The Heritage of Ancient Egypt: Studies in Honor of Erik Iversen.

• Author: Bianchi, Robert Steven

The eleven essays in this commemorative volume treat three subjects - ancient Egyptian art and literature and their subsequent reception in Europe - in which the honoree has demonstrated a keen interest.

Aware of the fact that the pharaonic temples of Graeco-Roman Egypt are susceptible to various interpretations (See esp. D. Kurth, "Der agyptische Tempel der griechisch-romischer Zeit," in 5000 Jahre Agypten, ed. J. Assmann and G. Burkard [Nussloch: IS-Edition, 1983], 89-101), J. Assmann suggests yet another level of meaning in which the reliefs and accompanying inscriptions decorating these structures make manifest the Platonic conception of nomos, or standards of acceptable behavior. His views advance ideas already presented by J. Baines ("Restricted Knowledge, Hierarchy, and Decorum: Modern Perceptions and Ancient Institutions," JARCE 27 [1990]: 14-45) and G. Englund ("Gifts to the Gods, a Necessity for the Preservation of Cosmos and Life: Theory and Practice," Boreas 15 [1987]: 57-66).

S. Donadoni reviews the hieroglyphs composed to decorate the obelisks associated with Charles X and those of Alessandro Torlonia and his family. Despite the fact that these monuments were created within a decade of Champollion's decipherment of the hieroglyphs, the texts are extraordinarily accurate in their reflection of court protocols.

E. Edel deals with two worked blocks of Ptolemaic date from the ruins of the site of Xois. The blocks contain five toponyms, written within crenelations surmounted by representations of bound prisoners. Some of these are identified as African place names and belong, according to Edel, to a pharaonic tradition in which Nubians can appear as Mauerleute. The innovation in the Ptolemaic Period appears to be the depictions of these Africans with beards, a characteristic which is apparently unattested earlier.

1. E. S. Edwards deals with a naophoros, ostensibly of late Saite date, now in the collections at Truro, Cornwall. To his discussions of the meaning of this statue type, one should also consider the remarks on this subject by both G. Posener (La Premiere Domination perse en Egypte: Recueil d'inscriptions hieroglyphiques, Bibliotheque d'Etude XI [Cairo: Publications de l'Institut Francais d'Archeologie Orientale, 1936], 5-6) and J. van Dijk ("A Ramesside Naophorous Statue from the Teti Pyramid Cemetery," OMRO 64 [1983]: 52-58). The depiction of a tripartite wig on a male figure of this date is an exceptional feature which...