qui appartenait à un homme nommé Padiaset, fils d'Ânkhchechonq, prêtre de Sobek, d'Anubis et d'Hathor, Chef des prêtres d'Hérichef et Grand de Netjeret. L'inscription de cette statue a souvent été commentée en lien avec le papyrus Rylands IX, mais son interprétation reposait sur une traduction préliminaire sans examen de la statue. Le présent article propose une nouvelle traduction, accompagnée de photographies et d'un apparat critique, et une datation sur la base de l'analyse stylistique de la statue. À la lumière de ces nouveaux éléments, nous sommes amenés à réévaluer la pertinence du lien avec le papyrus mentionnée ci-dessus.

Publication of Stockholm statue NME 81. It belonged to a man named Pediese, son of Ankhsheshonq, who was a Priest of Sobek, Anubis, and Hathor, an Overseer of the Priests of Heryshef, and a Grandee in Netjeret. The statue has frequently been discussed in relation to Papyrus Rylands IX, but these interpretations have relied upon a preliminary translation without photographs or stylistic analysis. A new translation is presented here with photographs and full annotation, and the date of the inscription is evaluated through stylistic analysis of the statue. In light of these new elements, the statue's relevance to Papyrus Rylands IX is reassessed.

In 2017 and 2018, the Proyecto Djehuty has documented in a tomb of the early Middle Kingdom at Dra Abu el-Naga the burial of several individuals linked to the priesthood and the Domain of Amun of the Twenty-Second Dynasty. Among the artefacts found there, a group of textiles stands out. A first group includes the name and titles of the owner along with a year of reign. In another, unlike the previous one, only the titles and the identity of their owners are recorded. Thirdly, there are marks and signs of laundry or weaving in some of the pieces of the preceding types and others that only include a similar kind of notation. In addition, among the objects that formed part of the burial goods are two groups of artefacts: shrouds with a large figure of Osiris and texts referring to the deity and its owner and braces with leather ends where a king is offering before a deity. The analysis and preliminary contextualization of this evidence allow for a better understanding of the social profile and funeral practices of the individuals buried in Dra Abu el-Naga in the Third Intermediate Period.

Decentralization was a fundamental element of the 21st Dynasty, as the physical split and political division between the Tanite kings and the Theban High Priesthood of Amun illustrated.  For the Theban priesthood and their families, this decentralization created complications with regards to social identity.  Elite members of Egyptian society traditionally emphasized relationships to the king and highlighted important positions held within the palace structure.  With Tanite kingship marginalized to the north at the beginning of the Third Intermediate Period, the Theban ruling priesthood could not use traditional methods of self-identification, such as strong connections to the palace, to maintain and promote their social status.  It was thus necessary to prioritize connections to other institutions.  The temple was an obvious choice for this theocratic regime, but it was not the only framework for illustrating social status.  Family connections also grew in importance during this time of political fragmentation, as the study of 21st Dynasty funerary papyri suggests. 
Funerary papyri became common in 21st Dynasty Theban burials, as reliance on extended burial caches and the distillation of the funerary assemblage to mainly the coffin set warranted the incorporation of funerary imagery and text deemed necessary for the deceased to be incorporated into the burial in a more compact way.  With this limitation of decorative space to the coffin set and one or two papyri, choices were made regarding the content of the funerary iconography.  The relationship between funerary materiality and social identity is constant throughout pharaonic history, but holds a distinct importance in this time of decentralization and crisis.  By studying the corpus of 21st Dynasty funerary papyri and the specific choices made for their content, one can better understand how the individual socially defined himself or herself by placing increased emphasis on family relationships, ethnic diversity, and hereditary temple titles.

