Search Results (10)

The present article studies aspects of the artistic production at New Kingdom Saqqara, a necropolis of the ancient Egyptian royal residence city Memphis. Following a brief review of the functions of ancient Egyptian tombs, this article will first set out to scrutinize the tomb-making section of society (e.g., size, membership). Second, the corpus of tombs will be reviewed to uncover the diverse nature of the tomb owners and to investigate access to resources required for tomb making. Third, the article will proceed to place the tombs in spatial and temporal context and reflect on the artistic production in a necropolis in motion. Full article

While sustainability is widely recognized as necessary for managing heritage sites, balancing preservation demands with tourism development pressures presents significant challenges. A critical gap in the existing research relates to understanding the recurring issues that undermine the long-term sustainability of prominent archaeological destinations in Egypt and visitor well-being. Specifically, more research is needed to identify the specific sustainability and visitor experience problems that persist across Egypt’s major archaeological sites despite ongoing management efforts. Addressing this knowledge gap could help inform strategies for these destinations to balance conservation priorities with tourism in a more sustainable manner that enhances visitors’ cultural exploration. This study contributes a novel multisite content analysis of over 4423 online reviews from TripAdvisor pertaining to three of Egypt’s premier archaeological destinations—Giza Pyramids, Al Mu’izz Street, and Saqqara. Using established text mining methodologies and algorithms within Voyant Tools, critical challenges were identified through word frequency, concept network, and trend analyses. Recurring issues documented included uncontrolled commercialization undermining the ambiance of historic locales, environmental degradation from inadequate waste management and tourism overflows, and overcrowding compromising visitor comfort, health and safety. Deficiencies in signage, transportation, and other tourist services were also prominent themes. The holistic evaluation of cross-cutting concerns faced at the diverse yet interrelated sites advanced the theoretical knowledge on cooperative governance models and competencies necessary for integrative heritage management. The recommendations center on collaborative stakeholder partnerships to reform commercial practices through licensing and enforcement, upgrading aging infrastructure to support sustainable tourism volumes, and implementing zoning and carrying capacity policies tailored to local community contexts. The proposed solutions aim to safeguard Egypt’s irreplaceable cultural treasures by addressing recurrent problems that undermine environmental, economic and socio-cultural sustainability if left unresolved, positioning its archaeological wonders for appreciation and study by present and future generations. Full article

This article highlights the history of almost 50 years of Leiden archaeological work at Saqqara, in the cemetery south of the Unas causeway, and places the recent findings of the current Leiden-Turin Expedition within a broader historical context, both ancient and modern. The relationship between the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden and Egypt started almost 200 years ago, with the acquisition of the first objects. The arrival of a collection of important objects coming from Saqqara triggered an interest in finding the context from which they originated. This led to the creation of the joint Dutch-British mission, that made the first important discoveries. Over the time, Museo Egizio, Torino, joined the mission; the current Dutch-Italian mission has been working on unearthing further structures as well as documenting in detail all the aspects of the site, from the buildings to the reliefs, from the finds to the overall context. Discoveries on the field are led and followed by the careful study of objects belonging to museum collections, in an interplay between archaeological sites and museums that goes beyond their physical boundaries. Full article

The paper discusses the role of the funerary complex built for Netjerykhet (Djoser) in the landscape of Memphis and Saqqara necropolis as a ritual, cultural and visual reference point. Additionally, an interpretation of its meaning and purpose, including the above- and underground structures as well as the so-called Dry Moat, is presented. Full article

Saqqara in particular, and the Memphite necropolis in general, constituted the arena for the prolific and significant monumental self-presentations of Prince Khaemwaset, fourth son of King Ramesses II (c. 1279–1213 BCE). The present paper explores the role of the prince in fashioning a persona that addressed past, present and future audiences. This discussion is used to contextualise results of the 2009 Saqqara Geophysical Survey Project, showing the greater-than-expected extent of the New Kingdom necropolis south of the Unas Causeway. It considers responses to the deep palimpsest of the sacred landscape of the Memphite necropolis by—and later commemorations within it of—this notable Ramesside individual. Full article

The Memphite Necropolis of Saqqara is situated approximately 20 km south of modern Cairo on a plateau at the edge of the western desert and was in use as a funerary site for a period of nearly three and a half millennia. Today, the site is popular with visitors and archaeologists alike, but its ruinous condition and a proscribed visitor experience does little to offer visitors an understanding of the necropolis and how it was inhabited during the ancient past. This article examines the current documentary and excavation research on the Memphite Necropolis of Saqqara during the Late Period/early Ptolemaic era and considers its inhabitants, their routes of movement, and where they may have lived and worked. This article contends that the landscape of the necropolis was dynamic and full of activity. A mixture of priests, craftsmen, merchants, and others involved in the daily activities of the temples and cults, along with pilgrims, worshippers, and casual visitors, would have been moving in and around the necropolis daily. Full article

