The informal workshop on the topic of ritual landscapes in ancient Egypt offers an opportunity for scholars and students in Sydney and beyond to meet, share papers on their research, and exchange ideas.

The workshop is generously sponsored by CACHE – Centre for Ancient Cultural Heritage and Environment. CACHE brings leading and emerging researchers from MQ’s Department of Ancient History – including the disciplines of archaeology, art history, cultural heritage preservation, papyrology, philology and cultural history – into dialogue with leading scientists from biology, environmental sciences, geography and planning, and the social sciences.

 

Keynote Lecture

Professor Miroslav Bárta | Charles University, Prague, CZ

Visible and yet concealed: Agency and form in some early Old Kingdom tombs in Ancient Egypt

The study addresses several mutually interconnected themes – agency and form as reflected in symbolical relevance of local landscape of Abusir and Saqqara. In addition, specific form of transitional tombs of the Third Dynasty, and finally the evolution of false door as a focal cultic point in Old Kingdom offering rituals will be discussed in context. At the same time, means of communication between the profane world and the netherworld as conceptualised by the Ancient Egyptians in architecture are discussed in a broader context of social legitimisation and status.

 

Dr V. Gae Callender | Charles University, Prague, CZ

Art and Meaning in Some Hieroglyphs from Akhmim

Egyptian statues, wall reliefs and paintings – as well as beautiful objets d’art – attract a great deal of attention and appreciation for their high aesthetic value among Egyptological experts as well as individuals among the general public; hieroglyphs, however, are all too easily and often overlooked in the context of an “art form”: they are usually viewed for their narrative context as an ajunct of Egyptian language. Fair enough: this was their primary purpose.

This discussion paper will examine just a handful of hieroglyphs from the Macquarie University excavation work at El Hawawish and show how productive and meaningful a closer look at the hieroglyphs from the Akhmim cemeteries can be. While nearly all of these chosen examples have some artistic merit, the way in which the Akhmim artists contrived to add extra layers of meaning to their script will be the aim of this paper. These Akhmim hieroglyphs display both sophisticated and often astonishing attributes. Such hieroglyphs comprise an important stratum within the meaning of Egyptian art.