Considered as the legitimate son and heir of Amun, Khonsu gained importance during the Ramesside Period in parallel with the birth of the Renaissance doctrine. This prominence is reflected in the biographical and genealogical information, which documents a substantial increase in the number of individuals performing administrative and religious functions for the different forms of Khonsu by the Twenty-First Dynasty.
The complete prosopography of the personnel relating to the cult of Khonsu in Thebes Neferhotep presents new insights into a collective, subordinated to the clergy of Amun and active in more than one cult throughout the Karnak complex, but which fulfilled a significant role at Thebes. In this regard, the title of Third ḥm-nṯr priest of Khonsu must be highlighted; the contextualization of the emergence of this office and the study of its holders builds solid foundations for a better understanding of the Theban cultic and administrative domains leading up to and during the Twenty-First Dynasty.

Cet article est consacré à l’étude d’un coffret à ouchebtis inédit de la XXIe dynastie, conservé au musée d’Ismaïlia sous le numéro d’inventaire 2560. Cette boîte, qui a probablement été mise au jour dans la cachette de Bab el-Gasus, appartient à un éminent membre des élites thébaines nommé Imen-niout-nakht, détenteur des charges essentiellement cléricales et curiales dans le temple d’Amon de Karnak et au service du maître des Deux terres. Elle est ornée d’une longue inscription combinant une formule funéraire, une formule d’offrande, ainsi qu’un extrait du chapitre VI du Livre des morts. L’analyse approfondie de cette boîte à ouchebtis sera complétée par une étude prosopographique. En outre, la question historique de la tenue d’une cour autour des grands prêtres d’Amon sera abordée à partir de l’unique mention connue de la charge d’ ỉmy-ḫnt à Thèbes, à cette période, qui y figure.

The paper discusses regime change and some initial thoughts on how style and iconography reflect, and are reflected in, those changes. This paper has considerable overlap with other papers by the writer on the nascent Kushite state, and on archaism (eg the invocation of the Sandstone Stela of Piye).

This paper seeks to trace the drafting history of UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 declaring Zionism as a form of racism with an emphasis on how the text and process shaped a racial theory of Zionist settler-colonization. Fayez Sayegh, Palestinian scholar and founder of the Palestine Research Center, and who would be a leading force in passing the Resolution, provided one of the earliest racial theories of Zionism in 1965. In his essay he explains that Zionism is constituted of three elements, racial purity, racial supremacy, and racial segregation and driven by a policy of “racial elimination.” Notably, Resolution 3379 was not an initiative of the Palestinian Liberation Organization thus providing the earliest indications that the while the nationalist movement understood the racial dimensions of Palestinian subjugation, it believed its struggle was primarily an anti-colonial one for independence. This ambiguity regarding the exact contours of the relationship between racism and colonialism was also evident in the diplomatic process. Despite enthusiastic support for Palestinian self-determination among the African nations that led the Decade Against Racism, there was mixed support for Resolution. The Resolution ultimately passed only to be rescinded by the PLO itself in 1991. This paper seeks to revisit this diplomatic and intellectual history for the sake of considering an alternative trajectory of the Palestinian freedom struggle as one against racism.

This chapter, written for Zeev Herzog’s publication of his Iron IIA-B excavations at Tel Beersheva, describes four Egyptian faience amulets, the rim of a vessel made of Egyptian blue, five Egyptian and locally-made Egyptian-style ceramic vessels, and a large sherd engraved with the name of the goddess Nephthys. Egyptian, and subsequently Nubian, interests in Judah in the late eighth century BCE may have led to a modest increase in trade between Egypt and Judah.

P. James, I. J. Thorpe, N. Kokkinos, R. Morkot & J. Frankish, Centuries of Darkness: A challenge to the conventional chronology of Old World archaeology (London: Jonathan Cape 1991/New Brunswick, NJ.: Rutgers University Press, 1993). With a Foreword by Colin Renfrew.

