When Is It Ok to Recycle a Coffin? The Rules of the Reuse Game in Ancient Egypt
If the benefits of funerary materiality drove ancient Egyptians to reuse coffins, what limitations were set on whose coffins could be reused, where, and when?
“Lift the mountain on your hands,” or How to Cross a Netherworld Border
West Asian texts depict the netherworld as a land which is bounded, keeping outsiders from entering and inhabitants from leaving. Yet, borders are seldom entirely unable to be cros
Person, Place, and Object: Ritual Healing in Roman and Late Antique Palestine
October 2024 | Vol. 12.10 By Megan Nutzman Malaria, battle wounds, pregnancy, scorpion stings, sciatica: these are just a few of the medical concerns that regularly appear in ancie
A Minor Biblical Prophet Lives Again—Among the Dead
March 2024 | Vol. 12.3 By Amy Erickson In the catacombs beneath the city of Rome, where the dead were interred, honored, and visited, Jonah is strikingly alive. On the walls, the c
Death as a Stage for Performing Identity in the Assyrian Empire
january 2024 | Vol. 12.1 By Petra M. Creamer How can burial practices tell us about the power of an empire over its subjects? If this seems like a broad question – it is. When st
Exploring the Book of the Dead through the Getty Collection
November 2023 | Vol. 11.11 By Sara E. Cole “Book of the Dead” is a modern term to describe a series of ancient Egyptian ritual spells (instructions and incantations). These hel
Achieving Divinity: “Golden Mummies of Egypt” at Manchester Museum
March 2023 | Vol. 11.3 By Campbell Price An international touring exhibition “Golden Mummies of Egypt”, consisting of 107 objects from Manchester Museum, has recently returned
Decoding Tutankhamun: Understanding the Tomb and its Treasures
November 2022 | Vol. 10.11 By Peter Lacovara As the world celebrates the centennial of Howard Carter’s discovery in the Valley of the Kings, one often repeated observation is, in
What’s in a Name? Warriors and Warrior Burials in the Near East
MAY 2022 | Vol. 10.5 By Chris Stantis The dead, much like the living, don’t fit easily into convenient labels. In the 1980s, the term “warrior graves” was coined to describe
Ancient Egyptian Texts for the Afterlife?
Ancient Egyptian funerary texts have been a source of fascination since their discovery. But do these texts describe a coherent vision of an afterlife, or is that a 19th century ac