Colin A. Hope - Böcker

Kellis was a village in the Dakhleh Oasis in the Egyptian Western Desert inhabited continuously from the first to the late fourth century AD. Previously unexcavated, it has in recent decades yielded a wealth of data unsurpassed by most sites of the period due to the excellent state of preservation. We know the layout of the village with its temples, churches, residential sectors and cemeteries, and the excavators have retrieved vast quantities of artefacts, including a wealth of documents. The study of this material yields an integrated picture of life in the village, including the transition from ancient religious beliefs to various branches of Christianity. This volume provides accounts of the lived-in environment and its material culture, social structure and economy, religious beliefs and practices, and burial traditions. The topics are covered by an international team of specialists, culminating in an inter-disciplinary approach that will illuminate life in Roman Egypt.

This volume presents the blue-painted pottery from the EES excavations at Kom Rabia, one of the few specific site collections that spans the entire period of manufacture of this distinctive type of ceramics. All of the fragments studied by the author are presented within their find contexts arranged according to the main chronological phases into which activity at the site can be divided. Despite the fragmentary nature of the material, which does not permit a detailed discussion of its morphological evolution, it does enable a comparison of the decorative motifs with material from other major sites such as Amarna, Karnak, Malkata and Qantir. From this, it is possible to assess whether there was a Memphite production centre and how the Kom Rabia assemblage compares qualitatively and quantitatively to the others. The volume presents the first comprehensive multi-site listing of the decorative motifs.

Kellis was a village in the Dakhleh Oasis in the Egyptian Western Desert inhabited continuously from the first to the late fourth century AD. Previously unexcavated, it has in recent decades yielded a wealth of data unsurpassed by most sites of the period due to the excellent state of preservation. We know the layout of the village with its temples, churches, residential sectors and cemeteries, and the excavators have retrieved vast quantities of artefacts, including a wealth of documents. The study of this material yields an integrated picture of life in the village, including the transition from ancient religious beliefs to various branches of Christianity. This volume provides accounts of the lived-in environment and its material culture, social structure and economy, religious beliefs and practices, and burial traditions. The topics are covered by an international team of specialists, culminating in an inter-disciplinary approach that will illuminate life in Roman Egypt.

This volume presents papers from the Fourth Australasian Egyptology Conference held at Monash University, Melbourne 16–18 September 2016. Both the conference and the papers in this volume are dedicated to Gillian E. Bowen who retired from Monash that year, and a brief tribute to her is presented at the opening of the volume. The contributions include several on Egypt’s Western Desert where Monash has been engaged in fieldwork for many years in the the Dakhleh Oasis. Relating to the Roman-period village of Kellis, Bassett discusses economic policy in the settlement of the region and Rindi the elaborately decorated funerary cartonnage from one of its cemeteries. Long explores ceramic traditions of the Third Intermediate Period in Dakhleh while Warfe discusses aspects of the proscription of Seth, who was venerated at the ancient capital of Dakhleh, based on data from Luxor Temple in the valley. Livingstone presents textiles of the late Roman Period from Christian burials and Kucera examines a Roman military campaign in the northern Western Desert.The other papers reflect the wide range of research being undertaken by other Australasian scholars. These range from studies of early ceramics from Hamamieh by Pilgrim and the breakage of Predynastic figurines by Ordynat, to a study of a Fifth-century icon of the Virgin Mary by Marsh-Letts. From periods in between come studies of women in the family of high officials at Beni Hassan and in religious practices of the New Kingdom by Paull and Lisle respectively; aspects of the iconography of the Book of the Dead and a new representation of a sailing vessel by Volk and Stephens; the interface between text and visual image by Thorpe and finally mummification practices of children by Davey.