Publishers’ Blurb
The Old World has confronted archaeologists with many riddles, perhaps the most tantalising of which is the Dark Age, an economic and cultural recession so devastating it lasted for 400 years from 1200 to 800 BC. Or did it? The dates for the Near East and Mediterranean are derived from the highly regarded chronology of ancient Egypt, but could not that itself have been miscalculated? This is the pioneering theory proposed by Peter James in an intricate piece of scholarly detective work. Deciphering the clues from papyri and pottery, he and his team of experts search layer by layer through the excavated treasures of a vast area from Spain to Iran and from Denmark to Sudan, until they reach Egypt, the root of the labyrinthine riddle. It is here that they unearth 250 years of ‘ghost history’.
    Once these are eliminated, fresh perspective is thrown not only on the reality of the Dark Age, but also on the Trojan War, the foundation of Rome, the origin of the Greek alphabet and the Golden Age of King Solomon. Centuries of Darkness is a masterpiece of archaeological reasoning which will revolutionise our view of the ancient world.

(complete pdf added)

During the Third Intermediate Period, in the vignettes illustrating Spell 17 of the Book of the Dead, it is at times possible to spot a rather uncanny figure. Bell-shaped, occasionally adorned with a strip of cloth and provided with human legs and eyes, it can probably be identified with one of the demons mentioned in the Spell: MDd or MaDd, 'the Smiter'. The role and the implications of this creature still need to be fully clarified.
Spell 17 is one of the longest, most important and most intricate, as well as one of the spells most frequently included in the manuscripts, but the depiction of Medjed is absolutely exceptional: it features only in some peculiar categories of Book of the Dead papyri of the 21-st-22nd Dynasties, the most renowned example (but also the most atypical) being the Greenfield Papyrus (pLondon BM EA10554).
In order to be evaluated, the development of such a noticeable rarity in the visual concept of the netherworld has to be set in the frame of the ‘innovation in tradition’ trend in the 21st–22nd Dynasties’ Books of the Dead. The appearance of this demon also raises some significant questions on the criteria that led the workshop and the scribe to choose certain specific elements during the composition of each scroll.

Collections of scenes and texts designated variously as the “Book of the Earth,” “Creation of the Solar Disc,” and “Book of Aker” were inscribed on the walls of royal sarcophagus chambers throughout Egypt’s Ramessid Period (Dynasties 19–20). This material illustrated discrete episodes from the nocturnal voyage of the sun god, which functioned as a model for the resurrection of the deceased king. These earliest “Books of the Earth” employed mostly ad hoc arrangements of scenes, united by shared elements of iconography, an over-arching, bipartite symmetry of composition, and their frequent pairing with representations of the double sky overhead. From the Twenty-First Dynasty and later, selections of programmatic tableaux were adapted for use in private mortuary contexts, often in conjunction with innovative or previously unattested annotations. The present study collects and analyzes all currently known royal and private Book of the Earth material, including previously unpublished scenes and texts from the tombs of Pedamenopet and Padineith at Thebes.

The present book, devoted to the ancient Egyptian objects of the 21st Dynasty in the museums of Ukraine, reveals previously unknown facts concerning the fate of the artifacts associated with one of the most significant archaeological discoveries in Egypt - the “Second Cache of priest’s mummies” (Bāb el-Gusūs) that was discovered in 1891 at the region of Deir el-Bahri (Western Thebes).

Монографія присвячена давньоєгипетським пам’ятникам XXI ди-
настії, які зберігаються в музейних установах України (Одеса, Київ,
Полтава, Львів та Золочів). У книзі наведені раніше невідомі факти й
архівні документи, що стосуються долі старожитностей, які походять з відкритого в 1891 р. в місцевості Дейр ель-Бахрі “другого тайника мумій” (Бāб ель-Гусӯс). Частина знахідок у 1893 р. була подарована єгипетським урядом 17 іноземним державам, серед яких була Російська імперія, що отримала лот № 6. Розглянуто обставини, пов’язані з перебуванням старожитностей лота № 6 в Одесі в 1894–1895 рр., їхню подальшу долю та сучасне місце зберігання. Книга розрахована на істориків-орієнталістів, музейних працівників та музеєзнавців, студентів гуманітарних факультетів і всіх, хто цікавиться історією та культурою Стародавнього Єгипту.