Saqqara, the necropolis of the first capital city of a unified Egypt, is best known today for the Step Pyramid of Pharaoh Djoser (2667–2648 B.C.). However, the Step Pyramid is only the most visible feature of this great burial site, and the tombs of many thousands of individuals are hidden beneath the sands, some excavated, others not. These human burials are only a part of Saqqara’s funerary history. This paper examines the catacombs of the numerous animals revered by the Egyptians at Saqqara and whose burial places have come to be known collectively as ‘The Sacred Animal Necropolis’ (SAN). First amongst these, both in importance and inception, was the Apis bull, the living image (ba) of Ptah, creator god of Memphis. However, it was the work conducted by Professor W.B. Emery (1903–1971) which brought to light the burial place of the Mother of the Apis as well as those for ibises, falcons, and baboons and which has provided much of what we know of the Sacred Animal Necropolis at North Saqqara. More recent work has built upon the discoveries made by Emery and others and taken a new approach to these subterranean catacombs for sacred animals. Full article

Hedgehogs held a special place in ancient Egyptian life like many other desert- and marsh-dwelling animals. Their natural defensive qualities were admired by ancient Egyptians and their bodily parts, notably their hardened spines, were used as ingredients in medico-magical prescriptions. In tomb reliefs of the late 3rd Millennium BCE, hedgehogs are represented being carried alive by offering bearers or as background participants in desert hunting scenes. In later periods of Egyptian history, rattles, small unguent vessels, and scaraboid amulets were made in their shape, all of which are presumed to have had apotropaic purposes. A particular votive object of the Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2181 BCE) is a palm-sized modelled boat with a prow in the shape of a hedgehog head, which has been discovered at sites throughout Egypt. A similar representation of this motif is the so-called ‘Henet’-boat (from the word ḥnt[j]) with a hedgehog head at the prow facing inwards, which is found in late Old Kingdom art. This article reassesses the role of hedgehogs as protective or apotropaic entities and their association with boats, considering how ancient Egyptians understood their ecology and their predation of snakes, scorpions, and similar stinging creatures. An updated list is provided of known representations of hedgehog-head boats, including petroglyphs and as yet unpublished examples from tombs at Giza and Saqqara. The meaning of the ancient Egyptian word ḥnt(j) is also rexamined in relation to the representation of riverine and marsh-water boats in Old Kingdom tombs. Full article

Big data (BD) analytics has been increasingly gaining attraction in both practice and theory in light of its opportunities, barriers and expected benefits. In particular, emerging economics view big data analytics as having great importance despite the fact that it has been in a constant struggle with the barriers that prevent its adoption. Thus, this study primarily attempted to determine the drivers of big data analytics in the context of a developing economy, Jordan. The study examined the influence of technological, organizational and environmental factors on big data adoption in the Jordanian SMEs context, using PLS-SEM for the analysis. The empirical results revealed that the relative advantage, complexity, security, top management support, organizational readiness and government support influence the adoption of BD, whilst pressure of competition and compatibility appeared to be of insignificant influence. The findings are expected to contribute to enterprise management and strategic use of data analytics in the present dynamic market environment, for both researcher and practitioner circles concerned with the adoption of big data in developing countries. Full article

Meanings and values of built heritage vary from factual and explicit meanings which are relatively easy to present, to more tacit knowledge, which is typically more challenging to communicate due to its implicit and often abstract character. In this paper, we investigate how tangible interaction influences the communication of this tacit knowledge of built heritage, and howit affects the experience of visitors. Through a between-group comparative study in a real-world museum context, we examined howthe tangible characteristics of an interactive prototypemuseuminstallation influence how visitors perceive a particular story containing tacit heritage knowledge. The communicated story relates a historical journey in ancient Egypt to the physical and architectural characteristics of the entrance colonnade at the Djoser Complex in Saqqara. Our experimental conditions consisted of an interactive navigation (input) and a passive representation (output) components, ranging from traditional digital displays to fully tangible means of interaction. We report on our findings, which showed various differences and commonalities between our three experimental conditions. We conclude with a number of discussion points and design recommendations: (a) to strive for balance between navigation and representation modalities in terms of affordance and the required cognitive effort; (b) to take advantage of physical representation and grasping, such as conveying particular physical details and characteristics; and (c) to consider design aspects of embodiment, physical abstraction and materiality for future research or potential further development of communicating the meanings and values of heritage. Full article