21st Dynasty funerary papyri have much to inform us about Egyptian funerary practices and religious beliefs.  The preserved texts can be read to enrich our views of cosmogony and can further our knowledge of Egyptian language and writing systems.  By examining the materials and tools used to create the documents, one can gain insight of production techniques.  And by studying the owners of these documents, we can uncover facts about family genealogies, social structures, and a wealth of information about the rank and titles of the deceased, as well as the implications these societal positions held for living descendants.  One interesting feature of this corpus of papyri that has largely been overlooked by scholars is the significant quantity of them that have an unfinished edge at the end of the document.  Many papyri have vignettes that simply trail off, being left incomplete.  Sometimes, the polychrome color scheme ends, leaving behind a black and red outlined sketch.  Other times, there are empty registers where images were not drawn, or text columns that remain blank.  The top and bottom decorative borders fade away, creating an uneven length of framing.  This understudied observation can shed much light on how funerary papyri were procured: were these documents pre-fabricated, with customers purchasing documents “off the shelf,” or were they custom commissions made for specific individuals?  If the former, did purchasers know the documents were unfinished?  If the latter, was it a lack of funds, materials, or time that resulted in the incomplete documents?

Cette première livraison du Glossaire des inscriptions de Karnak consacrée au vocabulaire a été rendue possible grâce au travail de dépouillement systématique de la documentation épigraphique des temples de Karnak réalisé dans le cadre du projet Karnak (Programme « Investissement d’Avenir » ANR-11-LABX-0032-01 Labex ARCHIMEDE). Débuté en 2013, ce projet d’édition des inscriptions des temples de Karnak a pour ambition de collecter, d’organiser et de rendre accessible le corpus des sources textuelles en hiéroglyphe, hiératique et démotique présentes ou issues des temples de Karnak. Depuis près de quatre ans, ce projet rend ainsi progressivement disponibles dans une interface accessible en ligne les textes publiés ou encore inédits de Karnak, collationnés in situ.

Le présent volume compte un peu plus de 1600 notices d’emploi de vocable qui représentent environ 100.000 attestations dans les inscriptions traitées à ce stade.

This thesis examines the representation of each king in three key texts from the Kushite Twenty-Fifth Dynasty of Egypt. The depiction of the king upon public monuments was an essential feature of the propaganda of kingship throughout ancient Egyptian history. However, the recognition of why and how representations of the king were considered propagandistic has been somewhat neglected.

This paper analyses the “Triumphal Stela” of Piye (representing the beginning of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty), Stela Kawa IV of Taharqa (illustrating the mid-point of this Kushite rule), and the “Dream Stela” of Tanutamani (delineating the end of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty). Many scholars have analysed these stelae, and their historical and socio-political frameworks. However, this thesis examines how elements of language within these documents (including iconography and rhetoric) functioned as royal propaganda in response to their historical contexts. This complements previous studies by analysing fundamental aspects of how and why these stelae are considered propagandistic.

Despite a broad temporal presence in Egyptian records, the association of the Sherden with another ‘Sea Peoples’ group, the more well-known and better archaeologically attested Philistines, has led to several assumptions about this group, its members’ origin, and their role both in the events that marked the transition from the Late Bronze to the Early Iron Age and in Egyptian society as a whole. This study separates the Sherden from the Aegean migration and greater ‘Sea Peoples’ phenomenon of the Late Bronze–Early Iron Age transition in an effort to challenge long-held assumptions about their initial encounter with Ramesses II in the early years of his rule, their role in the famous land battle and naumachia of Ramesses III’s eighth year, their participation in the migrations that marked the end of the Late Bronze Age, and their status as foreigners to the Levant whose main function was to serve as mercenary soldiers and pirates. Through a close reading of the extant literary and pictorial evidence from the New Kingdom and beyond, this paper traces the role of the Sherden within Egyptian society from its adversarial origin, through a phase of combined military cooperation and social exclusion, to a final, multigenerational period that was marked by rapid and enduring acculturation and assimilation into Egyptian society.

The source of Egypt's copper supply during the Third Intermediate Period (1070-664 BCE) is largely unknown. Here we present new data from chemical (elemental) and lead isotope (LI) analysis of royal Egyptian artifacts of the 21st Dynasty (ca. 1010 BCE)-a period which until now was represented in the LI record only by a single artifact. Our finds identify the source of the copper in the Arabah region providing a basis for our historical reconstruction of the copper exchange network in the southern Levant at the turn of the first millennium BCE. We also analyzed two objects from the 24th and 25th Dynasties (8th c. BCE), which revealed a marked change in Egyptian copper metallurgy in both the composition (from Cu with traces of Sn to leaded copper with traces of As) and the supply chain (the Arabah ores are excluded). As the sampling involved museum artifacts, we performed X-ray imaging as a means to avoid sampling of any later metallic modifications and ensure the correct sampling process.

Le but principal de cette étude est de comprendre comment et à quelle(s) fin(s) les anciens Égyptiens ont utilisés les dieux et déesses apparentés au genre félin dans le contexte confus qu'est la Troisième Période intermédiaire, en dressant un répertoire et en décrivant un panorama assez large des diverses représentations possibles des divinités félines et en les analysant pour leurs fonctions intrinsèques, ainsi que dans leurs contextes de réalisation – lorsque celui-ci est connu ou explicable – . La partie analyse et commentaire du mémoire sera divisée en trois parties dont le plan détaillé figure dans le sommaire de ce volume et expliqué ci-après.

Une première partie, essentiellement descriptive, permettra d'abord de faire un tour d'horizon sur l'identité et la représentation des divinités félines. Appuyée sur une analyse statistique de leurs identifications, leurs aspects et de leurs attributs, elle tentera de mettre en avant les caractéristiques propres à chaque divinité de la période étudiée. La seconde partie, descriptive et analytique, est portée sur les différents contextes des représentations, aussi bien sur la nature des documents sur lesquels figurent les divinités que dans les scènes où elles sont représentées. Enfin, dans une troisième et dernière partie, un exposé de l'idéologie royale, des aspects mythologiques et des croyances liées aux divinités-félines permettra de mettre en évidence un tournant emblématique des mutations religieuse de la pensée égyptienne de la Basse Époque.

Middle Kingdom burial assemblages as well as funerary equipment from the Third Intermediate Period uncovered at the North Asasif necropolis during the recent fourth season of archaeological research in 2017 have provided important insight into the development of the necropolis during the Pharaonic era. Seven Middle Kingdom funerary complexes: tomb of Khety (TT 311), MMA 509, MMA 511, MMA 512, MMA 514, MMA 515 and tomb of Meru (TT 240) were targeted in this fieldwork. At the same time, the presence of a Coptic hermitage inside the tomb of Meru, revealed in the process of cleaning the funerary complex, demonstrated its continued use in the late Roman age.

Middle Kingdom royal statues frequently exhibit physical evidence that attests to their renewed integration into later contexts within the two millennia of pharaonic culture that followed their creation. Reuse is a pervasive phenomenon in ancient Egypt, and the particular character of any reuse is certainly inflected by both period attitudes and locale—
that is, by what is available for a given location. From a modern vantage point, the two are difficult to disentangle.
The site of Tanis in the Nile Delta offers something of an exception: an opportunity to take an unusually clear sounding of many of the circumstances around reuse in its region through at least the Third Intermediate Period.

The proven prominence of elite Theban women in the archaeological record and their wider inclusion in cultic roles by the 21st Dynasty was closely attached to the Karnak complex. However, even though most of these women played an active role in Amun’s hierarchy, they were also members of the nearby temples staff.
In this context, the growing importance of the divine child had
resulted in his integration into the official pantheon. In responding to the needs of the Theban priesthood, the youngest god of the Theban triad characterized as pA-Xrd became the beneficiary of a new cult that developed its own personnel, which was led by the God’s Mother of Khonsu the Child who supervised a group of female subalterns.
The development of his theology at Thebes—initiated by Herihor—represents the beginning of child deities’ worship in temple cult and private devotion from the Third Intermediate Period onwards. The main fluctuations of political power determined the Theban cultic and administrative institutions; the features and changes that Khonsu’s cult experienced go hand-in-hand with the surrounding political, economic and social landscapes. Therefore, taking a closer look to the titles held by these women, the role played by them, and the significance of the cult of Khonsu the Child, which has received little attention up to now, are essential elements to understand how Thebes was functioning during the 21st Dynasty.

In an essay for the “Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age” exhibition catalogue, I wrote about the situation and particular artistic atmosphere in Third Intermediate Period Egypt at the time of the encounter with the Phoenicians. In this paper that results from my Wilkinson Lecture at the time of the exhibition, I want to focus on the situation in the Egyptian Delta more specifically to evoke recent, and recall some older, insights into the nature of that environment for the bearing they might have on understanding interactions with the Phoenicians. In this context I pursue two particular sets of artistic themes that speak to the quality of engagements. While scholars have assiduously mapped many Phoenician iconographic themes and their sources or possible sources, along with traces of Phoenician physical presence, it is hopefully constructive to bring recent understandings of the moment and the particular area in Egypt to the consideration of the complexity of interactions.

The function of the oracle shifted during the New Kingdom, culminating in a new form of priestly political power in the 21st Dynasty. At the onset of the New Kingdom, the oracle served to legitimize divine kingship. The king utilized an oracle narrative to claim that his or her power was predetermined and sanctioned by the gods.  By the reign of Ramesses II, however, the oracle took on a new form. No longer used to validate the king, oracles were now used within an elite, priestly context to sanction the inheritance of temple positions within powerful families. This private use of oracles bypassed the will of the king in determining how temple administration was structured. With priests now serving in a hereditary capacity, they ensured a family connection with the temple, along with the power and income that the temple afforded. The Ramesside kings could no longer award loyal followers with temple positions as was the practice in the 18th Dynasty. The transfer of that power from the king to the divine oracle eliminated the incentive to follow the king, and instead prompted allegiance within powerful priestly families. The newfound authority of the priests to structure their ranks is one of the major contributing factors that allowed for the rise of a Theban theocracy in the 21st Dynasty. This paper aims to stress the shift in the function of oracles in the Ramesside Period and address the broader implications of an independent priesthood and disintegration of palace control.

Section 1 of this paper describes a pottery shabti of the Third Intermediate Period and recounts the early stages of the project to understand the name of its owner. Sections 2-7 describe the outcome of the analysis. This covers both the name itself (its variants, orthographies and possible meanings) and a survey of those individuals who bore it in ancient Egypt, ordered by time-period. T-Hbw-aA seems to be a variant of the name TA-n-Hb aA and to denote “Tjainhebu the Great;” TA(y)-n-Hb.w may originally have meant something like “the man of the festivals.” The earliest known Tjainhebu dates to the Middle Kingdom and was probably called “the Great” to reflect his physical size. Precedents are discussed for the unusual orthography of the name on the shabti and its cognates. Some later names of similar form employ different types of h and therefore differ in meaning; for example, the name of Tjainehebu, Overseer of the King’s Ships in the 26th Dynasty, may have meant “Descendant of the ibis.” In the Late Period, both male and female forms of the name are known and seem to relate strongly to Lower Egypt: for men, to Memphis; for women, to Behbeit el-Hagar and Khemmis of the Delta. Faces can be put to two of the men, leading to a discussion of the verisimilitude of ancient Egyptian likenesses. Overall, the article presents an unpublished shabti with six known parallels that imply at least three moulds. The analysis triggered by the unusual name of its owner encompasses philology, onomastics, biography and portraiture, fields that are not usually considered together. It reprises in English earlier research (including much published in other languages) while collating and updating it with recent developments, including the possible need to amend pronunciation of the name to Tehabu/Tainhabu. One outcome of the study is a challenge to the published assignation of this owner’s shabtis as female.